/dmp-heroku

Primary LanguagePython

Django-Mako-Plus Heroku Integration Tutorial

This a walkthrough on how to host a django-mako-plus (DMP) application on Heroku using Postgres.

DMP is a framework created by Dr. Conan C. Albrecht. To learn more about it check out the repo or docs.

This tutorial is written specifically for Mac OS. Adjustments will need to be made to the Requirements and Step 1 for Windows. Shouldn't be too hard to figure out, though.

Requirements:

Step 1 - Setup localhost

Setup Database

Open Postgres.app

  • Select a server or create a new one
  • Select Server Settings, take note of name and port

Open pgAdmin 4.app

  • In the Dashboard Quick Links, select Add New Sever
  • Under the General tab
    • Name: use the name from the Postgres.app Server Settings
    • Don't change the other fields
  • Under the Connection tab
    • Host: localhost
    • Port: use the port from the Postgres.app Server Settings
    • Username: your system user name
    • Don't change the other fields
  • Click Save
  • Expand Servers tree
  • Right click on Databases and select create - database
  • Name new database 'dmp_heroku'
  • Click Save

Create DMP Application

The following steps have been adjusted from the Quick Start section of the DMP docs. http://django-mako-plus.readthedocs.io/#quick-start

# install django, mako, and DMP
pip3 install django-mako-plus

# create a new project with a 'homepage' app
python3 -m django startproject --template=http://cdn.rawgit.com/doconix/django-mako-plus/master/project_template.zip dmp_heroku
cd dmp_heroku
python3 manage.py startapp --template=http://cdn.rawgit.com/doconix/django-mako-plus/master/app_template.zip --extension=py,htm,html homepage

# open dmp_heroku/settings.py
# append 'homepage' to the INSTALLED_APPS list
INSTALLED_APPS = [
    ...
    'homepage',
]

# replace default DATABASE with
DATABASES = {
    'default': {
        'ENGINE': 'django.db.backends.postgresql_psycopg2',
        'NAME': 'dmp_heroku',
        'USER': '[Insert Username used in PgAdmin4]',
        'PASSWORD': '',
        'HOST': 'localhost',
    },
    #'default': {
    #    'ENGINE': 'django.db.backends.sqlite3',
    #    'NAME': os.path.join(BASE_DIR, 'db.sqlite3'),
    #}
}

Run initial migrations and run the server in terminal

python3 manage.py migrate

python3 manage.py runserver

Open a browser to http://localhost:8000/

You should see "Welcome to the homepage app! ...."

Awesome! You've made a DMP application. You can turn this off now with CTRL-C in the terminal.

Step 2 - Heroku Integration

Edit dmp_heroku/settings.py

You need different settings for development vs production so I create copies to keep them separate. You DO NOT want to use the development settings in GitHub as this usually includes passwords.

  • Duplicate your settings.py file and name it settings-dev.py
  • Duplicate your settings.py file again and name it settings-prod.py

Open settings-prod.py

#add dj_database_url at top with other imports
import dj_database_url

#change your SECRET_KEY to the following:
SECRET_KEY = os.environ.get('SECRET_KEY')

#change DEBUG to false
DEBUG = False

#add '*' to ALLOWED_HOSTS
ALLOWED_HOSTS = ['*']

#append WhiteNoiseMiddleware to the MIDDLEWARE list after SecurityMiddleware
MIDDLEWARE = [
    'django.middleware.security.SecurityMiddleware',
    'whitenoise.middleware.WhiteNoiseMiddleware',
]

#replace DATABASES with the following:
DATABASES = {
}
DATABASES['default'] = dj_database_url.parse(os.environ.get('DATABASE_URL'), conn_max_age=0)

#comment out BASE_DIR in STATICFILES_DIRS
STATIC_URL = '/static/'
STATICFILES_DIRS = (
    # SECURITY WARNING: this next line must be commented out at deployment
    #BASE_DIR,
)

#change STATIC_ROOT to the following:
STATIC_ROOT = os.path.join(BASE_DIR, 'staticfiles')

#append the following after STATIC_ROOT
WHITENOISE_MAX_AGE = 604800
STATICFILES_STORAGE = 'whitenoise.storage.CompressedManifestStaticFilesStorage'

Create a Procfile

Inside your dmp_heroku directory, create a new file named Procfile (no extension)

web: python manage.py dmp_collectstatic --overwrite; python -m whitenoise.compress staticfiles/homepage/styles; python -m whitenoise.compress staticfiles/homepage/scripts; python manage.py migrate; gunicorn dmp_heroku.wsgi --log-file -

The Procfile tells Heroku what commands to run upon deployment. To learn more, check out their documentation on the Procfile.

Django does not support using static files in production. To fix this, we are using an application called whitenoise. Also, since DMP handles static files differently than normal django, we have to overwrite the dmp_collectstatic command and compress styles & scripts for each app inside our project.

Create a Pipfile

Inside the terminal, run the following:

pipenv --three

This will create a new file called Pipfile.

Open this file in your editor. Add the following after packages.

[packages]
dj-database-url = "*"
django = "*"
mako = "*"
django-mako-plus = "*"
gunicorn = "*"
psycopg2 = "*"
whitenoise = "*"

Make sure your python version is correct. This file tells Heroku what dependencies need to be installed.

Now, inside the terminal, run the following:

pipenv install

This will create a Pipfile.lock

Step 3 - Create Git Repository

This section assumes you have created a GitHub account and created and added an ssh key.

IMPORTANT: Before pushing to GitHub, Copy settings-prod.py into settings.py. When you want to run on your localhost, copy settings-dev.py into settings.py

  • Create a new repository on GitHub. To avoid errors, do not initialize the new repository with README, license, or gitignore files. You can add these files after your project has been pushed to GitHub.
  • Initialize your project by running git init in the terminal
  • Create a .gitignore
## Python ##
db.sqlite3
__pycache__
*.cached_templates/

## Heroku ##
dmp_heroku/settings-dev.py
dmp_heroku/settings-prod.py
static/
staticfiles/
  • Run the following commands in the terminal
git add .
git commit -am "initial commit"
git remote add origin [remote repository URL]
git push -u origin master

Step 4 - Deploy on Heroku

Generate a new SECRET_KEY

Create Heroku Application

  • Open a browser to https://dashboard.heroku.com/apps
  • In the top right, click the New button and select 'Create new app'
  • Name the application anything you'd like, I named my 'dmp-heroku' so you won't be able to use it because it's taken
  • Navigate to the Resources tab
  • In the Add-ons search field, type 'postgres' and select Heroku Postgres
  • Select Hobby Dev - Free and click Provision
  • Navigate to the Settings tab
  • Under Config Variables, click Reveal Config Vars
  • Add a new key
    • KEY: SECRET_KEY
    • VALUE: [copied generated key]
    • Make sure to click Add
  • Navigate to the Deploy tab
  • Select GitHub under Deployment Method
  • Click Connect to GitHub
  • Login
  • Under Connect to GitHub, search for the name of your GitHub repository
  • Click connect
  • Under Manual Deploy, click Deploy Branch
  • Once build and deploy is done running, click the View button

Congrats! You've officially launched a DMP application in Heroku!

To learn more about Heroku, check out their documentation. Happy coding!