Environment Setup for the Latest Version of Django (Python, Nginx, Postgres) Using Docker

Project Structure

• docker - Folder for Docker configuration files
• src - Folder where the project code will be stored
• .env - Configuration values for the project
• docker-compose.yml - Docker compose configuration file
• requirements.txt - a list of packages or libraries needed to work on a project

Step-by-Step Guide

1. Environment Setup

• Create a .env file based on .env.example using the following command:

  cp .env.example .env
  

• Enter or leave the default port values for your project:

  DOCKER_HTTP_PORT=80
  DJANGO_PROJECT_NAME=project  # Project name
  NGINX_CONF_PATH='./docker/nginx.dev.conf'  # Path to the nginx configuration file,
                                        # leave as is for the development environment
  

• Fill in the database values:

  DB_USER
  DB_PASSWORD
  DB_DATABASE
  DB_HOST
  DB_PORT
  

2. Build the Project Using Docker Compose

• Run this command

  docker compose build
  

3. Create a Django Project

• Create a Django project where the project name is "project" (if you change the project name, update the DJANGO_PROJECT_NAME in the .env file):

  docker compose run --rm web django-admin startproject project .
  

• After running this command, the project code should appear in the src folder.

• You can verify if the project is working by opening the browser and adding the port specified in DOCKER_HTTP_PORT. For example, if it’s set to 80:

  http://localhost
  

4. Configure Django

• Import the os library for environment variable handling in settings.py located in the project folder /src/project:

  import os
  

• Add STATIC_ROOT in settings.py:

  STATIC_ROOT = os.path.join(BASE_DIR, 'static')
  

• Configure Postgres in settings.py:

  DATABASES = {
      'default': {
          'ENGINE': 'django.db.backends.postgresql',
          'HOST': os.environ.get('DB_HOST'),
          'PORT': os.environ.get('DB_PORT'),
          'NAME': os.environ.get('DB_DATABASE'),
          'USER': os.environ.get('DB_USER'),
          'PASSWORD': os.environ.get('DB_PASSWORD'),
      }
  }
  

5. Run Migrations

• Run this command

  docker compose run --rm web python manage.py migrate
  

• After running this command, you can access the admin panel at:

  http://localhost/admin
  

6. Handle Static Files

• Uncomment the lines for the ENTRYPOINT in the python.Dockerfile, which runs the command for static files:

  COPY ./docker/entrypoint.sh /entrypoint.sh
  RUN chmod +x /entrypoint.sh
  
  ENTRYPOINT ["/entrypoint.sh"]
  

• Then, restart Docker:

  docker compose restart web
  

• Alternatively, you can run the following command:

  docker compose run --rm web python manage.py collectstatic
  

7. If you have a domain for your site and want a free SSL certificate for HTTPS

• Uncomment the service in the docker-compose.yml file:

  certbot:
      image: certbot/certbot    
      volumes:
          - ./docker/certbot/www/:/var/www/certbot/:rw
          - ./docker/certbot/conf/:/etc/letsencrypt/:rw
  

• Uncomment volumes in nginx service in the docker-compose.yml file:

  - ./docker/certbot/www:/var/www/certbot:ro
  - ./docker/certbot/conf:/etc/letsencrypt
  

• Rebuild and restart the Docker containers using the command:

  docker compose up -d --build
  

• Then run the following command, replacing example.com with your domain:

  docker compose run --rm certbot certonly --webroot --webroot-path=/var/www/certbot -d example.com
  

• After this, you need to configure Nginx for HTTPS. To do this, change the value of NGINX_CONF_PATH in the .env file, replacing in file /docker/nginx.prod.conf localhost with your domain:

  NGINX_CONF_PATH='./docker/nginx.prod.conf'