When setting up a Django project you might want to think ahead and configure it for multiple environments - this is how to do it.

1. _DJANGO PROJECTS CONFIGURED
FOR MULTIPLE ENVIRONMENTS
KRYSTIAN HANEK
Backend Developer
apptension.com

2. _DEFAULT DJANGO
CONFIGURATION ISN’T
ENOUGH:

3. The default Django configuration lacks:
Multiple settings files for different environments.
Separate packages for different environments.
Flexible configuration without having to alter the code.
Solutions dedicated for production environment: admin panel path, error logging (e.g.
Sentry), cache configuration (memcache/redis), storing files uploaded to the cloud by the
users (S3), HSTS, secure cookies.
Solutions dedicated for testing environment: disabling template debugging, in-memory
caching, sending emails to the console, password hasher, storing the templates.
_DJANGO PROJECTS CONFIGURED FOR MULTIPLE ENVIRONMENTS

4. _A RECIPE FOR
MULTI-ENVIRONMENT
CONFIGURATION:

5. Let’s configure a Django project for multiple
environments (production, local and testing).
Our app will use several third-party tools including
PostgreSQL, Sentry, AWS, WhiteNoise, Gunicorn,
Redis, Anymail.
_A RECIPE FOR MULTI-ENVIRONMENT CONFIGURATION

6. 1. Install virtualenv/virtualenvwrapper
2. Install Django: pip install Django == 1.11.5
3. Create your project: django-admin: django-admin startproject djangohotspot
(djangohotspot) ╭ ~/Workspace/
╰$ tree djangohotspot
djangohotspot
├── djangohotspot
│ ├── __init__.py
│ ├── settings.py
│ ├── urls.py
│ └── wsgi.py
└── manage.py
_STARTING YOUR PROJECT

7. (djangohotspot) ╭ ~/Workspace/
╰$ tree djangohotspot
djangohotspot
├── djangohotspot
│ ├── __init__.py
│ ├── settings.py
│ ├── urls.py
│ └── wsgi.py
├── manage.py
└── requirements
├── base.txt
├── local.txt
├── production.txt
└── test.txt
_CREATING SEPARATE REQUIREMENTS.TXT FILES

8. _REQUIREMENTS FILES
base.txt
django==1.11.5
# Configuration
django-environ==0.4.4
whitenoise==3.3.0
# Models
django-model-utils==3.0.0
# Images
Pillow==4.2.1
# Password storage
argon2-cffi==16.3.0
# Python-PostgreSQL Database Adapter
psycopg2==2.7.3.1
# Unicode slugification
awesome-slugify==1.6.5
# Time zones support
pytz==2017.2
# Redis support
django-redis==4.8.0
redis>=2.10.5
production.txt
-r base.txt
# WSGI Handler
gevent==1.2.2
gunicorn==19.7.1
# Static and Media Storage
boto3==1.4.7
django-storages==1.6.5
# Email backends for Mailgun, Postmark,
# SendGrid and more
django-anymail==0.11.1
# Raven is the Sentry client
raven==6.1.0

9. _REQUIREMENTS FILES
test.txt
-r base.txt
coverage==4.4.1
flake8==3.4.1
factory-boy==2.9.2
# pytest
pytest-cov==2.4.0
pytest-django==3.1.2
pytest-factoryboy==1.3.1
pytest-mock==1.6.0
pytest-sugar==0.9.0
local.txt
-r test.txt
-r production.txt
django-extensions==1.9.0
ipdb==0.10.3

10. Let’s not store settings.py in the catalog of your
project’s main app:
djangohotspot/djangohotspot/settings.p
y
Create a python module (in the main catalog) called
config, and an additional settings module
within it.
_SEPARATING THE SETTINGS (djangohotspot) ╭ ~/Workspace/Prezentacja
╰$ tree djangohotspot
djangohotspot
├── config
│ ├── __init__.py
│ └── settings
│ ├── base.py
│ ├── __init__.py
│ ├── local.py
│ ├── production.py
│ └── test.py
├── djangohotspot
│ ├── __init__.py
│ ├── urls.py
│ └── wsgi.py
├── manage.py
└── requirements
├── base.txt
├── local.txt
├── production.txt
└── test.txt

