apache + django + mod_wsgi conversion to https keeps going back to http - django

Question

I've had a django (satchmo) site using Apache and mod_wsgi running fine for a couple of years now. Until now it has only served http, and I'm trying to convert the entire site to https. I have a signed ssl certificate which I believe is fine.
I have adapted my Apache configuration according to my understanding of the docs.
When I try to connect to the site using https, the browser connects fine on port 443, and the Apache server responds with the correct ssl certificate followed by the TLS key exchange etc (according to what I see in Wire Shark). At that point everything looks fine and there are no errors. But..
Once the ssl connection is established, the browser then initiates a "GET / HTTP/1.1" in a new TCP connection to port 80 (i.e. http). It's like it knew nothing about the https connection already in place.
Is it possible that django is at fault? I have not changed the django configuration at all, as I was under the impression that only Apache needs to know about it? (I don't use nginx - Apache handles all of the content.)
I can't "see" what is going on in the ssl conversation, but presumably django is telling the browser client to connect on port 80 somehow? Is that possible?
To make things simple, I now have a plain index.html page when you connect to http, and I've moved all of the django & mod_wsgi to port 443. If I connect straight to the http address, I get the simple index page, no problem.
When I try to connect to the https address, the browser effectively gets redirected to the index.html page. (I don't have any Redirect or Rewrite commands in Apache though.)
Here is my Apache configuration:
<VirtualHost *:80>
ServerName demo.pasta.co.za
ErrorLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/error.log
CustomLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/access.log combined
DocumentRoot /var/www/http_site
</VirtualHost>
<VirtualHost *:443>
SSLEngine on
SSLProtocol all -SSLv2
SSLCipherSuite ALL:!ADH:!EXPORT:!SSLv2:RC4+RSA:+HIGH:+MEDIUM
SSLCertificateFile /etc/ssl/private/pasta.co.za.crt
SSLCertificateKeyFile /etc/ssl/private/pasta.co.za.key
SSLCertificateChainFile /etc/ssl/private/root_bundle.crt
ServerName demo.pasta.co.za
Alias /favicon.ico /usr/local/django/pasta/static/favicon.ico
Alias /robots.txt /usr/local/django/pasta/static/robots.txt
AliasMatch ^/([^/]*\.css) /usr/local/django/pasta/store/static/$1
WSGIDaemonProcess demo.pasta.co.za processes=2 threads=25 display-name=%{GROUP}
WSGIProcessGroup demo.pasta.co.za
WSGIScriptAlias / /usr/local/django/pasta/apache/django.wsgi
<Directory /usr/local/django/pasta/apache>
Order allow,deny
Allow from all
</Directory>
Alias /static/admin/ /usr/share/pyshared/django/contrib/admin/static/admin/
Alias /static/images/ /usr/local/django/pasta/store/static/images/
Alias /static/ /usr/local/django/pasta/store/static/
Alias /media/ /usr/local/django/pasta/store/static/
<Directory /usr/local/django/pasta/store/static>
Order deny,allow
Options -Indexes
Allow from all
</Directory>
<Directory /usr/share/pyshared/django/contrib/admin/static/admin>
Order deny,allow
Allow from all
</Directory>
</VirtualHost>
And here is my mod_wsgi file:
import os, sys
sys.path.insert (0,"/usr/local/django/pasta/store")
import settings
import django.core.management
django.core.management.setup_environ(settings)
utility = django.core.management.ManagementUtility()
command = utility.fetch_command('runserver')
command.validate()
import django.conf
import django.utils
django.utils.translation.activate(django.conf.settings.LANGUAGE_CODE)
import django.core.handlers.wsgi
application = django.core.handlers.wsgi.WSGIHandler()
There are dozens of examples on SO where people accomplish what I'm trying to do with more or less what I have above.
What am I missing? It feels like I've left out something really obvious.
I have Debian stable running django v1.4.5 python v2.7.3 and apache v2.2.22 with mod-wsgi v3.3-4.
Many thanks!

Answer 1

Accepted answer for satchmo nginx redirect to https then to http and back by mipadi ...
Satchmo includes a piece of middleware called satchmo_store.shop.SSLMiddleware.SSLRedirect, which automatically does redirecting to SSL/non-SSL portions of the site. You have to set up URLs to be served via SSL if you want them to be served via SSL, otherwise the middleware redirects to a non-SSL page. From the docs:
This middleware answers the problem of redirecting to (and from) a SSL secured path by stating what paths should be secured in urls.py file. To secure a path, add the additional view_kwarg 'SSL':True to the view_kwargs.
For example
urlpatterns = patterns('some_site.some_app.views',
(r'^test/secure/$','test_secure',{'SSL':True}),
)
All paths where 'SSL':False or where the kwarg of 'SSL' is not specified are routed to an unsecure path.
For example
urlpatterns = patterns('some_site.some_app.views',
(r'^test/unsecure1/$','test_unsecure',{'SSL':False}),
(r'^test/unsecure2/$','test_unsecure'),
)
In your case, since you're serving the entire site via SSL, you can probably just disable that middleware in your settings.py file.
(From my experiance you need to change quite a few urlpatterns in a few files.)