Create Word Counter App using Django

Introduction to Building a Word Counter App Using Django

A Word Counter App is a great starter project in Django that demonstrates handling form input, processing data on the server, and rendering results in a template. This app takes user text input and returns a breakdown of word frequency, helping you understand request flow and template rendering in Django.

Project Overview

The app prompts users to enter a block of text in a form. Upon submission, the server processes it—splitting the text into words, counting their frequency, and displaying the results in an organized table or list within the webpage.

Step 1: Scaffold Your Django Project

Start by creating a new Django project and app:

django-admin startproject wordcount_project
cd wordcount_project
python manage.py startapp counter

Then, add 'counter' to the INSTALLED_APPS in your project's settings.py.

Step 2: Create the Input Form

Define a form in counter/forms.py using Django’s forms framework:

from django import forms

class TextForm(forms.Form):
    content = forms.CharField(
        widget=forms.Textarea(attrs={'rows': 5, 'placeholder': 'Paste your text here'})
    )

Step 3: Add View Logic to Handle Count

In counter/views.py, add a view to process the submitted text:

from django.shortcuts import render
from .forms import TextForm
from collections import Counter

def word_count_view(request):
    form = TextForm(request.POST or None)
    word_counts = None

    if form.is_valid():
        text = form.cleaned_data['content']
        words = text.split()
        word_counts = Counter(words)

    return render(request, 'counter/word_count.html', {
        'form': form,
        'word_counts': word_counts
    })

Step 4: Create the Template

Create counter/templates/counter/word_count.html to render the form and results:

<form method="post">
  {% csrf_token %}
  {{ form.as_p }}
  <button type="submit">Count Words</button>
</form>

{% if word_counts %}
  <h3>Word Frequency</h3>
  <table>
    <tr><th>Word</th><th>Count</th></tr>
    {% for word, count in word_counts.items %}
      <tr><td>{{ word }}</td><td>{{ count }}</td></tr>
    {% endfor %}
  </table>
{% endif %}

Step 5: Define the URL Pattern

Add the view path in counter/urls.py:

from django.urls import path
from .views import word_count_view

urlpatterns = [
    path('', word_count_view, name='word-count'),
]

Include it in the main project's urls.py:

from django.urls import include, path

urlpatterns = [
    path('', include('counter.urls')),
]

Step 6: Try It Out

Run your Django development server:

python manage.py runserver

Visit http://127.0.0.1:8000/ in your browser, paste some text, and click "Count Words". The app will display a frequency table of all words entered.

Enhancements You Can Explore

• Add sorting options to display frequent words first.
• Ignore case sensitivity or remove punctuation.
• Show graphs using chart libraries like Chart.js.
• Store submissions in the database for history or analytics.

Conclusion

Creating a Word Counter App using Django is a simple yet effective way to learn Django's core features: forms, views, templates, and templates rendering logic. It shows how to manage user input, server-side processing, and result presentation in a clean, interactive application.