Django

installing django in debian jessie with python3, mysql, apache2 and mod-wsgi directly

Packages

aptitude install python3-django python3 libapache2-mod-wsgi-py3 python3-mysql.connector apache2

(optionally add a local mysql server if you need one locally)

aptitude install mysql-server

Make sure the wsgi module is enabled

dpkg-reconfigure libapache2-mod-wsgi-py3

Create workspace, in my case instance zealot is installed in /var/django/zealot

mkdir -p /var/django && cd /var/django
/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/django/bin/django-admin.py startproject zealot .

Create your database (log into mysql first as a user that can do this)

CREATE DATABASE database;
CREATE USER 'newuser'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'password';
GRANT ALL ON database.* TO 'newuser'@'localhost';

(obviously these are placeholder values, use real names and a secure password!)

example apache config

Below apache config works with python 3 and the debian django repository (specifically, the static alias is on a separate location). Outside of that in my example the django instance named zealot is stored in /var/django/zealot. Apache config file location in debian:

/etc/apache2/sites-available/000-default.conf

Create a symlink to redirect to the distro provided static files:

mkdir /var/django/media/ 
cd /var/django/media/ 
ln -s /usr/share/python-django-common/django/contrib/admin/static/admin

<VirtualHost *:80>
ServerName fuego.lippmann.us
Alias /media/ /var/django/media/
Alias /static/ /var/django/static/

<Directory /var/django/static>
Require all granted
</Directory>

<Directory /var/django/media>
Require all granted
</Directory>

 WSGIDaemonProcess zealot python-path=/var/django:/usr/lib/python3.4
 WSGIProcessGroup zealot
 WSGIScriptAlias / /var/django/zealot/wsgi.py

 <Directory /var/django/zealot/>
 <Files wsgi.py>
 Require all granted
 </Files>
 </Directory>

</VirtualHost>

example settings.py

In my example /var/django/zealot holds this file and again the project is named zealot so settings match that. Adjust the database and other parameters (timezone, domain, etc.) according to your own environment.

import os
BASE_DIR = os.path.dirname(os.path.dirname(__file__))
SECRET_KEY = 'key'
DEBUG = False
TEMPLATE_DEBUG = False
ALLOWED_HOSTS = [
            '.lippmann.us.',  # Allow domain and subdomains
        ]
CSRF_COOKIE_DOMAIN = ".lippmann.us"
INSTALLED_APPS = (
    'django.contrib.admin',
    'django.contrib.auth',
    'django.contrib.contenttypes',
    'django.contrib.sessions',
    'django.contrib.messages',
    'django.contrib.staticfiles',
)
MIDDLEWARE_CLASSES = (
    'django.contrib.sessions.middleware.SessionMiddleware',
    'django.middleware.common.CommonMiddleware',
    'django.middleware.csrf.CsrfViewMiddleware',
    'django.contrib.auth.middleware.AuthenticationMiddleware',
    'django.contrib.auth.middleware.SessionAuthenticationMiddleware',
    'django.contrib.messages.middleware.MessageMiddleware',
    'django.middleware.clickjacking.XFrameOptionsMiddleware',
)
ROOT_URLCONF = 'zealot.urls'
WSGI_APPLICATION = 'zealot.wsgi.application'
DATABASES = {
    'default': {
        'ENGINE': 'mysql.connector.django',
        'NAME': 'zealot',
        'USER': 'user',
        'PASSWORD': 'password',
        'HOST': 'localhost',
        'PORT': '3306',
    }
}
LANGUAGE_CODE = 'en-us'
TIME_ZONE = 'America/Los_Angeles'
USE_I18N = True
USE_L10N = True
USE_TZ = True
STATIC_URL = '/static/'

installing django in debian jessie with python, mysql, apache2 and mod-wsgi inside a virtualenv

Packages

aptitude install python-virtualenv python libapache2-mod-wsgi apache2 python-pip virtualenv

create and activate the virtualenv

We create a virtualenv repository in /var, and create a virtualenv there specifically for our django instance. Then we initialize it.

mkdir -p /var/virtualenv/
cd /var/virtualenv/
virtualenv  django
source /var/virtualenv/django/bin/activate

update pip and then install django

/var/virtualenv/django/bin/pip install -U pip
/var/virtualenv/django/bin/pip install django

django requires the right version of mysql-connector-python. It's a nightmare to find it, but below steps currently work:

aptitude install git
/var/virtualenv/django/bin/pip install --egg --allow-all-external git+git://github.com/multiplay/mysql-connector-python

Create workspace, in my case instance zealot is installed in /var/virtualenv/django/zealot

cd /var/virtualenv/django && bin/django-admin.py startproject zealot

add some optional packages

/var/virtualenv/django/bin/pip install termcolor
/var/virtualenv/django/bin/pip install pytz
/var/virtualenv/django/bin/pip install prettytable

model.py tricks

enforce uniqueness of multiple fields in a model table

class SomeModel(models.Model):
   class Meta:
       unique_together = (("field1", "field2"),)