I've been developing in my own django environment for a while now using the manage.py runserver with no problems, but now that we've got a designer and a front-end developer needing to work on the project, I find myself at a loss as to what is the Best Practise for their environments.
I could ask them to setup their own python environment, but that's asking an awful lot since they're not Python people and they're running Windows (my dev and the production environment are both Linux).
So instead, I've set them up on a remote server, the disk of which they can mount locally. However in this setup, I'm actually using different instances of manage.py runserver ip:port running in a screen instance. It doesn't handle things like constant reloads very well (common for our designer) and it hangs from time to time due to the single-threaded nature of the dev server. I'd like to know how to set this up with Apache.
The problem with this of course is the staticfiles. Every time either of the aforementioned parties want to add or change a static file, they'd have to run manage.py collectstatic which just isn't practical. I just don't know any other way to do it though. All of the documentation I've found for using Apache is for a production environment, so... that's why I'm here.
Source control? Have them check in changes and then set up a post commit hook to collectstatic and restart the server. With nice windows GUIs I've never had a designer who couldn't grasp the basic concepts. If you're using a dcvs you can always have them in their own fork so you have to merge into the main repos to prevent them from breaking other things by mistake.
The answer to this one was a lot simpler than I thought it would be and I apologise for confusing those who responded. Basically all I wanted was a way to host our designer's dev environment in something more stable than ./manage.py runserver ip:port in a screen session. I figured that there had to be a way to set something like this up for Apache but had no idea what it was.
Here's what I got to work:
In your settings.py set your STATIC_URL and MEDIA_URL variables to relative URLs. In my case I used /static/ and /media/.
MEDIA_ROOT = PROJECT_ROOT + "/htdocs/media/"
MEDIA_URL = "/media/"
SERVE_STATIC = True
STATIC_ROOT = PROJECT_ROOT + "/htdocs/public/"
STATIC_URL = "/static/"
Configure Apache as you would if you didn't have any static files at all. In other words, ignore the recommendations of the docs to use SetHandler None in a <Locaiton> block.
<VirtualHost *:80>
WSGIScriptReloading On
WSGIDaemonProcess someprocessname
WSGIProcessGroup somegroupname
WSGIApplicationGroup somegroupname
WSGIPassAuthorization On
WSGIScriptAlias / /path/to/config.wsgi
ServerName somewhere.awesome.ca
<Location "/">
Order Allow,Deny
Allow from all
</Location>
ErrorLog /var/log/apache2/somewhere.awesome.ca.err
CustomLog /var/log/apache2/somewhere.awesome.ca.log combined
</VirtualHost>
Lastly, you just have to follow the Django howto for serving staticfiles through Python at https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/1.3/howto/static-files/#serving-other-directories
I hope this helps to point someone in the right direction in the future.
Related
I'm preparing a package developed in-house to be delivered to a customer. During development in house, we've used copies of common JavaScript libraries (jquery, openlayers, underscore) in our code repository, and that works. However, in the delivered system, management feels (and I agree) that if we deliver our 'own copies' of these common libraries then we become responsible for them.
Consequently I'm trying to rework the system so that it serves these libraries from /usr/share/javascript, which is where the OS (Ubuntu) puts them. This works fine when the package is deployed with Apache; however it doesn't work when run from
python manage.py runserver
What do I need to add to my settings.py so that runserver will serve files from /usr/share/javascript on the URL
http://localhost:8000/javascript/ ?
How do I ensure that those files are not collected by 'collectstatic'?
Thanks!
After a lot of messing about, I have a solution; but it's complicated and ugly. It wasn't possible to make runserver emulate the apache environment, or apache emulate the runserver environment. So to make both Apache and runserver work with package-manager provided javascript libraries, the following key changes are required:
Add /usr/share to STATICFILES_DIRS in settings.py, but
remove it before running collectstatic
add Options FollowSymLinks to the apache configuration for /var/www/static, and
symlink /usr/share/javascript into /var/www/static
So, for clarity, the Apache configuration contains
Alias /static/ /var/www/static/
<Directory /var/www/static>
Options FollowSymLinks
Order deny, allow
Allow from all
</Directory>
settings.py contains
STATIC_ROOT = os.path.join(BASE_DIR, '/myapp/static')
STATICFILES_DIRS = (
'/usr/share',
)
STATIC_URL = '/static/'
Before running collectstatic, /usr/share is REMOVED from settings.py, otherwise you collect a whole lot of things you don't want to collect.
