Developing with Django on your computer

As you start to develop more intricate Django applications, you might find it more convienent to install Django on your local computer and then use github to move your tested code into your PythonAnywhere server so you it is available on the Internet for grading or otherwise sharing.

There are many sources of tutorial material on how to install Python3 and Django on your computer. Since the rest of this material uses the Mozilla Developer Network tutorials, you might as well use it:

https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Learn/Server-side/Django/development_environment

You can use a virtual environment or if you have a suitable version of Python 3.x on your computer and can use pip to install a suitable version of Django for your whole computer, there is no need to put things in a virtual environment.

Also you should install git on your computer using any of the good tutorials out there.

You know Python and Django are correctly installed when these commands show reasonable version numbers:

Linux/Mac:

$ python --version
Python 3.8.0
$ python -m django --version
3.2.5

If the above does not work on Windows, try:

> py --version
Python 3.8.0
> py -m django --version
3.2.5

You also need to have git installed and available in the shell / command line.

Why Develop Locally?

There are a number of advantages to doing development work locally:

You never have to Reload your application. The Django runserver process monitors changes to your files and completely restarts itself as soon as any file changes in your project. This makes for much quicker edit-test cycles.
You can use a fancy text editor like VScode, Atom, or Sublime.
No more need to change the WGSI configuration file when you want to switch between your project and some sample code - you can even run more than one application at the same time on different ports.
You can put debug print() statements and they come right out without having to look at the error or server logs. Error tracebacks and error logs come right out.
You can work without a network connection!

These instructions assume you that you are already set up using Github and PythonAnywhere and want to edit your applications on your computer and present them on PythonAnywhere. But you can always use the ngrok application to submit your assignments to the autograder if you like.

On Your Laptop

We suggest you make a folder somewhere to store all of your Django projects. This folder should be easy to find so you can use your cool VSCode, Atom, or Sublime text editor.

Linux / MacOS / Windows bash shell:

cd ~
cd Desktop
mkdir django

Windows Command Line:

cd
cd Desktop
mkdir django

Then lets checkout the dj4e-samples repo and get things started:

cd Desktop      # If not already there
cd django
git clone https://github.com/csev/dj4e-samples
cd dj4e-samples
pip install -r requirements4.txt
python manage.py check

Once you have the requirements installed and you are passing the check step without errors, lets make a database and put a bit of data in the database:

python manage.py migrate
python manage.py createsuperuser
python manage.py runscript gview_load
python manage.py runscript many_load

To run the server get into the folder with manage.py and then:

python manage.py runserver

Then navigate to http://localhost:8000 to see the page.

Then just for fun, open a second terminal / shell / command line and:

cd Desktop
cd django
cd dj4e-samples
python manage.py runserver 8001

Then navigate to http://localhost:8001 to see the page.

You can abort the runserver applications in the command line, switch to a new folder and start runserver again.