project-structure.md

Project structure and Managing Dependencies

• We assume the following project structure:

        - MyProject/
            - .git/
            - myproject/
                - settings.py
                - wsgi.py
            - myapp1/
                - static/
                - app.py
                - models.py
                - ...
            - myapp2/
                - ...
            - myapp3/
                - ...
            - uploads/
                - # uploaded files stored here
            - .gitignore
            - manage.py
  

  Notice: we use MyProject vs myproject for simplicity.

• The project is published as a public git repo online, for example via github:

  https://github.com/myuser/MyProject.git

Managing python requirements with pipenv

Install pipenv

Make sure pipenv is installed globally on your development machine. To install pipenv:

• On Windows: Run the following (when no virtualenv is activated!!! You might need to run this as an administrator.)

    pip install pipenv
  

• On other platforms: https://docs.pipenv.org/install/#installing-pipenv

Create a virtualenv and install dependencies with pipenv

• Install some dependencies with pipenv install . Some recommended packages are:

  • django: 😎 (required).

  • psycopg2: for using postgres (required).

  • ipython: a great python shell (Highly recommended).

  • django-extensions: for example for shell_plus (Highly recommended).
    (To install, make sure to add "django_extensions", to INSTALLED_APPS).

  • Pillow: for image manipulation (optional - for working with uploaded images).

  • djangorestframework: for building REST APIs (optional).

  • For example:

      pipenv install django psycopg2 ipython django-extensions Pillow djangorestframework
    

• (Note: If you already have an existing requirements.txt file, just run pipenv install to magically convert it to a Pipfile!. Make sure to edit the Pipfile to change version numbers to "*")

• This command...

  • ... will create a virtualenv (it will display its location on the screen).

  • ... will create a Pipfile, similar to:

      [[source]]
    
      url = "https://pypi.python.org/simple"
      verify_ssl = true
      name = "pypi"
    
    
      [packages]
    
      django = "*"
      psycopg2 = "*"
      pytz = "*"
      pillow = "*"
      djangorestframework = "*"
      ipython = "*"
      django-extensions = "*"
    
    
      [dev-packages]
    

  • ...will create a Pipfile.lock file with information on current versions installed.

• Use the following command to create a requirements.txt file that can be easily used later by pip (without pipenv) on your server:

    pipenv lock -r > requirements.txt
  

• Add these files to your git repo: git add Pipfile Pipfile.lock requirements.txt