2010
Django with virtualenv on Webfaction
I really like the Django web framework and I like virtualenv enabling me to use different python configs and packages for different projects. And I have to say I like Webfaction, so easy, so good! (No, I don't get paid by them) This is a quick guide on how to setup Django in virtualenv using mod_wsgi with a Webfaction account.
- Create an "mod_wsgi" application and create a website to use this application
- connect to your accounts shell using ssh
- enable Python 2.6.x as default python (as written in the Webfaction documentation)
- run "vi ~/.bash_profile"
- append the line "alias python=python2.6" (navigate to the last line, push "i" for insertion, write the line, push escape)
- save the file and exit (enter ":wq")
- reload the bash profile "source ~/.bash_profile"
- ensure it worked by checking the Python version "python -V"
- install "pip" and "virtualenv" (be sure to use easy_install-2.6 to use the setuptools of Python 2.6.x):
- enter "easy_install-2.6 -U pip"
- enter "easy_install-2.6 -U virtualenv"
- I like yolk, that enables you to list the installed Python packages, install it using pip if you like
- "pip install yolk"
- Note that these packages (pip, virtualenv, yolk) are installed in your global Python. I recommend to not install any more packages to the global installation as virtualenv enables use to install all packages we need into the virtualenv Python lib.
- navigate to your recently create mod_wsgi webapp, there should be 2 folders, "apache2" and "htdocs"
- create the virtualenv for your project in the wenapp folder, name it like you want, I'll use "ve" here
- "virtualenv --no-site-packages --distribute ve"
- a new folder "ve" with the virtualenv was created. Please refer to the virualenv documentation for more information and usage of virtualenv.
- Now let's install yolk into the virtualenv to see which packages are in there
- either activate the virtualenv and install:
- "source ve/bin/activate"
- "pip install yolk"
- or use pip magic to install into an virtualenv without activating it:
- "pip -E ve install yolk"
- either activate the virtualenv and install:
- now you activate the virtualenv and execute yolk:
- "source ve/bin/activate"
- "yolk -l"
- "deactivate"
- Install Django and any requirements the same way as demonstrated for yolk.
- Assuming you installed Django into the virtualenv and created a Django project, we now must adjust the Apache config
- backup the httpd.conf from /webapps/<yourdjangoapp>/apache2/conf
- create a django.wsgi file somewhere in your webapp dirdctory (I use the conf folder of apache)
- scan the httpd.conf for "Listen XXX", XXX ist the webapp port
- remove the <Directory>...</Directory> segment
- append the following telling the Apache to use the wsgi config we create in the next step:
NameVirtualHost *:<webapp-port>
<VirtualHost *:<webapp-port>>
ServerName <SomeServerName>
WSGIScriptAlias / /home/<your-username>/webapps/<your-webapp-name>/apache2/conf/django.wsgi
</VirtualHost>
- Edit the django.wsgi file:
#!/usr/bin/python
import os, sys, site
# add virtualenv python libs
site.addsitedir('/home/<your-username>/webapps/<your-webapp-name>/ve/lib/python2.6/site-packages')
# append the project path to system path
sys.path.append(/home/<your-username>/webapps/<your-webapp-name>/ve/')
sys.path.append('/home/<your-username>/webapps/<your-webapp-name>/ve/<your-django-project-name>')
# set the settings module
os.environ['DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE'] = '<your-django-project-name>.settings'
# init the wsgi handler
from django.core.handlers.wsgi import WSGIHandler
application = WSGIHandler()
- Restart the Apache (/home/<your-username>/webappas/<your-webapp-name>/apache2/bin/restart) and everything should be fine!
2010
Show Django AdminSite fields depending on the current user
Introduction
The auto-created AdminSite in Django is a nifty feature for creating an administrative view of your model classes. Somehow it is not perfect, even if you want to customized it. To guide you to my problem and solution you've to know, that I implemented the SoftDelete behaviour for model classes as described by Greg Allard. It simply adds a 'deleted' field to each model marking it as deleted if its deleted in the admin site (or in some application) but never really gets deleted from the database. So in the admin site there is this field 'deleted' displayed, if you have configured it.
The Problem
My project has 2 different 'usergroups', the editors and the superusers. Superusers should see the 'deleted' fields, the others not. Unfortunatly that is not possible out of the box with Django.