timmshinbone/django-heroku-deployment-guide

Django Heroku Deployment Guide

Right now, you know how to build a Django API on your local machine. Time to get your work out into the world by deploying it!

Objectives

By the end of this, developers should be able to:

• Push latest code to Heroku.
• Setup PostgreSQL Database on Heroku.
• Create Procfile for deployment.

Deployment Video Recording

In addition to the steps below, feel free to utilize this recorded walk-through of deploying.

• Recording: https://generalassembly.zoom.us/rec/share/oecPd_VF7Xo4N-1PdiCt2JI7oFeH6dt5IYb3lXZTeH39LY6koFXgeBm2ExYfEpjA.IU9NkhvOxv5kYv8W

• Passcode: @m9R009E

Deploying to Heroku

Follow these steps in the root of a Django API repository.

1. If you haven't already, make sure the virtual environment is running with pipenv shell.
2. cd into your project directory for the remainder of the steps below.
3. We will use a package called gunicorn to make our app feel faster and better utilized. Install it with pipenv install gunicorn.
4. Create a file called Procfile (don't forget the capital P!).
5. Inside the Procfile, add the following lines, replacing yourprojectname with your project's name (the name of your project folder, which contains settings.py, wsgi.py, etc. files). The following example assumes the structure yourprojectname/wsgi.py:
   • web: gunicorn yourprojectname.wsgi
   • release: python manage.py migrate
6. Handle static assets. Many of these will be for our admin views right now
   1. Run python3 manage.py collectstatic inside of your repository.
   2. Install the whitenoise package by running pipenv install whitenoise.
   3. Follow the steps from the whitenoise quickstart for Django apps section to modify the settings.py file in your project. Do not run the install step, as we did that already.
7. As a safety measure, run pipenv lock to ensure the Pipfile.lock is up to date.
8. All of our dependencies across projects are right now stores in one Pipfile and Pipfile.lock in the django-env folder. In order to deploy, we need those dependencies in this directory.
   1. Run pipenv run pip freeze > requirements.txt inside the root of your repository. This will create a new file requirements.txt that Heroku can use to properly initialize your project on deployment.
9. Create heroku app with heroku apps:create yourappname replacing yourappname with the name you want to use for your heroku app.
10. Add the PostgreSQL add-on with heroku addons:create heroku-postgresql:hobby-dev.
11. Add config keys with heroku config:set THING=value. You'll need:
    • A SECRET ex: heroku config:set SECRET='na807h9asgfa7gsdf'
    • A CLIENT_ORIGIN ex: heroku config:set CLIENT_ORIGIN=https://my-username.github.io
      • Note: Make sure there is no trailing slash / at the end of the CLIENT_ORIGIN
12. Run heroku config to confirm you have a SECRET, CLIENT_ORIGIN, and DATABASE_URL (for the PostgreSQL addon).
13. Add, commit, and push to origin all changes made from the above steps.
14. The actual deployment happens when you push your code to the heroku remote. Make sure you have all the code you want added and committed, then run git push heroku main.

Troubleshooting

First step upon encountering an issue should be to run heroku logs --tail to read the logs of your deployed heroku server. Then, you can make an issue if you are still unsure.

Additional Resources

• Splitting Development and Production Settings
• Heroku Gunicorn Docs

License

1. All content is licensed under a CC­BY­NC­SA 4.0 license.
2. All software code is licensed under GNU GPLv3. For commercial use or alternative licensing, please contact legal@ga.co.