How to build production-ready application with Django and PostgreSQL

Introduction

Build basic application everyone can do it but build real world production-ready application require lot of work.

In this guide i will show you how to build production-ready application with Django and Postgresql.

Django is a high-level Python Web framework that encourages rapid development and clean, pragmatic design.

RDBMS is a database management system (DBMS) that is based on the relational model as introduced by E. F. Codd.

PostgreSQL is The World's Most Advanced Open Source Relational Database.

Prerequisites

I assume that you've some basic knowledge of Django and want to know how to make your application production-ready.

Installation

The first step in this guide is to install the pieces we need in order to use postgresql.

The following command will install all packages

sudo apt install python3-pip python3-dev libpq-dev postgresql postgresql-contrib

I will use pipenv for dependencies management.

This command will install pipenv on your system

pip install --user pipenv

New Django project

Create a new folder and call it what you want

$ mkdir django_postgres
$ cd django_postgres

Create a virtual environment with pipenv

$ pipenv shell

Here is the output of the command

Creating a virtualenv for this project…
Using /usr/bin/python3 (3.7.5) to create virtualenv…
⠋Already using interpreter /usr/bin/python3
Using base prefix '/usr'
New python executable in /home/username/.local/share/virtualenvs/django_postgres-6CspIPh4/bin/python3
Also creating executable in /home/username/.local/share/virtualenvs/django_postgres-6CspIPh4/bin/python
Installing setuptools, pip, wheel...
done.

Virtualenv location: /home/username/.local/share/virtualenvs/django_postgres-6CspIPh4
Creating a Pipfile for this project…
Spawning environment shell (/usr/bin/zsh). Use 'exit' to leave.

Install Django

$ pipenv install django

The output of this command

Installing django…
Looking in indexes: https://pypi.python.org/simple
Collecting django
 Using cached Django-3.0.3-py3-none-any.whl (7.5 MB)
Collecting asgiref~=3.2
 Using cached asgiref-3.2.3-py2.py3-none-any.whl (18 kB)
Collecting sqlparse>=0.2.2
 Using cached sqlparse-0.3.0-py2.py3-none-any.whl (39 kB)
Collecting pytz
 Using cached pytz-2019.3-py2.py3-none-any.whl (509 kB)
Installing collected packages: asgiref, sqlparse, pytz, django
Successfully installed asgiref-3.2.3 django-3.0.3 pytz-2019.3 sqlparse-0.3.0

Adding django to Pipfile's [packages]…
Pipfile.lock not found, creating…
Locking [dev-packages] dependencies…
Locking [packages] dependencies…
Updated Pipfile.lock (7ff369)!
Installing dependencies from Pipfile.lock (7ff369)…
 🐍   ▉▉▉▉▉▉▉▉▉▉▉▉▉▉▉▉▉▉▉▉▉▉▉▉▉▉▉▉▉▉▉▉ 4/4 — 00:00:00

Install postgresql driver

$ pipenv install psycopg2-binary

The output

Installing psycopg2-binary…
Looking in indexes: https://pypi.python.org/simple
Collecting psycopg2-binary
 Using cached psycopg2_binary-2.8.4-cp37-cp37m-manylinux1_x86_64.whl (2.9 MB)
Installing collected packages: psycopg2-binary
Successfully installed psycopg2-binary-2.8.4

Adding psycopg2-binary to Pipfile's [packages]…
Pipfile.lock (7ff369) out of date, updating to (c90257)…
Locking [dev-packages] dependencies…
Locking [packages] dependencies…
Updated Pipfile.lock (c90257)!
Installing dependencies from Pipfile.lock (c90257)…
 🐍   ▉▉▉▉▉▉▉▉▉▉▉▉▉▉▉▉▉▉▉▉▉▉▉▉▉▉▉▉▉▉▉▉ 5/5 — 00:00:01

Create a new Django project

The following command will create a new django project for us

$ django-admin startproject prodapplication

Go to settings.py you will see a database configuration like this

# Database
# https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/3.0/ref/settings/#databases

DATABASES = {
   'default': {
       'ENGINE': 'django.db.backends.sqlite3',
       'NAME': os.path.join(BASE_DIR, 'db.sqlite3'),
   }
}

SQlite is the default database for any Django project it help us to quickly prototyping a new idea.

Postgres Database & User Setup

Now logged into the postgresql shell

$ sudo -u postgres psql

Create a database

CREATE DATABASE datbase_name;

Create user

CREATE USER <username> WITH PASSWORD <password>;

Set default encoding, transaction isolation scheme (Recommended from Django)

ALTER ROLE <username> SET client_encoding TO 'utf8';
ALTER ROLE <username> SET default_transaction_isolation TO 'read committed';
ALTER ROLE <username> SET timezone TO 'UTC';

Give User access to database

GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON DATABASE <datbase_name> TO <username>;

Quit out the shell

\q

Manage dependencies

You can use Pipfile if you use pipenv or create a requirements.txt file and put your dependencies on it.

Ready to go

We've everything installed, now it’s time to do some production stuff.

Create a new file

I create a new file and called it local_settings.py, we will put all the production settings on this file.

Here is our folder structure

.
├── Pipfile
├── Pipfile.lock
└── prodapplication
   ├── manage.py
   └── prodapplication
       ├── asgi.py
       ├── __init__.py
       ├── local_settings.py
       ├── settings.py
       ├── urls.py
       └── wsgi.py

Change Debug mode to False

DEBUG = False

Change allowed host

ALLOWED_HOSTS = ['Your ip', 'www.domain.com', 'domain.com']

Change The secret key

I use this tool to generate a Django secret key

SECRET_KEY = <your new secret key>

Change the default database

DATABASES = {
   'default': {
       'ENGINE': 'django.db.backends.postgresql_psycopg2',
       'HOST': 'localhost',
       'NAME': '<database_name>',
       'USER': '<username>',
       'PASSWORD': '<password>',
       'PORT': '5432',
   }
}

Configure your mail server

# Email config
EMAIL_BACKEND = 'django.core.mail.backends.smtp.EmailBackend'
EMAIL_HOST = '<your smtp server>'
EMAIL_PORT = 587
EMAIL_HOST_USER = 'username'
EMAIL_HOST_PASSWORD = 'password'
EMAIL_USE_TLS = True

Import the new configuration

Put the following code in your settings.py

try:
   from .local_settings import *
except ImportError:
   pass

Test your new application

Run the following command

$ python manage.py migrate
$ python manage.py runserver

Conclusion

Performance is very important if it come to the real word application and you must optimise your application and configure it in a way that perform well. One of the key is to use a production-ready Database, like postgresql.

In this guide you've learned how to write a production Django application.

Thanks for reading.

How to build production-ready application with Django and PostgreSQL | 2021