A few days back, I wrote my first Django app, Tweeeter, after following a few tutorials. With the app, I think it will be great to get it deployed to have a full experience from programming to deployment. So I followed the tutorial from Webfaction's knowledgebase.

However, I felt the approach has messed up the normal structure that I usually used, which is having apps folder and includes folder in the django project folder. The tutorial shows how to server static files by creating Webfaction's app. So if you have 10 static folders, you will have to create 10 Webfaction's app, which I can't understand why I must do it. So, after hours of trying, with the help of Webfaction's support, it finally works the way I wanted.

So how do I setup my own django app in Webfaction?

I followed exactly what the tutorial said except the part of setting up the static files. Instead of creating multiple apps, I just add the following to the apache/httpd.conf in the djangoproject.

Alias /includes/ /home/username/webapps/webfactionapp/djangoproject/includes/
 
    SetHandler None

Alias /media/ /home/username/webapps/webfactionapp/lib/python2.5/django/contrib/admin/media/
 
    SetHandler None

I hope it's clear enough. If there is any questions, feel free leave it in the comments.

Here's the screenshot of FakeTwitter.

The new release of Django has given me a headache while I was trying to setup django-registration. The problem lies in the upgrading of Django to the latest build. The old Django codes cause a problem in setting the app. Thanks to the guys at the Django Channel that helped me out.

So I hope I can help by writing a tutorial for those who needs it. Stone Mind, once wrote a tutorial on django-registration, but it's out-dated now.

Here it goes:

Prerequisites:
django version 1.0
django-registration version 0.6 (if possible, use the trunk copy)

Step 1, unpack django-registration:
Put the app folder, registration into the project folder. (make sure that your PYTHONPATH is pointing to the project folder). registration folder is the folder that contains __init__.py.

Step 2, setup the application:
Add 'registration' into the list of INSTALLED_APPS. For example,

INSTALLED_APPS = (
    'django.contrib.auth',
    'django.contrib.contenttypes',
    'django.contrib.sessions',
    'django.contrib.sites',
    'django.contrib.admin',
    'registration',
)

Step 3, setup the database:
Run python manage.py syncdb to populate the tables from the list of applications. Ensure you have filled in the relevant database settings before you run it. Example for sqlite3 database settings,

DATABASE_ENGINE = 'sqlite3'
DATABASE_NAME = 'reg.db'
DATABASE_USER = ''
DATABASE_PASSWORD = ''
DATABASE_HOST = ''
DATABASE_PORT = ''

Step 4, setup the url pointer:
Add (r'accounts/', include('registration.urls')) into the list of URLpatterns. For example,

urlpatterns = patterns('',
    (r'^admin/(.*)', admin.site.root),
    (r'^accounts/', include('registration.urls')),
)

Step 5, setup the templates:
Setup the template path by adding /path/to/project/templates/ in TEMPLATE_DIRS. Example,

TEMPLATE_DIRS = (
   '/Users/mangoorange/Projects/Django/reg/templates/'
)

Step 6, inserting the templates:
This part is actually fairly simple. I have provided a copy of a working project, [download#74#nohits], that you can use. Just add in the django-registration app into the project folder. If you want to learn more about template form, you can check it out here.

Step 7, done:
Sorry to disappoint you. It's done.

Feel free to share any feedback and comments on the tutorial. Hope it helps.

The link below:
http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=D415FAF806EC47A1

Share with me your favorites.

One of the hurdle I met and everyone else met is trying to install MySQL adapter for Python. Being the most popular database used, it is crucial to have it work rather than circumventing around the problem by using alternative database such as SQLite or PostgreSQL.

After a few hours of searching, I found a few references that somewhat not entirely complete. I did some cross referencing and found two brings me to the entire solutions, which I'm about to show below.

Step 0:
Before I start, I assumed that you have MySQL and Python installed on the mac.

Step 1:
Download the latest MySQL for Python adapter from SourceForge.

Step 2:
Extract your downloaded package by typing

$ tar xzvf MySQL-python-1.2.2.tar.gz

Step 3:
Inside the folder, clean the package by typing

$ sudo python setup.py clean

Step 4:
In the same folder, edit _mysql.c using your favourite text-editor

4a. Remove the following lines (37-39):

#ifndef uint
#define uint unsigned int
#endif

4b. Change the following:

uint port = MYSQL_PORT;
uint client_flag = 0;

to

unsigned int port = MYSQL_PORT;
unsigned int client_flag = 0;

Step 5:
Create a symbolic link under lib to point to a sub-directory called mysql. This is where it looks for during compilation.

$ sudo ln -s /usr/local/mysql/lib /usr/local/mysql/lib/mysql

Step 6:
Edit the setup_posix.py and change the following

mysql_config.path = "mysql_config"

to

mysql_config.path = "/usr/local/mysql/bin/mysql_config"

Step 7:
In the same directory, rebuild your package (ignore the warnings that comes with it)

$ sudo python setup.py build

Step 8:
Install the package and you are done.

$ sudo python setup.py install

Step 9:
Test if it's working. It works if you can import MySQLdb.

$ python
>>> import MySQLdb

Voila.

References:
n.code
RedElephant
Django users Google Groups