I'm not saying this is an ideal solution, but it's working.
There are quite a few posts on here regarding the same subject, I've tried as many as I thought applicable. Yet, I still have this error. Everything is being served fine for a django site I've built except the static files for admin.
Versions: Django 1.6, Apache 2.4.7, Ubuntu 14.04
Ok - I have ran manage.py collectstatic and here is the static folder:
/srv/bahai-site/bahai-site/soul/static
This contains four folders: 1) admin/ 2) bootstrap/ 3) core/ and 4) flags/
Within these folders, I can see all expected static files and that they contain the code I'd expect.
When looking at a static file on the site itself, something like /static/core/css/desktop_992.css loads correctly while /static/admin/css/base.css throws a 404.
Apache directives in http.conf:
Alias /static/ /srv/bahai-site/bahai-site/soul/static/
<Directory /srv/bahai-site/bahai-site/soul/static/>
Allow from all
</Directory>
WSGIScriptAlias / /srv/bahai-site/soul/soul/wsgi.py
WSGIPythonPath /srv/bahai-site/soul/soul:/srv/envelope/bahai-site/lib/python2.7/site-packages
<Directory /srv/bahai-site/soul/soul>
<Files wsgi.py>
Allow from all
</Files>
</Directory>
Side question: notice the WSGIScriptAlias and WSGIPythonPath only contains one "bahai-site/" directory level, instead of the two that actually exist after "/srv/". Why is the site running fine? Shouldn't that be causing a problem?
Anyway, what am I doing wrong here? How do I get these admin static files up and running?
as far as the pythonpath is concerned I personally don't include that in my apache virtual host config file and it works. Maybe that's not needed? Honestly I'm not all that well versed in server installations. It defintely seems like a permission issue.
I would run collectstatic using sudo, then I would also make sure the static folder has www-data group permission which is the permission apache uses out of the box.
If you need help setting permissions on a folder in Ubuntu check out this link here. https://askubuntu.com/questions/244406/how-do-i-give-www-data-user-to-a-folder-in-my-home-folder
The problem was that I had updated two different configuration files for Apache with competing directives.
Note to Other Beginners:
Directives (i.e. things like ...) can be placed in any file in the apache2 root -- in my case that was any file within /etc/apache2/. (Question to advanced users: is this only for Ubuntu? Or pretty much any Linux/Unix?) This will confuse you because, if you solve a problem using information from multiple online posts/documents, you'll likely have a smorgasbord of various people's Apache configuration preferences/styles. Hence my problem.
As a beginner, you're probably expecting to see some kind of single location you can put your configurations/customizations (in this case directives) into. That's not the case on Apache. You can put any of these anywhere. This is probably good once you advance your knowledge of Apache but it sucks when you're starting out.
My fix here was to go through all the files I touched in the /etc/apache2/ folder and consolidate any rules into one place. This lead to me removing duplicate/conflicting rules, which solved the problem.
Now I think I need to talk to a therapist....
I have editted the httpd.conf inside apache by adding:
<Directory /home/ec2-user/hqlocal>
Order deny,allow
Allow from all
</Directory>
WSGIScriptAlias / /home/ec2-user/hqlocal/hq_local/apache/django.wsgi
WSGIPythonPath /usr/lib/python2.7/site-packages
# Serving Django admin static files
Alias /static/admin /usr/lib/python2.7/site-packages/django/contrib/admin/static/admin
# Serving Django static files (our own files use in our app), assuming in settings.py, STATIC_ROOT is “/var/www/static/” and our STATIC_URL is “/static/”
Alias /static /var/www/static/
I have tried many solutions that fix the 403 problem like swapping deny and allow, and so on. But none of them works, I still get 403 cannot access '/'
Therefore, I tried commenting line by line.
The result is that the line
WSGIScriptAlias / /home/ec2-user/hqlocal/hq_local/apache/django.wsgi
causing the problem.
