Can you help me deploy my Django project?

April 8, 2014 9:52 PM

I made a project using Django! I have no idea how to put it online! Can you please walk me through it like I'm five years old?

I made a simple project in Django. It works when I use the Django production server. I want to put it online. What do I have to do, exactly?

I read through the Django deployment checklist, but I got totally lost after that. I have no idea what mod_wsgi or Apache are, and I can't find any beginner-friendly resources. Additional complications: I'm running Windows. My program also uses libraries like Beautiful Soup.

Help?

posted by topoisomerase to Technology (9 answers total)

Have you looked here? There are IIS 7 instructions. I hate mod_wsgi, and wouldn't wish it on anyone. When in Linux I use Apache + mod_proxy_http + gunicorn (what actually runs the Django project).

On Windows I'd turn toward something IIS based, not Apache. There are a lot of steps with that HeliconTech Zoo, but it does make sense to me.
posted by sbutler at 10:06 PM on April 8, 2014

Are running Windows on your PC or on your server? Or that you intend to serve your website directly from your Windows PC? If you do not have a server and do not plan on running the site from your PC, your first step is finding a hosting provider, probably Linux- or cloud-based.
posted by domnit at 11:00 PM on April 8, 2014

http://www.jeffknupp.com/blog/2014/03/03/what-is-a-web-framework/
posted by quadog at 11:49 PM on April 8, 2014

You don't specify if your server is Windows or if your development environment is Windows. If you don't have a specific server to put your application on, it might be easier to use a hosted cloud service like Heroku. Here are Django deployment instructions on Heroku.
posted by xtine at 12:43 AM on April 9, 2014 [2 favorites]

Do you plan to host it on your Windows machine, or do you want to put it up on a server somewhere? Unless you have a strong reason to do the former, I'd suggest the latter. The simplest way to do that is probably to use Heroku.
posted by Good Brain at 12:45 AM on April 9, 2014

Seconding heroku! Getting Started with Django on heroku.

(um, whoops, thirding heroku, I guess)
posted by mskyle at 7:19 AM on April 9, 2014

yes, you want a hosted solution that will take care of the halrd parts for you. I used webfaction when I was in exactly your situation a while back.
posted by rockindata at 8:14 AM on April 9, 2014

The Django docs are pretty current and state of the art (that's nginx or mod_wsgi), but if that isn't accessible enough for you PAAS (platform as a service) services like Heroku (or Gondor.io or whatever) have a higher-level approach to configuration and documentation that should suit you.

(Also, consider lxml and its html5 submodule if you start noticing Beautiful Soup's venerable age)
posted by Tobu at 1:30 PM on April 9, 2014

Response by poster: Love you, MeFi. I am totally new to web stuff. Heroku doesn't seem to work well with Windows, so I'll try it with a Linux VM. Thanks!
posted by topoisomerase at 11:43 PM on April 16, 2014