Installation

Requirements

django-program requires Python 3.14+ and Django 5.2+. The Python 3.14 minimum exists because the package uses PEP 649 deferred evaluation of annotations, which landed in CPython 3.14. There is no backport and no from __future__ import annotations workaround – you need 3.14.

Install the package

With uv (recommended):

uv add django-program

With pip:

pip install django-program

Add the Django apps

django-program ships six Django apps. Add all of them to INSTALLED_APPS:

INSTALLED_APPS = [
    # Django defaults
    "django.contrib.admin",
    "django.contrib.auth",
    "django.contrib.contenttypes",
    "django.contrib.sessions",
    "django.contrib.messages",
    "django.contrib.staticfiles",
    # django-program
    "django_program.conference",
    "django_program.registration",
    "django_program.pretalx",
    "django_program.sponsors",
    "django_program.programs",
    "django_program.manage",
]

Each app handles a distinct part of the conference lifecycle:

App	What it does
conference	Core conference model, sections, the bootstrap_conference management command
registration	Ticket types, add-ons, carts, orders, payments, vouchers
pretalx	Speaker, talk, room, and schedule slot models synced from Pretalx
sponsors	Sponsor levels, sponsor profiles, benefits, comp ticket vouchers
programs	Activities (sprints, tutorials, open spaces), signups, travel grants
manage	Organizer dashboard with SSE-powered import and sync UI

Configure DJANGO_PROGRAM

Add a DJANGO_PROGRAM dictionary to your Django settings. At minimum you need Stripe keys if you plan to sell tickets, and a Pretalx token if you plan to sync schedules:

DJANGO_PROGRAM = {
    "stripe": {
        "secret_key": "sk_test_...",
        "publishable_key": "pk_test_...",
        "webhook_secret": "whsec_...",
    },
    "pretalx": {
        "base_url": "https://pretalx.com",
        "token": "your-pretalx-api-token",
    },
    "currency": "USD",
    "currency_symbol": "$",
}

If you only need some features (say, just sponsor management without ticket sales), you can leave the irrelevant sections out. The config uses frozen dataclasses with sensible defaults – see the Configuration page for the full reference.

URL configuration

Wire up the URL patterns in your root urls.py:

from django.urls import include, path

urlpatterns = [
    # ... your other URLs
    path("manage/", include("django_program.manage.urls")),
    path("<slug:conference_slug>/register/", include("django_program.registration.urls")),
    path("<slug:conference_slug>/program/", include("django_program.pretalx.urls")),
    path("<slug:conference_slug>/sponsors/", include("django_program.sponsors.urls")),
    path("<slug:conference_slug>/programs/", include("django_program.programs.urls")),
]

The <slug:conference_slug> prefix means each conference gets its own URL namespace. The manage/ dashboard sits outside that prefix since organizers may manage multiple conferences.

Run migrations

python manage.py migrate

This creates all the tables for conferences, tickets, orders, speakers, sponsors, and program activities.

Template configuration

django-program ships its own templates. Make sure your TEMPLATES setting includes app directories so Django can find them:

from pathlib import Path

import django_program

TEMPLATES = [
    {
        "BACKEND": "django.template.backends.django.DjangoTemplates",
        "DIRS": [Path(django_program.__file__).resolve().parent / "templates"],
        "APP_DIRS": True,
        "OPTIONS": {
            "context_processors": [
                "django.template.context_processors.debug",
                "django.template.context_processors.request",
                "django.contrib.auth.context_processors.auth",
                "django.contrib.messages.context_processors.messages",
            ],
        },
    },
]

Field encryption

The registration app uses django-fernet-encrypted-fields for sensitive payment data. Set the encryption key in your settings:

FIELD_ENCRYPTION_KEY = "your-fernet-key-here"

Generate one with:

python -c "from cryptography.fernet import Fernet; print(Fernet.generate_key().decode())"

What’s next

Head to the Quickstart to bootstrap a full conference from a TOML file and see the management dashboard in action.