How to setup Django project for Heroku Prod Deployment?

Setup the Django Project

Assuming python and pip are alreay installed in your system<br>

• pip install pipenv Pipenv creates a seperate environment for all our dj projects<br>
• mkdir <MY_DJANGO_PROJECT> && cd <MY_DJANGO_PROJECT>
• pipenv shell
• pipenv install django creates a Pipfile and Pipfile.lock
• django-admin startproject <my_dj_project>
• cd <my_dj_project>
• python manage.py makemigrations
• python manage.py migrate
• python manage.py runserver [PORT] PORT is optional

Setup the DEV and PROD environment

• pipenv install django-environ

• touch .env Create a dotenv file in <my_dj_project> and copy the SECRET_KEY from <my_dj_project>/settings.py

  .env

    #Sample .env file
    SECRET_KEY="=o)p$2&wd@%!x(@5^ujkb^g-di+t8zfk+h6g&6=notcy+7rq=$"
    DEBUG=True

• Make the following changes to <my_dj_project>/settings.py

  settings.py

    import environ
    env = environ.Env()
    environ.Env.read_env() # reading .env file
  
    # SECURITY WARNING: keep the secret key used in production secret!
    SECRET_KEY = env.str('SECRET_KEY',default='=o)p$2&wd@%!x(@5^ujkb^g-di+t8zfk+h6g&6=notcy+7rq=$')
  
    # SECURITY WARNING: don't run with debug turned on in production!
    DEBUG = env.bool('DEBUG',default=False) 

• Make sure to add the .env file in .gitignore

Setup for Heroku Deployment

PART 1 - Configuring the basics

• Make sure you are currently in <MY_DJANGO_PROJECT>

• pipenv install gunicorn django_heroku

• touch Procfile Heroku web applications require a Procfile

  Procfile

    web: gunicorn <my_dj_project>.wsgi

• Make the following changes to <my_dj_project>/settings.py

  settings.py

    import django_heroku # at the top of settings.py
    ....
    ....
    ....
    # Activate Django-Heroku.
    django_heroku.settings(locals())  # at the bottom of settings.py

PART 2 - Configuring the static assets

• pip install whitenoise Django does not support serving static files in production. However, the fantastic WhiteNoise project can integrate into your Django application, and was designed with exactly this purpose in mind.

• Make the following changes to <my_dj_project>/settings.py. Make sure to follow the instructions in comments -

  settings.py

    
    # add WhiteNoise to the MIDDLEWARE_CLASSES list, above all 
    # other middleware apart from Django’s SecurityMiddleware
  
    MIDDLEWARE = [
      # 'django.middleware.security.SecurityMiddleware',
      'whitenoise.middleware.WhiteNoiseMiddleware',
      # ...
    ]
    ....
    ....
    ....
    ....
  
    BASE_DIR = os.path.dirname(os.path.dirname(os.path.abspath(__file__)))
    
    ## Add the following static file configurations
    # 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'),
    )
    
    STATICFILES_STORAGE = 'whitenoise.storage.CompressedManifestStaticFilesStorage'

• You can have a look at the entire settings.py.

• This is important. Deployment in Heroku will fail w/o this

  • mkdir static Create a static folder in <MY_DJANGO_PROJECT>.
  • touch static/.keep A .keep file so that Git commits this folder as well
  • run python manage.py collectstatic --noinput to see if the command ran successfully otherwise fix errors.

• stop the server and re-run it python manage.py runserver [PORT] to make sure the server is running smoothly

PART 3 - Setup the Heroku environment

Assuming you have heroku account & heroku cli installed in your system

• heroku login -i login to your heroku account

• pip freeze > requirements.txt in <MY_DJANGO_PROJECT> dir

• Create the Heroku app

  • heroku create <my-heroku-app-name> in <MY_DJANGO_PROJECT> dir
  • git remote -v to confirm that a remote named heroku has been set for your app

      $ git remote -v
        heroku  https://git.heroku.com/<my-heroku-app-name>.git (fetch)
        heroku  https://git.heroku.com/<my-heroku-app-name>.git (push)

• For an existing Heroku app, set the git remote of your poject to the app git

    $ heroku git:remote -a <my-heroku-app-name>
      set git remote heroku to https://git.heroku.com/<my-heroku-app-name>.git

• Set Heroku env varibales

     $ heroku config:set SECRET_KEY="=o)p$2&wd@%!x(@5^ujkb^g-di+t8zfk+h6g&6=notcy+7rq=$"
     $ heroku config:set DEBUG=True # turn this to false later

PART 4 - Deploy the app

• Checklist before deploying -
  • Procfile
  • requirements.txt
  • Pipfile & Pipfile.lock
  • static dir
  • all configurations committed
• git push heroku master push the changes
• heroku logs -t for viewing logs

Part 5 - Post build tasks

• heroku run bash in <MY_DJANGO_PROJECT> dir to access the app shell environment on Heroku
• python manage.py makemigrations
• python manage.py migrate
• And you are good to go 😃 👍⚡