11. ROOT_DIR = environ.Path (__file__) - 3 # djangohotspot/
APPS_DIR = ROOT_DIR.path ('djangohotspot') # path for django apps
INSTALLED_APPS = DJANGO_APPS + THIRD_PARTY_APPS + LOCAL_APPS
AUTOSLUG_SLUGIFY_FUNCTION = 'slugify.slugify' # allows you to define a function for
unicode-supported Slug
DATABASES = { 'default': env.db('DATABASE_URL', default='postgres:///djangohotspot'), }
DATABASES['default']['ATOMIC_REQUESTS'] = True # allows you to open and commit
transaction when there are no exceptions. This could affect the performance negatively
for traffic-heavy apps.
EMAIL_BACKEND = env('DJANGO_EMAIL_BACKEND',
default='django.core.mail.backends.smtp.EmailBackend')
ADMIN_URL = env('DJANGO_ADMIN_URL', default=r'^admin/')
PASSWORD_HASHERS = ['django.contrib.auth.hashers.Argon2PasswordHasher', (...)] # add this
object at the beginning of the list
_CONFIG.SETTINGS.BASE

12. # import from your base settings file
from .base import *
# add toolbar debug
MIDDLEWARE += ['debug_toolbar.middleware.DebugToolbarMiddleware', ]
INSTALLED_APPS += ['debug_toolbar', ]
DEBUG_TOOLBAR_CONFIG = {
'DISABLE_PANELS': [ 'debug_toolbar.panels.redirects.RedirectsPanel', ],
'SHOW_TEMPLATE_CONTEXT': True,
}
# define:
INTERNAL_IPS = ['127.0.0.1']
# add django extension
INSTALLED_APPS += ['django_extensions', ]
_CONFIG.SETTINGS.LOCAL

13. # security configuration
SECURE_HSTS_SECONDS = 60
SECURE_HSTS_INCLUDE_SUBDOMAINS = env.bool( 'DJANGO_SECURE_HSTS_INCLUDE_SUBDOMAINS', default=True)
SECURE_CONTENT_TYPE_NOSNIFF = env.bool( 'DJANGO_SECURE_CONTENT_TYPE_NOSNIFF', default=True)
SECURE_BROWSER_XSS_FILTER = True
SESSION_COOKIE_SECURE = True
SESSION_COOKIE_HTTPONLY = True
SECURE_SSL_REDIRECT = env.bool('DJANGO_SECURE_SSL_REDIRECT', default=True)
CSRF_COOKIE_SECURE = True
CSRF_COOKIE_HTTPONLY = True
X_FRAME_OPTIONS = 'DENY'
ADMIN_URL = env('DJANGO_ADMIN_URL')
Note: It’s useful to add DJANGO_ADMIN_URL to the production settings. Change it from default to avoid attack attempts on the default
URL admin panel.
_CONFIG.SETTINGS.PRODUCTION 1/3

14. # Add your domain to:
ALLOWED_HOSTS = env.list('DJANGO_ALLOWED_HOSTS', default=['djangohotspot.pl', ])
# Add Gunicorn:
INSTALLED_APPS += ['gunicorn', ]
# Add django-storage pod AWS:
INSTALLED_APPS += ['storages', ]
AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID = env('DJANGO_AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID')
AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY = env('DJANGO_AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY')
AWS_STORAGE_BUCKET_NAME = env('DJANGO_AWS_STORAGE_BUCKET_NAME')
AWS_AUTO_CREATE_BUCKET = True
AWS_QUERYSTRING_AUTH = False
AWS_EXPIRY = 60 * 60 * 24 * 7
MEDIA_URL = 'https://s3.amazonaws.com/%s/' % AWS_STORAGE_BUCKET_NAME
DEFAULT_FILE_STORAGE = 'storages.backends.s3boto3.S3Boto3Storage'
_CONFIG.SETTINGS.PRODUCTION 2/3

