Deploying A Django Project on PythonAnywhere

Deploying a Django project on PythonAnywhere lets you make your web application accessible online. With PythonAnywhere, you can create a web app, configure it with a WSGI file, and host your Django project seamlessly.

This article provides a comprehensive, step-by-step guide to help you deploy your existing Django project on PythonAnywhere successfully.

Prerequisites:

• Pythonanywhere Account

• An existing Django project is ready for deployment.

• GitHub (Code Repo)

• Basic Familiarity with Django and the command line interface

For demo purposes, please refer to the following project: Its a voting app from the official Django Tutorial

https://github.com/achingachris/Django-Polls-Tutorials

Uploading Your Code to pythonanywhere

Open a console(terminal) on your pythonanywhere dashboard:

Just click on the blue bash button to open a terminal-like page:

If your Django project is hosted on a code-sharing platform like GitHub or Bitbucket, you can clone it directly onto PythonAnywhere using a Bash console. Here's an example command:

git clone https://github.com/achingachris/Django-Polls-Tutorials.git

Alternatively, as mentioned in the documentation, you can explore other methods of uploading and downloading files on PythonAnywhere.

Set Up a Virtual Environment and Install Dependencies

Create a virtual environment in the Bash console on PythonAnywhere and install Django and any other project dependencies.

To do so, use the command:

 mkvirtualenv --python=/usr/bin/python3.10 <environment name>

Replace <environment name> with any name, you want to give to your virtual environment.

So for the demo, I will use:

mkvirtualenv --python=/usr/bin/python3.10 polls

To install the dependencies, change the active directive on your console to the folder cloned from GitHub(or uploaded):

cd projectname

Ensure you have the requirements.txt file

To install the dependencies, run:

pip install -r requirements.txt

Configure the Web App and WSGI File

To set up your Django project on PythonAnywhere, follow these steps:

Create a Web app with Manual Configuration:

Navigate to the "Web Apps" tab on PythonAnywhere and create a new web app.

Select the default domain for free accounts

Choose the "Manual Configuration" option and select the appropriate Python version matching your virtual environment.

Choose a Python version: (preferably v3.10)

You will get notified that you have to set up the configuration manually:

Specify the Virtual Environment:

Scroll down to the "virtualenv" section of the web app configuration, and enter the name of your virtual environment (e.g., polls).

Edit the WSGI File:

Scroll down to the Code section of the web app configuration.

Click the link and make the necessary changes to the WSGI file. You will be redirected to an in-browser text editor view:

Delete everything except the Django section and then uncomment that section. Your WSGI file should look something like this:

# +++++++++++ DJANGO +++++++++++
    # To use your own Django app use code like this:
    import os
    import sys

    # assuming your Django settings file is at '/home/myusername/mysite/mysite/settings.py'
    path = '/home/myusername/mysite'
    if path not in sys.path:
        sys.path.insert(0, path)

    os.environ['DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE'] = 'mysite.settings'

    ## Uncomment the lines below depending on your Django version
    ###### then, for Django >=1.5:
    from django.core.wsgi import get_wsgi_application
    application = get_wsgi_application()
    ###### or, for older Django <=1.4
    #import django.core.handlers.wsgi
    #application = django.core.handlers.wsgi.WSGIHandler()

Edit the code to configure your Django application. For the demo, the project name is polls , and my username is chrisachinga:

import os
import sys

path = '/home/chrisachinga/polls'
   if path not in sys.path:
      sys.path.insert(0, path)

os.environ['DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE'] = 'mysite.settings'

from django.core.wsgi import get_wsgi_application
application = get_wsgi_application()

Remember to save after editing the file.

Database Setup

We will use the simple SQLite database for this demo, so no extra configuration is needed.

Go to the Consoles tab , start a bash console, and use cd to navigate to the directory where your Django projects manage.py lives, then run:

 ./manage.py migrate

(ignore the warnings 🤣🤣)

You can now check if everything is okay. Click the link on the web tab to view the deployed version: chrisachinga.pythonanywhere.com

On loading the site, its most likely to get this error: DisallowedHost:

Here's how you can solve it:

Open the Django settings file (settings.py) in your project. Locate the **ALLOWED_HOSTS** variable. It should be a list or tuple.

Add 'chrisachinga.pythonanywhere.com' to the list of allowed hosts. Example:

ALLOWED_HOSTS = ['localhost', '127.0.0.1', 'chrisachinga.pythonanywhere.com']

I edited mine on GitHub:

Note: Include any other domains or IP addresses you want to allow access to your site.

To update the code on pythonanywhere, you can pull the code from the terminal:

git fetch
git pull

After that, head back to the web application tab and reload the site:

And now, when I load the site on: IT WORKS!

https://chrisachinga.pythonanywhere.com/polls/

Next Steps:

You can interact with the Django shell and API on the console to create a superuser, migrate databases, and more. Just ensure the virtualenv is turned on.

Conclusion:

Following this step-by-step guide, you can successfully deploy your Django project on PythonAnywhere. Remember to adapt the instructions to match your project's specific configuration and requirements. PythonAnywhere offers a convenient platform for hosting your Django application, allowing you to share your web app with users across the internet. Enjoy the benefits of a live Django site hosted on PythonAnywhere and provide an exceptional user experience.