By adding this line, the system becomes 403 but without it, when entering the public DNS, the server will point to Apache default page.
So, I assume that Apache may not have permission to read this file. Therefore, i changed the permission to be global. However, it still didn't work properly.
May I know how to fix this?
Thank you very much.
The directory '/home/ec2-user' is likely not readable to the Apache user. Watch:
http://code.google.com/p/modwsgi/wiki/WhereToGetHelp?tm=6#Conference_Presentations
for common mod_wsgi setup issues including this one.
Also, you should not need:
WSGIPythonPath /usr/lib/python2.7/site-packages
if mod_wsgi is actually compiled against the system Python 2.7. If it isn't compiled against the system Python 2.7, but another version, you should not be forcing it to use modules installed into another Python version as that will cause problems. You should reinstall mod_wsgi with version compiled against correct Python version you want to use.
There are two possible reasons.
Make sure you set the permission correctly for the directory '/home/ec2-user/hqlocal', you can do this:
chmod -R 755 /home/ec2-user/hqlocal
Disable selinux (if using enforcing mode, you need get permissions for apache in selinux). You can configure the /etc/selinux/config:
SELINUX:disabled
Then reboot the machine.
Does anyone know how to make a mod_wsgi automatically reload a Flask app when any of the modules changes? I've tried WSGIScriptReloading On, but no luck. The official documentation is kind of a bear ... I guess I'll give it a stab if no one knows. Thanks in advance!
Also, if it could not permanently crash on syntax errors (like the the Flask reloader), that'd be awesome.
With mod_wsgi, WSGIScriptReloading looks for changes to the .wsgi config file, rather than the code.
My workflow is to upload my code changes then just
$ touch MyWebApp.wsgi
which causes the last modified file timestamp to change and mod_wsgi to reload the code.
You can do this 'remotely' by saving the .wsgi file on your local machine and then uploading it again, or I just do it via SSH.
Not a lot you can do about syntax errors, the code is either running or it isn't, but a fix plus a touch will get it running again.
One gotcha to look out for if you're working via FTP: make sure you upload the 'touched' .wsgi file last otherwise it'll try and start with the wrong code.
I think it's a very realistic situation to want to reload source code automatically in production. Think of an environment where sources are deployed per version and a 'production' symlink points to one of those versions. Whenever you want release a newer version, you just point the symlink to another path. But apache and mod_wsgi still collect the files from the symlinked directory and therefor need to have a reloading mechanism in place based on timestamps, size or w/e. Sure, one application might not be a problem, but what about hosting 15-20 applications that are all undergoing active development? Not automatically reloading sources is a pure loss in such a situation compared to restarting apache every single time.
Back to the question: if the framework you're using (in this case flask) does not have a plugin or tool in place for automatic source code reloading, then the two options described by Graham and Malphas are your best options. Either trigger the wsgi process to restart or implement a monitoring system.
You're right about adding the WSGIScriptReloading directive. The Flask docs don't make it 100% clear, but Apache looks for changes to your .wsgi file. The recommended solution is to just execute a touch command on your your .wsgi file, as part of your release process.
For production I prefer apache mod_wsgi too, while for development I use the flask's built-in server. I separate prod and dev config files and I set the debug directive True in the dev config so that Flask can detect and reload code changes automatically.
The correct answer to this question is that the WSGIScriptReloading On needs to be added into 000-default.conf present under /etc/apache2/sites-enabled folder.
See below example
<VirtualHost *:80>
# The ServerName directive sets the request scheme, hostname and port that
# the server uses to identify itself. This is used when creating
# redirection URLs. In the context of virtual hosts, the ServerName
# specifies what hostname must appear in the request's Host: header to
# match this virtual host. For the default virtual host (this file) this
# value is not decisive as it is used as a last resort host regardless.
# However, you must set it for any further virtual host explicitly.
#ServerName www.example.com
ServerName sentiments.live
ServerAdmin admin#sentiments.live
DocumentRoot /var/www/html
WSGIDaemonProcess flaskapp threads=5
WSGIScriptAlias / /var/www/html/sentiments/flaskapp.wsgi
<Directory sentiments>
WSGIScriptReloading On
WSGIProcessGroup sentiments
WSGIApplicationGroup %{GLOBAL}
Order deny,allow
Allow from all
</Directory>
What do you mean 'the official documentation is kind of a bear'? What is wrong with the included recipe:
http://code.google.com/p/modwsgi/wiki/ReloadingSourceCode#Monitoring_For_Code_Changes
That document also explains why WSGIScriptReloading doesn't do what you expect.
