djangoHeroku

deploy django web app to heroku take aways/instructions.

How to Deploy Django Applications on Heroku

Install heroku CLI

Then install the Heroku Toolbelt. It is a command line tool to manage your Heroku apps

After installing the Heroku Toolbelt, open a terminal and login to your account:

$ heroku login
Enter your Heroku credentials.
Email: [email protected]
Password (typing will be hidden):
Authentication successful.

Preparing the Application

In this tutorial I will deploy an existing project, moringa-tribune-hosting. It's an very simple open-source Django project, that shows news posted. Its available on github so you can actually clone the repository and follow along or try it on your own existing django project.

Startup

create a folder, cd into it
create, activate virtual env & install pip
- Run python3.9 -m venv --without-pip virtual OR sudo apt install python3-venv to install virtual env.
- Run source virtual/bin/activate to activate and .../deactivate to deactivate virtual env.
- Run curl https://bootstrap.pypa.io/get-pip.py | python to install pip in virtual env.
- Run python3 -m pip install --upgrade pipto upgrade pip
python3 -m pip install django to install django
in virtual django-admin startproject <projectname> . to create project
in virtual django-admin startapp <appname> to create app
in virtual python3.9 manage.py runserver to run server
in virtual python manage.py createsuperuser to create Admin

Install all dependiencies at once

django-bootstrap4
django-crispy-forms
django-heroku
gunicorn
Pillow
pyscopg2
python-decouple
typing-extensions
djangorestframework

pip install django-bootstrap4 django-crispy-forms django-heroku gunicorn Pillow python-decouple typing-extensions djangorestframework

This will come with whitenoise, pyscopg2 and dj-database-url dependencies

Db & Migrations

Db
- After installing psycopg2
- run psql
- CREATE BATABASE <dbname>;
- \c <dbname> To connect to db.
- \password To set your db password
Migrations
- python3.9 manage.py check To check models
- python3.9 manage.py makemigrations <app> To make migrations
- python3.9 manage.py sqlmigrate <app> 0001 To view migrations
- python3.9 manage.py migrate To run migrations

Assumptions

Your familiar with the basics of django e.g concept of apps, settings, urls, basics of databases
You have django application that you want to deploy to heroku
You are familiar with virtual environments - not a must but the knowledge would be a plus
Your deployment db is postgres

We need to add the following to our project, we will cover each of them in detail in the below section

Add a Procfile in the project root;
Create requirements.txt file ;
pip freeze > requirements.txt to add all your installed dependencies in requirements.txt file.
ONLY If you have cloned/copied dependencies requirements.txt file
- pip install -r requirents.txt To install dependencies written in requirements.txt file
Install django-heroku pip install django-heroku
Install gunicornpip install gunicorn==20.1.0
Add Gunicorn to requirements.txt
A runtime.txt to specify the correct Python version in the project root;
Configure whitenoise to serve static files.

Procfile

Heroku apps include a Procfile that specifies the commands that are executed by the app’s dynos.

For more information read on the heroku documentation.

Create a file named Procfile in the project root with the following content:

web: gunicorn your_project_name.wsgi --log-file -

Runtime.txt

This file contains the python version you are using for heroku to use, create runtime.txt in your project root and add your python version in the following format

python-3.9.2

List of Heroku Python Runtimes.

.gitignore

gitignore file should have the following:

__pycache__/
virtual/
.vscode/
.env
*.pyc

*.sh   #for start.sh file, used in flask

Whitenoise: Django Static Files settings

Lets first configure static related parameter in settings.py

BASE_DIR = os.path.dirname(os.path.dirname(os.path.abspath(__file__)))

# Static files (CSS, JavaScript, Images)
# https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/1.9/howto/static-files/
STATIC_ROOT = os.path.join(BASE_DIR, 'staticfiles')
STATIC_URL = '/static/'

# Extra places for collectstatic to find static files.
STATICFILES_DIRS = (
    os.path.join(BASE_DIR, 'static'),
)

Turns out django does not support serving static files in production. However, WhiteNoise project can integrate into your Django application, and was designed with exactly this purpose in mind.

Lets first install Whitenoise pip install whitenoise

Install WhiteNoise into your Django application. This is done in settings.py’s middleware section (at the top):

MIDDLEWARE_CLASSES = (
    # Simplified static file serving.
    # https://warehouse.python.org/project/whitenoise/
    'whitenoise.middleware.WhiteNoiseMiddleware',
    ...

Add the following setting to settings.py in the static files section to enable gzip functionality.

