Can I deploy to Heroku without a Virtual Environment? - python

I followed a Django tutorial and the tutor didn't talk about the need for a Virtual Env. He deployed via Digital Ocean. I am trying to use Heroku but just found out that I ought to have activated a Virtual Env prior to the start of my Django project.
Do I have to redo the Django project with a Vir Env or I can just go ahead to activate the Env and still deploy?

Yes i think you can, but having a virtual environment is good practise. :) sorry if i wrong i'm new to all this.

The answer to your question is probably "you can still deploy" - however this depends on what tutorial you are following and what you want to archive, and cannot be answered without more information on your project. I suggest you simply try.
If you follow a tutorial that hosts a VPS webserver (e.g. from digitalocean), the necessary steps are different than if you deploy to heroku, obviously.
Read this official heroku/django guide to understand the deployment process. It is very useful and comes with a step-by-step guide for deploying python apps on heroku as well.
As virtual environments are (only) a fancy way of encapsulating python projects and their dependencies, this is exactly what you should read (to understand the basics and important details for future deploys of all kind of python apps to heroku).
Happy coding .

Related

Hosting multiple Django instances on a VPS

I'm moving away from WordPress and into bespoke Python apps.
I've settled on Django as my Python framework, my only problems at the moment are concerning hosting. My current shared hosting environment is great for WordPress (WHM on CloudLinux), but serving Django on Apache/cPanel appears to be hit and miss, although I haven't tried it as yet with my new hosting company. - who have Python enabled in cPanel.
What is the easiest way for me to set up a VPS to run a hosting environment for say, twenty websites? I develop everything in a virtualenv, but I have no experience in running Django in a production environment as yet. I would assume that venv isn't secure enough or has scalability issues? I've read some things about people using Docker to set up separate Django instances on a VPS, but I'm not sure whether they wrote their own management system.
It's my understanding that each instance Python/Django needs uWSGI and Nginx residing within that virtual container? I'm looking for a simple and robust solution to host 20 Django sites on a VPS - is there an out of the box solution? I'm also happy to develop one and set up a VPS if I'm pointed in the right direction.
Any wisdom would be gratefully accepted.
Andy :)
Traditional approach
Virtualenv is good enough and perfectly ready for production use. You can have multiple virtualenv for multiple projects on the same VM.
If you have multiple database engines for multiple projects. Like, MySQL for one, PostgreSQL for another something like this then you just need to set up each individually.
Install Nginx and configure each according to project.
Install supervisor to manage(restart/start/stop) each project individually.
Anything that required by the project.
Here it has a huge drawback. Because you can't use different versions on your database engine for a different project in an easy way. So, containerization is highly recommended.
For simple and robust solution,
Use Docker(docker-compose) for local and production deployment.
Configure uWsgi with Nginx(Available on docker.)
Create a CI/CD pipeline with any tool like Jenkins.
Monitor your projects using any good tool like Raygun.
That's it.
I created a bash script that deploys as many websites as you want on your server. It automatically installs all dependencies on your server, creates a virtual environment, configure Gunicorn, Nginx, and a database for Django, etc. Check it out:
https://github.com/jdbit/django-auto-deploy

How to set up a local dev environment for Django

Python web development newbie question here. I'm coming from PHP/Laravel and there you have Homestead which is a pre-configured Vagrant box for local development. In a so-called Homestead file, you configure everything such as webserver, database or PHP version. Are there any similar pre-configured dev environments for Django?
I already googled and there don't seem to be any official or widely-used Vagrant boxes for Django. The official Django tutorial even tells you how to install and set up Apache and your preferred database. This is a lot of work everytime you want to create a new Django project, especially if those projects run in different production environments. All the other tutorials I've found just explain how you set up virtual environments with venv or the like. But that doesn't seem to be sufficient to me. What you obviously want is a dev environment that is as close as possible to your production environment, so you need some kind of virtual machines.
I'm a little bit confused right now. Do you just grab some plain Ubuntu (or any other OS) Vagrant box and install everything yourself? Don't you use Vagrant at all but something else? Did I miss something and the Python web development workflow is completely different?
The typical local development in Django just uses the builtin web server and an SQLite database. The steps to get that up and running are:
Ensure you have the desired version of Python installed.
Create a virtual env to isolate libraries needed for your project from the rest of the system (this is optional by highly recommended, I'd actually recommend using Poetry).
Install Django, probably via pip.
Run manage.py runserver (and migrate the database and set up a superuser, yada yada).
That's pretty much it and sufficient for local development. What you need to be aware of is that some differences exist between SQLite and Postgres, MySQL etc., and if you hit the spots where the difference is important, you'll want to set up your targeted database as well to develop directly against it. That can probably happen in a Docker container if that makes sense for you. But there's little reason to put Django into a container during development, unless your project is especially complex and requires simulating certain conditions which the builtin server somehow can't.
Does this help?
$ python3 -m venv my_env # create your virtual environment
$ source my_env/bin/activate # Any package you install will be inside this environment
$ pip install -r requirements.txt # can also install packages indivdually
$ deactivate # get out of the isolated environment
Here's the doc