And no it is not possible to permanently crash on syntax errors. It is embedded in Apache and the whole point of Apache is to keep stuff running.
Sounds like you should not be using Apache/mod_wsgi for development. Everyones knows one should not use automatic source code reloading in production so can't imagine you would want to do that.
I'm very sorry for such a simple question-- I'm new at WSGI development, and I'm grateful for any patience you can afford.
I made a Django app; it works great in development mode. I run:
python manage.py runserver
and then direct my browser to 127.0.0.1:8000, and voila, there is my app.
From here I absolutely cannot figure out how to run my app in production mode. I've read several pages like this and this and several others on StackOverflow. But I have no idea of where to even direct my browser to see if my page is working.
I've installed apache2, mod_python, etc., but I think the problem is that my misunderstanding is at such a more basic level. When I've done CGI programs in the past, I direct my browser to webroot/file.html with a form that calls cgi-bin/file.cgi, which generates html output. I don't know if I am supposed to navigate to a .wsgi page, etc.
Under the assumption that I'm supposed to navigate to a .wsgi file, I've also tried making a file containing:
import os
import sys
os.environ['DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE'] = 'mysite.settings'
import django.core.handlers.wsgi
application = django.core.handlers.wsgi.WSGIHandler()
path = '/home/orserang/nonparametric-protein/src/www/mysite$'
if path not in sys.path:
sys.path.append(path)
and added
WSGIScriptAlias / /path/to/mysite/apache/django.wsgi
to my apache2/httpd.conf file, so that its contents are:
<Location "/mysite/">
SetHandler python-program
PythonHandler django.core.handlers.modpython
SetEnv DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE mysite.settings
PythonOption django.root /mysite
PythonDebug On
PythonPath "['/home/orserang/nonparametric-protein/src/www/mysite'] + ['/home/orserang/nonparametric-protein/src/'] + sys.path"
WSGIScriptAlias /mysite /home/orserang/nonparametric-protein/src/www/mysite/django.wsgi
</Location>
But when I restart apache, it says:
Syntax error on line 8 of /etc/apache2/httpd.conf:
WSGIScriptAlias not allowed here
Given that I don't even know where I should point my browser to get to a Django wsgi page, I figured there is something easy that I'm doing quite wrong.
Perhaps Django WSGI apps require something to run in the background, which will listen for requests (rather than go through apache)?
The online Django documentation on views and databases alone are substantial compared to the documentation for deployment; therefore, my best guess is that this is such a simple thing to do.
Thanks a lot for your help!
The Django Book 2.0 has an overview about this. It's not typically linked to in the Django docs:
Chapter 12: Deploying Django
Look at the "Using Django with Apache and mod_python" section.
You're mixing up mod_python and mod_wsgi deployment methods. Get rid of everything inside the Location directive except for the WSGIScriptAlias line.
I wrote shell script that deploys a django project on apache for linux,
https://github.com/mukulu/shell-scripts/blob/master/deploy-django.sh
You only need to configure couple of variables in first lines of the code,
and it'll figure out the rest.
It pretty much checks and install dependencies for django, writes apache configurations that deploys your project and restart the server.
I'm planning to re-write it in python(I wrote it in a hurry)
Feel free to re-use.
Variables are:
SITE_PREFIX="/djangoproject"
MEDIA_URL="/media"
ADMIN_MEDIA_PREFIX="/static/admin/"
MEDIA_ROOT=""
DJANGO_VERSION="1.3.1"
APACHE2_CONFIG="/etc/apache2/conf.d" #Apache configurations directory in yoru system.
This might be not for a novice, but you can take a look - http://packages.python.org/django-fab-deploy/
It's the library for automating the deploying process. It supports servers based primarily on Debian Lenny or Squeeze.