AutoMax

AutoMax is a car listings platform where users can browse, post, and manage vehicles with ease. Whether you're selling your car or searching for one, AutoMax offers a clean and organized experience to make the process fast and convenient.

AutoMax is a modern, modular Django-based car listings platform designed with clean architecture and scalable development in mind. The project includes:

• A main listings app for managing and displaying car posts

• A users app for authentication, registration, and user profiles

• Environment variable management using django-environ and a project-level .env file

• Production-ready structure with support for static files, .env isolation, and a clear directory layout

• AutoMax serves as both a practical Django learning project and a foundation for building advanced automotive marketplace solutions.

👉 Live Demo:
🔗 https://vinaymalyala-automax.onrender.com
🔗 https://vinaymalyala.pythonanywhere.com/

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📸 Screenshots

• Main Page

  

• Home Page

  

• Car Listing Page

  

• User Profile

  

📂 Project Structure

• src/ — Django project root (this repository)
• src/automax/ — Django settings and WSGI/ASGI setup
• src/main/ — Main application for listings
• src/users/ — User authentication/profile app
• requirements.txt — Python dependencies

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⚙️ Prerequisites

• Python 3.11+ (project used 3.13 in VS Code settings)
• pip
• (Optional) Visual Studio Code + Python extension
• Git (if you want to clone this repository)

git clone https://github.com/VinayMalyala/AutoMax.git

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🚀 Quick local setup (Windows PowerShell)

1. Create and activate a virtual environment:

python -m venv venv
& "venv\Scripts\Activate.ps1"

2. Install dependencies:

pip install -r requirements.txt

3. Environment variables — .env file

This project uses a .env file located in automax/.env (relative to src/) for sensitive values like SECRET_KEY and DEBUG.

Create src/automax/.env and add (example):

SECRET_KEY=your-secret-key-here
DEBUG=True
# Additional vars if you use them:
# DATABASE_URL=sqlite:///db.sqlite3
# OTHER_VAR=value
ENV_INJECTION_TEST=1

➡️ Never commit .env to Git.
Important: Keep your real SECRET_KEY private and never commit .env to version control. Add it to .gitignore.

4. Database migrations and superuser

python manage.py migrate
python manage.py createsuperuser

5. Collect static (if relevant for your environment/deployment)

python manage.py collectstatic --noinput

6. Run the development server

python manage.py runserver

Open http://127.0.0.1:8000/ in your browser.

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🧪 Using VS Code with env files

• Project contains a workspace setting src/.vscode/settings.json with:

{
  "python.terminal.useEnvFile": true,
  "python.envFile": "${workspaceFolder}/automax/.env"
}

This should make the integrated terminal pick up variables from automax/.env. If ENV_INJECTION_TEST is present, verify it in a new terminal:

echo $Env:ENV_INJECTION_TEST
python -c "import os; print(os.getenv('ENV_INJECTION_TEST'))"

If the terminal shows None, try the following steps:

• Close all integrated terminals, reload the VS Code window (Command Palette → Developer: Reload Window), and open a new terminal.
• Ensure the Python extension is enabled (View → Extensions).
• Make sure python.envFile path is correct (either workspace or user settings). We include both workspace and user-level settings for convenience.

If VS Code still doesn't inject env values, you can manually load them into a terminal session (example PowerShell script):

Get-Content 'd:\All Folders\VS CODE\Django\django_app_udemy\src\automax\.env' | ForEach-Object {
  if ($_ -and -not ($_ -match '^\s*#')) {
    $parts = $_ -split '='
    $name = $parts[0].Trim()
    $value = ($parts[1..($parts.Length-1)] -join '=').Trim()
    Set-Item -Path "Env:$name" -Value $value
  }
}

This loads .env variables for the current PowerShell session (process scope).

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🛠 Common commands

• Activate venv: & "venv\Scripts\Activate.ps1"
• Install deps: pip install -r requirements.txt
• Migrate: python manage.py migrate
• Create superuser: python manage.py createsuperuser
• Run dev server: python manage.py runserver
• Tests: python manage.py test

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🌐 Production & deployment notes

• This project includes whitenoise for static asset serving in production — adjust ALLOWED_HOSTS, set DEBUG=False, and configure STATIC_ROOT before deploying.
• Use a proper secret-management solution (e.g. environment variables in CI/CD or secrets manager) instead of .env in production.

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🧱 About the Codebase

• automax/settings.py uses django-environ to load environment variables. The project explicitly loads automax/.env so Django reads the same .env used by your IDE's terminals.
• Important apps: main (listings), users (authentication & profiles), and the usual Django stack.

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🧩 Helpful troubleshooting

• If python manage.py reports Django not installed, ensure your virtual environment is activated and pip install -r requirements.txt was run.
• If env variables are missing for the terminal session, reload VS Code and open a new terminal to force re-read of env files.
• For PowerShell 'variable parsing' errors when manually setting env variables, use Set-Item -Path "Env:<NAME>" -Value <value> or the [System.Environment]::SetEnvironmentVariable(...) approach.