Anatomy of a Django Project

Mark Lavin - DjangoCon 2014

@DrOhYes

Introduction

What is a Django project?

startproject

user@host:$ mkvirtualenv myproject
New python executable in myproject/bin/python
Installing setuptools, pip...done.
(myproject)user@host:$ pip install django
Downloading/unpacking django
...
Successfully installed django
Cleaning up...
(myproject)user@host:$ django-admin.py startproject myproject
(myproject)user@host:$ tree myproject/
myproject/
├── manage.py
└── myproject
    ├── __init__.py
    ├── settings.py
    ├── urls.py
    └── wsgi.py

1 directory, 5 files

manage.py


#!/usr/bin/env python
import os
import sys

if __name__ == "__main__":
    os.environ.setdefault("DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE", "myproject.settings")

    from django.core.management import execute_from_command_line

    execute_from_command_line(sys.argv)

django-admin.py


#!/usr/bin/env python
from django.core import management

if __name__ == "__main__":
    management.execute_from_command_line()

No manage.py

(myproject)user@host:$ cd myproject/
(myproject)user@host:$ add2virtualenv .
(myproject)user@host:$ echo "export DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE=myproject.settings" 
        >> $VIRTUAL_ENV/bin/postactivate
(myproject)user@host:$ echo "unset DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE" 
        >> $VIRTUAL_ENV/bin/postdeactivate
(myproject)user@host:$ deactivate
user@host:$ workon myproject
(myproject)user@host:$ rm manage.py
(myproject)user@host:$ django-admin.py runserver

settings.py


"""
Django settings for myproject project.

For more information on this file, see
https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/1.6/topics/settings/

For the full list of settings and their values, see
https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/1.6/ref/settings/
"""

# Build paths inside the project like this: os.path.join(BASE_DIR, ...)
import os
BASE_DIR = os.path.dirname(os.path.dirname(__file__))
...

urls.py


from django.conf.urls import patterns, include, url

from django.contrib import admin
admin.autodiscover()

urlpatterns = patterns('',
    # Examples:
    # url(r'^$', 'myproject.views.home', name='home'),
    # url(r'^blog/', include('blog.urls')),

    url(r'^admin/', include(admin.site.urls)),
)

wsgi.py


"""
WSGI config for myproject project.

It exposes the WSGI callable as a module-level variable named
``application``.

For more information on this file, see
https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/1.6/howto/deployment/wsgi/
"""

import os
os.environ.setdefault("DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE", "myproject.settings")

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

settings.py
(Revisited)


...
ROOT_URLCONF = 'myproject.urls'

WSGI_APPLICATION = 'myproject.wsgi.application'
...

TEMPLATE_DIRS

STATICFILES_DIRS

startproject Templates

django-admin.py startproject newproject --template=<path-to-tempalte>

App/Project Layout

project_name
├── project_name
│   ├── __init__.py
│   ├── admin.py
│   ├── models.py
│   ├── static
│   │   ├── css
│   │   ├── img
│   │   └── js
│   ├── templates
│   ├── tests.py
│   └── views.py
├── settings.py
├── urls.py
└── wsgi.py

App/Project Settings


...
BASE_DIR = os.path.dirname(__file__)
...
INSTALLED_APPS = (
    '{{ project_name }}',
    'django.contrib.admin',
    'django.contrib.auth',
    'django.contrib.contenttypes',
    'django.contrib.sessions',
    'django.contrib.messages',
    'django.contrib.staticfiles',
)
...
ROOT_URLCONF = 'urls'

WSGI_APPLICATION = 'wsgi.application'
...

Micro Project Layout

project_name
└──  project_name.py

Micro Project


import os
import sys
from django.conf.urls import url
from django.http import HttpResponse

os.environ.setdefault("DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE", __name__)

DEBUG = True

SECRET_KEY = 'foo'

ROOT_URLCONF = [
    url(r'^$', lambda x: HttpResponse('Hello World'), ),
]

if __name__ == "__main__":
    from django.core.management import execute_from_command_line

    execute_from_command_line(sys.argv)

Turnkey App Layout

project_name/
├── project_name
│   ├── __init__.py
│   ├── admin.py
│   ├── models.py
│   ├── static
│   ├── templates
│   ├── tests.py
│   ├── views.py
│   └── wsgi.py
└── setup.py

Turn-key App wsgi.py


from django.conf import settings


if not settings.configured:
    # Default settings
    settings.configure(
        ROOT_URLCONF='{{ project_name }}.urls',
        INSTALLED_APPS=(
            '{{ project_name }}',
            ...
        ),
    )

from django.core.wsgi import get_wsgi_application

application = get_wsgi_application()

Turn-key App Deployment

(turn-key)user@host:$ pip install project_name gunicorn
(turn-key)user@host:$ gunicorn project_name.wsgi

Photo Credits

  • https://www.flickr.com/photos/bdesham/2432400623
  • https://www.flickr.com/photos/toomuchdew/4074047756
  • https://www.flickr.com/photos/calavera/65098350/
  • https://www.flickr.com/photos/starsalive/4498944830/
  • https://www.flickr.com/photos/macbeck/3985839229/
  • https://www.flickr.com/photos/alexblanck/5557452102/
  • https://www.flickr.com/photos/cdevers/5609962642/

Thanks! Questions?

Slides - http://caktus.github.io/talks/djangocon/2014/django-project/

@DrOhYes

Lightweight Django