The file "manage.py" did not come with my GitHub sample code

I'm an old-school developer, learning Django and GitHub for the first time. I'd like to study https://github.com/tomwalker/django_quiz, but when installed in my virtual environment, I can't find the file "manage.py". A YouTube Django tutorial suggested I need to run "py manage.py runserver" to start a web server on my local machine. (I was successful starting a server when following THAT tutorial, but I'm now studying source code from GitHub.) There's clearly a difference in age between the sample project on GitHub and my YT tutorial... Can someone please tell me if I'm going about the learning of Django correctly, and if I truly need manage.py to start a server? Thank you!
This is an installable app, not a full project. As the instructions show, you should create your own project with django-admin.py startproject, then install this app and add it to the INSTALLED_APPS setting.
Note, this looks like a pretty old library and may not be compatible with recent Django versions.

Deploying Django on an apache server

I am new to web development. So be gentle. AND thanks in advance.
I am developing on windows env. and deploying on a linux server w/ Python 2.6.2 installed.
Running apache2.2 as Virtual Host, and I am using mod_wsgi. I plan to serve media files from the same Virtual Host.
I have a django site and I am now ready to deploy. I am stuck, and every site I go to seems to be outdated/incomplete/overmyhead.
https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/1.3/howto/deployment/modwsgi/
http://www.djangobook.com/en/2.0/chapter12/
...only 2 links as for the newbness
The top link seems to be what I need yet I am still confused on these things:
What does the file structure look like on the server
I cannot change/edit server files myself, I rely on the dba for that
I have django.wsgi, and django.wsgi~, where do those go?
Where do I put my project in relation to those wsgi files?
The httpd.conf file is something that the server has on it? or do I create another?
Do I need to put django in any way shape or form on the server? If so where? And what about the packages like registration, defaults?
Again sorry for the newbness, I have been banging my head for 2 weeks on this.
Any help/links will be greatly appreciated unless they link me to the django-docs. I have read those...A LOT! thanks
Also go read:
http://code.google.com/p/modwsgi/wiki/IntegrationWithDjango
and watch:
http://code.google.com/p/modwsgi/wiki/WhereToGetHelp?tm=6#Conference_Presentations
The latter includes Django examples and talks a bit about locations, permissions etc.
The first of these is even linked to in the document in the Django documentation.
It doesn't matter where the files go. They just have to be readable/executable by the user that the web server is running under.
I don't know what you mean by django.wsgi~, that sounds like a backup file created by your editor - you don't need that.
Yes the httpd.conf is the configuration file for Apache. Some distributions (eg Debian and Ubuntu) split this up into separate files for each site that the server runs. If your administrator is the only one who can edit files, he will know about this already.
Yes, you need Django, and any third-party packages.
#Nathan
An easier option for you while you are learning this is not to really have to many expenses.
I could also suggest you take a look at Heroku - allows you to easily deploy your applications in minutes.
Up until recently they only supported RoR and they have brought in support for Django and Python - they have some really well documented tutorials as well.
I hope this helps
Heroku Django / Python tutorial
I have written up an simple deployment guide for django applications it can be found here. It goes all the way from project setup and deployment. I also have references setup. I honestly believe it answers all your questions, I would give it a look.
Goodluck.

How do I setup a local Django development environment on Ubuntu?

Finally made the switch from Windows to Linux (Ubuntu). I am teaching myself Python + Django.
GOAL: I want to setup a local development environment where I can build a django application and run it locally before deploying it live online.
SO FAR: Python comes installed with Linux. Gedit does also. Ok great. After that I am lost.
I am not sure how to proceed. I am a total Linux noob. I am guessing I need apache running, mysql running, and django to run. I don't know how to setup these things to run or how to set the proper directories or what I need to link to what... really I am not even sure what the right questions are to ask.
Quick answer:
Just install django via their documentation, and you will not even need apache running as it will run its own server. You can use sqlite as a db and you won't even have to worry about mysql. This is if your goal is to learn django and get things running asap.
Otherwise, if you want to take the full route, you'll need to start learning a lot more (which isn't a bad thing). I'd say take a look at some of the slicehost guides for setting up apache, mysql in ubuntu:
http://articles.slicehost.com/2010/5/19/installing-apache-on-ubuntu
http://articles.slicehost.com/2011/3/10/installing-mysql-server-on-ubuntu
And then pick up with just installing django and going from there. The django tutorial is awesome. There's plenty of other documentation out there on the web & tutorials for setting up dev environments.
Assuming you have python
You can install pip:
easy_install pip
From now you can use pip to install your python libraries for example to install django
pip install django
For development I would prefer pydev, it has a support for django with the power of eclipse.

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