15. # Add Sentry
INSTALLED_APPS += ['raven.contrib.django.raven_compat', ]
RAVEN_MIDDLEWARE = ['raven.contrib.django.raven_compat.middleware.SentryResponseErrorIdMiddleware']
MIDDLEWARE = RAVEN_MIDDLEWARE + MIDDLEWARE
SENTRY_DSN = env('DJANGO_SENTRY_DSN')
SENTRY_CLIENT = env('DJANGO_SENTRY_CLIENT', default='raven.contrib.django.raven_compat.DjangoClient')
SENTRY_CELERY_LOGLEVEL = env.int('DJANGO_SENTRY_LOG_LEVEL', logging.INFO )
RAVEN_CONFIG = {
'CELERY_LOGLEVEL': env.int('DJANGO_SENTRY_LOG_LEVEL', logging.INFO ),
'DSN': SENTRY_DSN,
}
# Add Whitenoise
WHITENOISE_MIDDLEWARE = ['whitenoise.middleware.WhiteNoiseMiddleware', ]
MIDDLEWARE = WHITENOISE_MIDDLEWARE + MIDDLEWARE
STATICFILES_STORAGE = 'whitenoise.storage.CompressedManifestStaticFilesStorage'
_CONFIG.SETTINGS.PRODUCTION 3/3

16. # Disable debugging
DEBUG = False
TEMPLATES[0]['OPTIONS']['debug'] = False
# Sent emails are stored in the memory and available at django.core.mail.outbox
EMAIL_BACKEND = 'django.core.mail.backends.locmem.EmailBackend'
# Set cache
CACHES = {
'default': {
'BACKEND': 'django.core.cache.backends.locmem.LocMemCache',
'LOCATION': ''
}
}
# Set password hasher to speed up the testing
PASSWORD_HASHERS = ['django.contrib.auth.hashers.MD5PasswordHasher', ]
# Djanglo templates can be stored in the memory
TEMPLATES[0]['OPTIONS']['loaders'] = [
['django.template.loaders.cached.Loader', [
'django.template.loaders.filesystem.Loader',
'django.template.loaders.app_directories.Loader', ]
, ]
, ]
_CONFIG.SETTINGS.TEST

17. 1. Move uwsgi.py and urls.py in djangohotspot/djangohotspot to the config module.
2. In config.settings add the following edits:
WSGI_APPLICATION = 'config.wsgi.application'
ROOT_URLCONF = 'config.urls'
3. Add the following code to config.urls in order to debug 4xx and 5xx pages:
if settings.DEBUG:
urlpatterns += [
url(r'^400/$', default_views.bad_request, kwargs={'exception': Exception('Bad Request!')}),
url(r'^403/$', default_views.permission_denied,kwargs={'exception': Exception('Permission Denied')}),
url(r'^404/$', default_views.page_not_found,kwargs={'exception': Exception('Page not Found')}),
url(r'^500/$', default_views.server_error),
]
if 'debug_toolbar' in settings.INSTALLED_APPS:
import debug_toolbar
urlpatterns = [
url(r'^__debug__/', include(debug_toolbar.urls)),
] + urlpatterns
_UWSGI.PY & URLS.PY

18. import os
import sys
from django.core.wsgi import get_wsgi_application
app_path = os.path.dirname (os.path.abspath (__file__)).replace('/config', '')
sys.path.append (os.path.join (app_path, 'djangohotspot'))
if os.environ.get ('DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE') == 'config.settings.production':
from raven.contrib.django.raven_compat.middleware.wsgi import Sentry
os.environ.setdefault ('DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE', 'config.settings.production')
application = get_wsgi_application ()
if os.environ.get ('DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE') == 'config.settings.production':
application = Sentry(application )
_CONFIG.UWSGI

19. _THAT’S A WRAP!
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