Create User Profiles in Django: Extend Auth with Avatar, Bio & More

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👤 Creating User Profiles in Django (Extending the Auth System)

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🔐 Mini-Series Reference

This is Part 3 of our Django Authentication Mini-Series:

1. ✅ Customize the Django User Model

2. 📧 Add Email Verification to Signup

3. 👤 Create User Profiles (You are here)

4. 🔄 Password Reset via Email

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Introduction

Often, the default user model isn’t enough to store all the data your app needs — things like profile pictures, bios, or social media links.

This post shows how to extend the user model with a separate profile model, keeping authentication clean while adding flexibility.

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Step 1: Create a Profile Model

In your accounts/models.py, add:

from django.conf import settings
from django.db import models
from django.dispatch import receiver
from django.db.models.signals import post_save

class Profile(models.Model):
    user = models.OneToOneField(settings.AUTH_USER_MODEL, on_delete=models.CASCADE)
    bio = models.TextField(blank=True)
    avatar = models.ImageField(upload_to='avatars/', blank=True, null=True)
    website = models.URLField(blank=True)

    def __str__(self):
        return f"{self.user.email}'s Profile"

# Signal to create or update profile automatically
@receiver(post_save, sender=settings.AUTH_USER_MODEL)
def create_or_update_user_profile(sender, instance, created, **kwargs):
    if created:
        Profile.objects.create(user=instance)
    else:
        instance.profile.save()

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Step 2: Register Profile Model in Admin

In accounts/admin.py:

from django.contrib import admin
from .models import Profile

admin.site.register(Profile)

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Step 3: Update Forms to Include Profile Data

Create a ProfileForm:

from django import forms
from .models import Profile

class ProfileForm(forms.ModelForm):
    class Meta:
        model = Profile
        fields = ['bio', 'avatar', 'website']

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Step 4: Create Profile Update View

In accounts/views.py:

from django.contrib.auth.decorators import login_required
from django.shortcuts import render, redirect
from .forms import ProfileForm

@login_required
def profile_update(request):
    if request.method == 'POST':
        form = ProfileForm(request.POST, request.FILES, instance=request.user.profile)
        if form.is_valid():
            form.save()
            return redirect('profile_update')
    else:
        form = ProfileForm(instance=request.user.profile)
    return render(request, 'accounts/profile_update.html', {'form': form})

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Step 5: Create Template for Profile Update

Create templates/accounts/profile_update.html:

<h2>Update Profile</h2>
<form method="post" enctype="multipart/form-data">
  {% csrf_token %}
  {{ form.as_p }}
  <button type="submit">Save</button>
</form>

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Step 6: Add URL for Profile Update

In accounts/urls.py:

from django.urls import path
from . import views

urlpatterns = [
    path('profile/', views.profile_update, name='profile_update'),
]

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Conclusion

You’ve extended Django’s auth system with a powerful user profile feature that’s clean, flexible, and easy to maintain.

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What’s Next?

🔄 In Part 4, we’ll implement Password Reset via Email, a critical feature for user-friendly apps.

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