A starter project to bootstrap development with Docker and Django.
This project is not intended to be used as-is, but rather as a starter base-line for your own web application project.
Beginning developers who have a basic understanding of networking, operating systems and the python language, and who wish to create a deployable, reliable web application.
A more complete and introductory version of this brief tutorial will be available soon.
To begin, ensure that you already have Docker Engine installed and configured. Please see
https://docs.docker.com/engine/installation/
for more information on how to do that. Also ensure that you perform the 'optional task'
necessary to allow your user account to execute the docker command directly without using
sudo (this is detailed in the same instructions, further down the page).
Now, also install Docker Compose - using the 'pip' method described at https://docs.docker.com/compose/install/ to enable the rest of our deployment and development capability.
Finally, clone this project to your development system and name it something relevant to your site-name, like so:
git clone git@github.com:growlf/djangobase.git mysite
To start the server for the first time, cd into the directory (mysite in this
example), and execute the following command to generate required files and folders:
docker-compose -f docker-compose-build.yml up --build
This command only needs to be done once (when you are first initializing the project) and it will take a few minutes as it installs components into your container and generates the various files and folders necessary to run a Django web application.
Once this command completes, you should be able to browse to the URL -
http://localhost:8000 URL (assuming that you are developing on
your localhost system) - and see the initial website login. After verifying that the
page comes up. Simply press ctrl-c in the terminal to terminate the command, and then
run it the standard way, as follows:
docker-compose up
The site should now be visible as it was a moment ago, at http://localhost:8000
and you can now begin editing the files for the site in your mysite folder to taste.
You can log into your initial site with the default user name admin and password admin
(you should, of course, change this before publishing your site to the internet but it is
fine to use this username/password as-is during development).
At this point you will want to add some templates to create your own UI-theme, add some object-models, admin UI bits, etc - and eventually, create some content as well. However, this tutorial will not go into detail on that, and instead will refer you to the awesome documentation at the following locations (for now):
- https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/1.11/intro/tutorial01/
- https://djangobook.com/
- http://docs.django-cms.org/
After your project is set up the way you want it , you will want to make the application 'deployable'.
There are a few steps to accomplish this. Some of them will be:
- Create a database container for more a robust backend storage, and connect the project to it
- Unlink the local volume mapping for the project files and instead copy them into the container for consistent and reliable deployment to swarm or other dynamic hosting environments
- Publish the application to a Docker registry
- Determine a hosting environment to deploy your application for public access
These remaining steps, and many more, will be detailed in other project tutorials.
If you require further assistance, or wish to discuss suggestions pertaining to additions or changes to this tutorial, please feel free to join our Discord server!