django-taggit is a Django application/package used to add tags to blogs, articles etc. With this package it is really easy to add the tags and their functionality to our django project.

First we have to install the package:

pip install django-taggit

Little note: For my Django project I used the version 6.0.1 of django-taggit.

Add taggit in settings.py to INSTALLED_APPS:

# blog_project/settings.py 

INSTALLED_APPS = [
    "django.contrib.admin",
    "django.contrib.auth",
    "django.contrib.contenttypes",
    "django.contrib.sessions",
    "django.contrib.messages",
    "django.contrib.staticfiles",
    # custom apps
    "account",
    "blog",
    "core",
    # packages/libraries:
    "taggit",
]

After we add the django-taggit to our model:

# blog/models.py

from django.db import models
from django.urls import reverse
from django.utils import timezone
from taggit.managers import TaggableManager


class Post(models.Model):
    class Status(models.TextChoices):
        DRAFT = "DF", "Draft"
        PUBLISHED = "PB", "Published"

    title = models.CharField(max_length=250)
    slug = models.SlugField(max_length=250, unique_for_date="publish")
    body = models.TextField()
    publish = models.DateTimeField(default=timezone.now)
    created = models.DateTimeField(auto_now_add=True)
    updated = models.DateTimeField(auto_now=True)
    status = models.CharField(max_length=2, choices=Status, default=Status.DRAFT)
    author = models.ForeignKey(
        "account.User", on_delete=models.CASCADE, related_name="blog_posts"
    )
    tags = TaggableManager()

Legend:

• • tags = TaggableManager(): You add the TaggableManager() to the model you want to add tags to.

When the TaggableManager is added to the model, you have to migrate:

python manage.py makemigrations
python manage.py migrate

Legend:

• • makemigrations: This command detects changes to your model, such as adding the TaggableManager() field, and creates migration files. These files describe the database changes that are required, like creating new tables or fields.
  • migrate: This command applies the changes described in the migration files to the database, updating it to reflect the current state of your models.

Now, your setup is done, you can start creating tags in your shell. Open your python shell with the command:

python manage.py shell

Personally, I use the package ipython for my python shell.

In [1]: from blog.models import Post

In [2]: post = Post.objects.first()

In [3]: post
Out[3]: <Post: How to get the verbose_name of an attribute of a model>

In [4]: post.tags.add('django', 'django-model')

In [5]: post.tags.all()
Out[5]: <QuerySet [<Tag: django>, <Tag: django-model>]>

Just like this you can add tags to your model Post.

After creating for one Post instance these tags, we can display the tags in our listing template.

<!-- blog/templates/post/list.html -->

{% extends "base.html" %}

{% block title %} Django Blog {% endblock %}

{% block content %}
  <h1>My Blog</h1>
  {% for post in posts %}
    <h2>
      <a href="{{ post.get_absolute_url }}">
        {{ post.title }}
      </a>
    </h2>
  {% if post.tags.exists %}
    <p class="tags">Tags: {{ post.tags.all|join:", " }}</p>
  {% endif %}
  <p class="date">
    Published {{ post.publish }} by {{ post.author }}
  </p>
  {{ post.body|truncatewords:30|linebreaks }}
  {% endfor %}
  {% include "pagination.html" with page=page_obj %}
{% endblock %}

Legend:

• • {% if post.tags.exists %}: Later, all our Post instances will have tags, but currently only one Post instance has tags, so I check if the `Post' instance has tags.
  • {{ |join:", " }}: The template filter |join is like the python join() method. It displays the tags separated by comma.