Building a Document Management System

How do you manage documents scattered across folders, emails and USB drives? This book answers by building DjangoVault, a document management system made for real use, one chapter at a time.

It is not a list of features: it is a project told step by step, starting from a fresh installation of Django 6.1 and Python 3.14. Along the way you will build:

• document upload and organization, with folders, labels and versions;
• keyword search and semantic search with pgvector;
• a reactive interface with HTMX, without a JavaScript framework;
• background file processing with Celery;
• production deployment with Docker Compose, Nginx and HTTPS;
• remote access through a WireGuard VPN.

How the book is organized

Five parts, 17 chapters and five appendices. The appendices include a guide to setting up a Samba file server, with a permanent network drive on Linux, Windows and Mac, and an index that links each chapter to the phases of the project.

The code

The code is complete and commented. Each chapter has its own folder in the GitHub repository, with the finished project ready to run.

Who it is for

• If you know the basics of Python and want to learn Django on a real project, not on toy examples.
• If you already use Django and want to add semantic search, HTMX and a structured deployment to your toolbox.

What you need

Python 3.14, Docker, and a bit of curiosity.