Update README.md to enhance project documentation and add development instructions

Author: vasudev-gm

README.md

@@ -1,19 +1,153 @@
-# django_tutorial using DRF and DRF Spectacular OpenAPI
-Django DRF with SQLite
-Basic CRUD API for Employees and Department using Django DRF.
-Deployed using Gunicorn Server
+# Django Tutorial using DRF and DRF Spectacular OpenAPI
 
-# Docker Compose Commands
+Django DRF with SQLite, NGINX load balancing, and production-grade deployment setup.
 
-### Get running containers:
-**docker ps**
+Features:
 
-### Build and Run in detached mode:
-**docker compose up --build -d**
+- Basic CRUD API for Employees and Department using Django DRF
+- Load balanced using NGINX
+- Deployed using Gunicorn Server
+- Multi-stage Docker builds for optimized images
+- Zstandard and Gzip compression
+- Health checks and automatic failover
 
-### To enter Bash Shell for migrating db changes or static files
-**docker exec -it <container id from docker ps> bash**
+## Architecture
 
-### To view logs of container. You can pass head to view first N lines or tail to view last N lines specified by argument after head/tail
+- NGINX load balancer with 2 Django application replicas
+- Gunicorn as the WSGI server
+- Static files served by NGINX
+- Health monitoring and automatic failover
+- Session persistence using IP hash
 
-**docker logs --tail 1000 -f <container id from docker ps>**
+## Docker Compose Commands
+
+### Build and Run
+
+```powershell
+# Enable BuildKit for optimized builds
+$env:DOCKER_BUILDKIT=1
+
+# Build and start all services
+docker compose up --build -d
+
+# Scale only web service
+docker compose up -d --scale web=2
+```
+
+### Container Management
+
+```powershell
+# List running containers
+docker compose ps
+
+# View logs for specific service
+docker compose logs -f web    # Django app logs
+docker compose logs -f nginx  # NGINX logs
+
+# Execute commands in container
+docker compose exec web python manage.py migrate
+docker compose exec web python manage.py collectstatic --noinput
+
+# View logs with timestamps
+docker compose logs --timestamps --tail=100
+```
+
+### Health and Status
+
+```powershell
+# Check health endpoint
+curl http://localhost/health/
+
+# Check NGINX status
+docker compose exec nginx nginx -t
+
+# View real-time container stats
+docker compose top
+```
+
+### Maintenance
+
+```powershell
+# Stop all services
+docker compose down
+
+# Remove volumes (careful - this deletes data!)
+docker compose down -v
+
+# View container resource usage
+docker stats
+```
+
+## Configuration
+
+### Environment Variables
+
+- `GUNICORN_WORKERS`: Number of worker processes (default: 4)
+- `GUNICORN_THREADS`: Threads per worker (default: 2)
+- `GUNICORN_MAX_REQUESTS`: Max requests per worker (default: 1000)
+
+### NGINX Features
+
+- Load balancing (least connections + IP hash)
+- Zstandard and Gzip compression
+- Static file serving
+- Health checks
+- Rate limiting
+- Security headers
+
+### Security
+
+- Non-root container execution
+- Rate limiting
+- HTTP security headers
+- No build tools in production image
+
+## API Documentation
+
+Access the API documentation at these endpoints:
+
+- Swagger UI: [http://localhost/apidocs_swagger/](http://localhost/apidocs_swagger/)
+- ReDoc: [http://localhost/apidocs_redoc/](http://localhost/apidocs_redoc/)
+- OpenAPI Schema: [http://localhost/apidocs/](http://localhost/apidocs/)
+
+## Development
+
+For local development without Docker:
+
+```powershell
+# Install pipenv if you haven't already
+pip install --user pipenv
+
+# Install dependencies using Pipenv
+pipenv install
+
+# Activate the virtual environment
+pipenv shell
+
+# Run migrations
+python manage.py migrate
+
+# Start the development server
+python manage.py runserver
+```
+
+### Additional Development Commands
+
+```powershell
+# Install a new package
+pipenv install package_name
+
+# Install development dependencies
+pipenv install --dev
+
+# Update all dependencies
+pipenv update
+
+# Generate requirements.txt (for Docker build)
+pipenv requirements > requirements.txt
+
+# Check security vulnerabilities
+pipenv check
+```
+
+The project uses Pipfile and Pipfile.lock for dependency management, ensuring consistent environments across development machines.