# Simplified static file serving.
# https://warehouse.python.org/project/whitenoise/

STATICFILES_STORAGE = 'whitenoise.storage.CompressedManifestStaticFilesStorage'

# configuring the location for media
MEDIA_URL = '/media/'
MEDIA_ROOT = os.path.join(BASE_DIR, 'media')

# Configure Django App for Heroku.
django_heroku.settings(locals())

Installed Apps

Add your installed apps on the installed app list in seettings.py file
Bootstrap pip install python-bootstrap4
crispy forms pip install django-crispy-forms
Cloudinary pip install cloudinary

Claudinary configurations

  cloudinary.config( 
      cloud_name = config('CLOUDINARY_NAME'), 
      api_key = config('CLOUDINARY_API_KEY'), 
      api_secret = config('CLOUDINARY_API_SECRET') 
    ) 
    
  DEFAULT_FILE_STORAGE = 'cloudinary_storage.storage.MediaCloudinaryStorage'
  # You can uncomment this cloudinary_storage if you have default file storage in your local machine
  # Usually this STATICFILES_STORAGE = 'whitenoise.storage.CompressedManifestStaticFilesStorage'

INSTALLED_APPS = [
    'django.contrib.admin',
    'django.contrib.auth',
    'django.contrib.contenttypes',
    'django.contrib.sessions',
    'django.contrib.* messages',
    'django.contrib.staticfiles',
    'insta',
    'bootstrap4',
    'crispy_forms',
    'cloudinary',
]

Requirements.txt

'cloudinary',If your under a virtual environment run the command below to generate the requirements.txt file which heroku will use to install python package dependencies

pip freeze > requirements.txt Make sure you have the following packages if not install the using pip then run the command above again

config==0.3.9
cloudinary==1.29.0
dj-database-url==0.5.0
Django==4.0.5       
django-bootstrap4==22.
django-crispy-forms==1.14.0
django-heroku==0.3.1
django-registration==3.1.2
gunicorn==19.9.0
Pillow==9.1.1
psycopg2==2.9.3
python-decouple==3.6
pytz==2018.5
whitenoise==6.1.0

Remove pkg-resources from the requirements.txt file as it might lead to some errors.
If you are following along with the mtribune app you should use the provided requirements.txt as you need to install more python packages, for any app just make sure you have the above packages as a plus.

Optional but very helpfull settings

python-decouple and dj-database-url

Python Decouple is a must have app if you are developing with Django. It’s important to keep your application credentials like API Keys, Amazon S3, email parameters, database parameters safe, specially if it’s an open source repository. Also no more development_settings.py and production_settings.py, use just one settings.py for your whole project.

Install it via pip install python-decouple

dj-database-url is a simple Django utility allows you to utilize the 12factor inspired DATABASE_URL environment variable to configure your Django application.

Install it via pip install dj-database-url

Firts create a .env file and add it to .gitignore so you don’t commit any sensitive data to your remote repository. below is an example of configurations you can add to the .env file.

#just an example, dont share your .env settings
SECRET_KEY='342s(s(!hsjd998sde8$=o4$3m!(o+kce2^97kp6#ujhi'
DEBUG=True #set to false in production
# POSTGRESQL DB
DB_NAME='tribune'
DB_USER='user'
DB_PASSWORD='password'
DB_HOST='127.0.0.1'
# STORE IMGS IN CLOUDINARY
CLOUDINARY_NAME='abcdef'
CLOUDINARY_API_KEY='468hgtcbjk'
CLOUDINARY_API_SECRET='fhjm8765dvhjkkllgg58sdf'
MODE='dev' #set to 'prod' in production
ALLOWED_HOSTS='<herokuAppName>.herokuapp.com'  ###### OR ALLOWED_HOSTS='*' If you are not hosting
DISABLE_COLLECTSTATIC=1
EMAIL_USE_TLS =True
EMAIL_HOST='smtp.gmail.com'
EMAIL_PORT=587
EMAIL_HOST_USER='[email protected]'
EMAIL_HOST_PASSWORD='youremailpassword'

We then edit settings.py to enable decouple to use the .env configurations.

import os
import django_heroku
import dj_database_url
from decouple import config,Csv
import cloudinary

# Email configurations remember to install python-decouple
# We use the config function to connect to the environment variables
EMAIL_USE_TLS = config('EMAIL_USE_TLS')
EMAIL_HOST = config('EMAIL_HOST')
EMAIL_PORT = config('EMAIL_PORT')
EMAIL_HOST_USER = config('EMAIL_HOST_USER')
EMAIL_HOST_PASSWORD = config('EMAIL_HOST_PASSWORD')

MODE=config("MODE", default="dev")
SECRET_KEY = config('SECRET_KEY')
DEBUG = config('DEBUG', default=False, cast=bool)
# development
if config('MODE')=="dev":
   DATABASES = {
       'default': {
           'ENGINE': 'django.db.backends.postgresql_psycopg2',  # OR 'ENGINE': 'django.db.backends.sqlite3', For sqlite DB
           'NAME': config('DB_NAME'),
           'USER': config('DB_USER'),
           'PASSWORD': config('DB_PASSWORD'),
           'HOST': config('DB_HOST'),
           'PORT': '',
       }
       
