Louis' Django Quickstart Checklist

django_quickstart.md

This checklist is largely inspired by Two Scoops of Django: Best Practices for Django 1.5.

• Install virtualenvwrapper

• mkvirtualenv <env_name>

• workon <env_name>

• pip install django-toolbelt

• Create new git repository (from Github https://github.com/new) so we can get the automatically generated .gitignore, README.md, LICENSE, etc. (for the lazy)

• Add .DS_Store and other junk to .gitignore

• git clone <repo> <repo_root> && cd <repo_root>

• django-admin.py startproject <dj_project> <dj_project_root>

• Create Procfile in repo_root (not the usual dj_project_root)

  web: gunicorn --pythonpath <dj_project_root> <dj_project>.wsgi --log-file -
  

• Install essential Django 3rd-party apps:

  • pip install djangorestframework (optional packages like markdown and django-filter are a good idea as well)
  • Add rest_framework to INSTALLED_APPS in settings.py

• mkdir requirements

• pip freeze > requirements/base.txt

• Create requirements.txt

  -r requirements/base.txt
  

• Restructure settings files to enable multiple environements, inheritance, etc. (See Two Scoops of Django: Best Practices for Django 1.5)

  • mkdir <dj_project_root>/<dj_project>/settings
  • touch <dj_project_root>/<dj_project>/settings/__init__.py
  • mv <dj_project_root>/<dj_project>/settings.py <dj_project_root>/<dj_project>/settings/base.py
  • Modify <dj_project_root>/manage.py

    os.environ.setdefault("DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE", "<dj_project>.settings.base")

  • Modify <dj_project_root>/<dj_project>/wsgi.py

    import os
    os.environ.setdefault("DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE", "<dj_project>.settings.base")
    
    from django.core.wsgi import get_wsgi_application
    from dj_static import Cling
    application = Cling(get_wsgi_application())

• Add settings for (Heroku) staging environment (<dj_project_root>/<dj_project>/settings/staging_heroku.py)

  from .base import *
  
  # Parse database configuration from $DATABASE_URL
  import dj_database_url
  DATABASES['default'] =  dj_database_url.config()
  
  # Honor the 'X-Forwarded-Proto' header for request.is_secure()
  SECURE_PROXY_SSL_HEADER = ('HTTP_X_FORWARDED_PROTO', 'https')
  
  # Allow all host headers
  ALLOWED_HOSTS = ['*']
  
  # Static asset configuration
  import os
  BASE_DIR = os.path.dirname(os.path.abspath(__file__))
  STATIC_ROOT = 'staticfiles'
  STATIC_URL = '/static/'
  
  STATICFILES_DIRS = (
      os.path.join(BASE_DIR, 'static'),
  )

  • (Remember to modify the environment variable for the Heroku environment (heroku config:set) once deployed)

• Set up the postactivate trigger ($WORKON_HOME/<env_name>/bin/postactivate)

  export PROJECT_ROOT=<repo_root>
  
  export DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE=<dj_project>.settings.<setting_file>
  export DATABASE_URL=<db_url>
  
  echo "Changing current working directory to [$PROJECT_ROOT]..."
  cd $PROJECT_ROOT

• Set up the symmetric predeactivate trigger ($WORKON_HOME/<env_name>/bin/predeactivate)

  unset DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE
  unset DATABASE_URL

• [Optional] Install unipath (pip install unipath) and use the much cleaner syntax in the base.py settings file

  from unipath import Path
  
  PROJECT_DIR = Path(__file__).ancestor(4)
  BASE_DIR = Path(__file__).ancestor(3)

• [Optional] Since dj_database_url is installed, we may as well use it.

  import dj_database_url
  DATABASES = {
      'default': dj_database_url.config(default='sqlite:///{base}/db.sqlite3'.format(base=BASE_DIR))
  }

  Set the DATABASE_URL environment variable (See https://crate.io/packages/dj-database-url/)

• [Optional] If a scrapy project is involved, add it as a git submodule in the <repo_root>

• [Optional] If text editor is sublime

  • create a sublime project and version control the .sublime-project file.

  • Modify to include the associated virtualenv scripts

    {
        "folders":
        [
            {
                "path": "<repo_root>"
            },
            {
                "path": "$WORKON_HOME/<env_name>/bin",
                "file_include_patterns": ["*activate"],
                "file_exclude_patterns": ["*.*"]
            }
        ]
    }

  • Add subl --project <sublime_project_file> to $WORKON_HOME/<env_name>/bin/postactivate

• Commit and Deploy!