Ubuntu, Django, and Heroku

Getting Ubuntu 12.04 LTS, Django, and Heroku to all play nicely together

Personally, I used VMWare Workstation 8 to host my Ubuntu machine, so I will include some instructions for that as well.

Part 1: Setup

Open: C:\ProgramData\VMware\VMware Workstation\config.ini (Windows 7)

Add the following:

prefvmx.minVmMemPct = "100" 

mainMem.useNamedFile = "FALSE" 

mainMem.partialLazySave = "FALSE" 

mainMem.partialLazyRestore = "FALSE"

Note: This will prevent a long shutdown process for your vm.

1. Install ubuntu 12.04 LTS
2. After boot, login (command line), and enter the following:

sudo mv /etc/issue.backup /etc/issue 

sudo mv /etc/rc.local.backup /etc/rc.local 

sudo mv /opt/vmware-tools-installer/lightdm.conf /etc/init

Note: This gets you past the issues with VMWare Tools Easy Install



3. sudo shutdown -h 0
4. Make sure settings of vm set cd / floppy to physical
5. Install vmware tools & reboot (optional)
6. sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get dist-upgrade -y
7. Reboot

Part 2: Software Install

1. sudo apt-get install build-essential linux-headers-$(uname -r) git vim python-setuptools python-virtualenv
2. easy_install pip
3. sudo apt-get install rubygems1.9.1 libopenssl-ruby1.9.1
4. sudo gem install addressable
5. sudo gem install heroku
6. sudo gem install foreman
7. ssh-keygen -t rsa
8. mkdir -p ~/projects && cd ~/projects
9. sudo apt-get install libpq-dev python-dev
10. sudo apt-get install postgresql-server-dev-all

note: if psycopg2 still doesn't install later on, do sudo apt-get install libconfig8

Part 3: Django, Git, and Heroku

1. mkdir hellodjango && cd hellodjango
2. virtualenv venv --distribute
3. source venv/bin/activate
4. pip install django-toolbelt
5. django-admin.py startproject hellodjango
6. vim Procfile. Add the following:

web: gunicorn hellodjango.wsgi



foreman start
Test that your site is working by browsing to: localhost:5000 (or whatever the port is)
pip freeze > requirements.txt
vim .gitignore. Add the following:

venv
staticfiles
*.py[cod]
# C extensions
*.so
# Packages
*.egg
*.egg-info
dist
build
eggs
parts
bin
var
sdist
develop-eggs
.installed.cfg
lib
lib64
__pycache__
# Installer logs
pip-log.txt
# Unit test / coverage reports
.coverage
.tox
nosetests.xml
# Translations
*.mo
# Mr Developer
.mr.developer.cfg
.project
.pydevproject

• Edit hellodjango/settings.py.  Add the following to the end:

# Parse database configuration from $DATABASE_URL
import dj_database_url
DATABASES['default'] =  dj_database_url.config()
# Honor the 'X-Forwarded-Proto' header for request.is_secure()
SECURE_PROXY_SSL_HEADER = ('HTTP_X_FORWARDED_PROTO', 'https')
# Allow all host headers
ALLOWED_HOSTS = ['*']
# Static asset configuration
import os
BASE_DIR = os.path.dirname(os.path.abspath(__file__))
STATIC_ROOT = 'staticfiles'
STATIC_URL = '/static/'
STATICFILES_DIRS = (
    os.path.join(BASE_DIR, 'static'),
)

Edit hellodjango/wsgi.py. Replace it with:

from django.core.wsgi import get_wsgi_application 

from dj_static import Cling 

application = Cling(get_wsgi_application())

1. git init 
2. git add .
3. git commit -m "my django app" 
4. heroku create 
5. git push heroku master 
6. Log into heroku and rename your app 
7. Browse to yourappname.herokuapp.com