   }
# production
else:
   DATABASES = {
       'default': dj_database_url.config(
           default=config('DATABASE_URL')
       )
   }

db_from_env = dj_database_url.config(conn_max_age=500)
DATABASES['default'].update(db_from_env)

ALLOWED_HOSTS = config('ALLOWED_HOSTS', cast=Csv()) 
   OR
ALLOWED_HOSTS = 'herokuAppName.herokuapp.com'

DB settings remains the same if you are using sqlite

python
DATABASES = {
    'default': {
        'ENGINE': 'django.db.backends.sqlite3',
        'NAME': BASE_DIR / '<sqlitedbname>',
    }
}

Install sqlite3 sudo apt install sqlite3
Install SQLitebrowser sudo apt install sqlitebrowser
Uninstall SQLitebrowser sudo apt --purge remove sqlitebrowser

CONNECT to slite3 DATABASE, type this in terminal:

sqlite3
sqlite>.database to view db available
sqlite>.open <dbname> to open the db
sqlite>.tables to view all the available tables OR sqlite>.fullschema
sqlite>.schema <tablename> to view specified table

Django-Heroku

We then install Django-Heroku which will automatically configure DATABASE_URL, ALLOWED_HOSTS, WhiteNoise (for static assets), Logging, and Heroku CI for your application.

pip install django-heroku

NB: Remember to remove pkg-resources from requirements.txt for easy deployment.

Lets deploy now

First make sure you are in the root directory of the repository you want to deploy

pip freeze > requirements.txt

heroku login

Next create the heroku app

heroku create <herokuappname>

Create a postgres addon to your heroku app

heroku addons:create heroku-postgresql:hobby-dev

Next we log in to Heroku dashboard to access our app and configure it

To add all your configurations in .env file directly to heroku
Remember to first set DEBUG to false in .env file and confirm that you have added all the confuguration variables needed.

heroku config:set $(cat .env | sed '/^$/d; /#[[:print:]]*$/d')

Click on the Settings menu and then on the button Reveal Config Vars
Next add all the environment vaiables, if you dint add your .env variables to heroku.
By default you should have DATABASE_URI configuration created after installing postgres to heroku.

Heroku Conf Variables

Set debug=True
Remove Single/Doube Quotes in Heroku Config Variables

Pushing to heroku

confirm that your application is running as expected before pushing, runtime errors will cause deployment to fail so make sure you have no bugs, you have all the following Procfile, requirements.txt with all required packages and runtime.txt .

git add . && git commit -m "message"

git push heroku master

If you did everything correctly then the deployment should be done after a while with an output like this

Enumerating objects: 94, done.
Counting objects: 100% (94/94), done.
Delta compression using up to 8 threads.
Compressing objects: 100% (84/84), done.
Writing objects: 100% (94/94), 3.35 MiB | 630.00 KiB/s, done.
Total 94 (delta 24), reused 0 (delta 0)
remote: Compressing source files... done.

#.......

remote: -----> Compressing...
remote:        Done: 56.3M
remote: -----> Launching...
remote:        Released v6
remote:        https://mtr1bune.herokuapp.com/ deployed to Heroku
remote: 
remote: Verifying deploy... done.
To https://git.heroku.com/mtr1bune.git
 * [new branch]      master -> master

Run db migrations

If you instead wish to push your postgres database data to heroku then run

Option 1

heroku pg:psql -Allows you to see the psql DATABASE_URL
heroku pg:reset -If the psql DATABASE_URL is empty run this command
heroku pg:push <The name of the db in the local psql> <DATABASE_URL> --app <heroku-appname>
This will go with django admin

Option 2

heroku pg:reset -If the psql DATABASE_URL is empty run this command
heroku pg:push <local psql dbname> DATABASE_URL
This will go with django admin

configure Heroku Django admin

Done ONLY when heroku django admin brings Password Error!

heroku run python manage.py createsuperuser to create Heroku django admin

This prompts one to enter username, email, password and confirm password
Then git push heroku master & heroku run python manage.py migrate

Comment

This process was a lot and you can easily mess up as I did, I suggest analyzing the part where you went wrong and going back to read on what you are supposed to do. I also highly recommend going through official documentations about deploying python projects to heroku as you will get a lot information that can help you debug effectively. I will provide some links in the resources section.

Remember heroku does not offer support for media files in the free tier subscription so find some where else to store those e.g Cloudinary Amazon s3.

#esources

joymarocho / djangoheroku Goto Github PK

djangoheroku's Introduction