Introduction

I recently blogged about DryORM, a playground for running Django ORM code online. Since releasing it, I've received a lot of positive feedback from several folks in the community who found it useful for creating SSCCEs, quickly testing ORM queries, relationships, and general debugging tasks. Most have used it on discord, some have used it to share snippets on the official forums (Post 1, Post 2), others have even used it on the official tracker! (35381, 36508, 36472, 26434)

Simon Charettes said "Thank you sooooo much for building DryORM it has been such a pleasure to use, it's one of those things you don't realize you need until you start using it. It has made debugging problems and helping folks reason about the ORM so much easier, truly a game changer."

Tim Schilling spoke about DryORM during his Keynote at DjangoCon Africa 2025 and said "DryORM is a fantastic debugging tool for people that are collaborating with one another"

Such feedback is incredibly motivating and has inspired me to continue improving DryORM. I want to make it not just a tool for running ORM code, but also a resource for learning and mastering Django ORM concepts. Today, I'm excited to introduce DryORM Journeys, a new feature that allows you to learn Django ORM concepts interactively. The feature is designed to help you explore and practice various ORM concepts through categorized snippets, each demonstrating a specific ORM feature or pattern.

The idea was inspired from a comment made by @nanorepublica on the Official Django Discord. Apropos, if you're not already a member, I highly recommend joining the Official Django Discord community where you can find help, share knowledge, and connect with other Django enthusiasts.

Features

DryORM Journeys is currenty available on larger screens only and accessible here:

https://dryorm.xterm.info/j/

You can also access it from the book icon in the top right corner of the main DryORM page. The feature is straightforward to use. Journeys are formed by series of chapters, each containing a snippet that demonstrates a specific ORM concept. You can navigate through the chapters quickly and use CMD+Enter or Ctrl+Enter to run the code in each chapter quickly (or just hit play button).

The rest is standard DryORM functionality, so you can view the output, queries, and even change the code and save your changes.

The current implementation and content is an initial draft, if you find some bugs or have suggestions for improvements, please feel free to reach out. I'm always reachable on the Official Django Discord.

Current Journeys & Chapters

I've published an initial set of journeys and chapters that cover various Django ORM concepts. Here are some of the current journeys available:

• Fundamentals
  • Defining models
  • Simple model operations
  • Filtering data
  • Ordering and limiting results
  • Querying with Q
• Relationships
  • Foreign Keys
  • One to One
  • Many to Many
• Aggregation
  • Basic Aggregation
  • Annotation
  • Grouping
• Optimization Techniques
  • Bulk Operations
  • Query Optimization

As well as DryOrm Features, which is a journey that covers the features of DryORM itself.

The content is by no means polished or complete, and I plan to add more chapters and journeys over time. If you have suggestions for specific topics or concepts you'd like to see covered, please let me know.

I'd love to hear your feedback on this new feature or any other aspect of DryORM. You can reach out to me on discord or on the forums.

As always, I want to thank everyone who has contributed to DryORM, whether through feedback, suggestions, or simply using the tool. Your support is invaluable and helps make DryORM a better resource for everyone.