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With the release of Django CMS 5, developers now have a more flexible and modern way to integrate their own Django applications into the CMS. Whether you’re building a news section, a portfolio, or a product catalog — Django CMS lets you blend your custom Django logic with editor-friendly frontend editing.

In this tutorial, I demonstrate how to create and integrate a custom Django app into Django CMS 5, showing how to make it editable directly from the frontend — no admin panel needed.

🎥 Watch the full tutorial here:
 

🧩 What You’ll Learn

In this video, you’ll build a Django app called Vehicles and connect it to Django CMS. Along the way, you’ll learn how to:

• Set up a Django CMS 5 project

• Build a reusable Django app

• Integrate it using Apphooks

• Add navigation menus for CMS-driven routing

• Enable frontend editing for selected fields

• Add placeholders for flexible, drag-and-drop content areas

By the end, you’ll understand how to make your Django apps fully editable from the frontend and seamlessly integrated into a CMS-powered website.

⚙️ Key Concepts Explained

1. Apphooks — Connecting Django Apps to CMS Pages

Apphooks are a fundamental feature of Django CMS. They allow you to “mount” an entire Django app onto a CMS page — connecting your app’s URLs and views to a specific section of your site.

Instead of manually adding URLs to your main urls.py, you can register your app with Django CMS and attach it to a page in the CMS admin.

Example:

from cms.app_base import CMSApp 
from cms.apphook_pool import apphook_pool 

@apphook_pool.register 
class VehiclesApphook(CMSApp): 
    app_name = "vehicles" 
    name = "Vehicles Application" 

    def get_urls(self, page=None, language=None, **kwargs): 
        return ["vehicles.urls"] 

Once registered, you can add a new page in the CMS and assign this “Vehicles Application” Apphook — instantly integrating your Django app within the CMS site structure.

2. Frontend Editing — Edit Content Where It Lives

Frontend editing is one of Django CMS’s most powerful features. It lets users edit content directly on the live page — instead of navigating through the Django admin interface.

When configured properly, your model fields can be edited inline using the CMS toolbar.

For example, if your Vehicle model has a name and description, you can mark them as editable in templates:

<h2>{% render_model vehicle "name" %}</h2> 
<p>{% render_model vehicle "description" %}</p> 

This gives editors a smooth, real-time editing experience — perfect for non-technical users who want to update content easily.

3. Placeholders — Flexible Content Areas

Placeholders are predefined areas in your templates where content plugins can be inserted. They act as containers that your editors can fill with text, images, videos, or custom app data — without touching any code.

Example:

{% placeholder "content" %} 

Placeholders can be used anywhere — in app templates, list views, or detail pages — giving you total control over layout flexibility. They are ideal for apps that require both structured content (from models) and unstructured content (added by editors).

In this tutorial, I demonstrate how to add placeholders not just to individual object pages, but also to list views, allowing dynamic content even in overview pages.

4. Menus — Navigating Your Custom App

Once your app is hooked into Django CMS, you can also integrate it into the CMS’s menu system.
This ensures your app pages appear in site navigation and breadcrumbs, making the experience seamless for both editors and visitors.

You can customize how menu items appear by extending the CMSAttachMenu class — perfect for apps with nested categories or dynamic sections.

💡 Why This Matters

Django CMS 5 brings significant improvements in structure and flexibility, making it easier than ever to blend traditional Django apps with powerful CMS features.

This tutorial shows how to take full advantage of that — building a maintainable, editor-friendly solution that’s perfect for modern content-heavy projects.

📦 Get the Code

You can find the source code for this tutorial on GitHub:
🔗 GitHub Repository – Custom Django CMS 5 App Integration

🤝 Join the Django CMS Community

Want to learn more, get involved, or share your own tutorials?

• 💬 Join us on Discord

• 🧑‍💻 Contribute on GitHub

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