content/blog/2011/01/django-advice.html @ 9c925e190ed9

Add YUI and start the Django blog entry.
author Steve Losh <steve@stevelosh.com>
date Sun, 06 Feb 2011 18:26:27 -0500
parents (none)
children 79e8d711898c
    {% extends "_post.html" %}

    {% hyde
        title: "Django Advice"
        snip: "Some useful things I've learned."
        created: 2011-01-07 08:30:00
        flattr: true
    %}

    {% block article %}

For the past year or so I've been working full-time at [Dumbwaiter Design][]
doing [Django][] development. I've picked up a bunch of useful tricks along the
way that help me work, and I figured I'd share them.

I'm sure there are better ways to do some of the things that I mention.  If you
know of any feel free to hit me up on [Twitter][] and let me know.

[Dumbwaiter Design]: http://dwaiter.com/
[Django]: {{links.django}}
[Twitter]: http://twitter.com/stevelosh

[TOC]

Sandboxing with Virtualenv
--------------------------

First of all: if you're working with Django (or even Python) at all, you need
to be using [virtualenv][] and [virtualenvwrapper][].  They will make your life
much more [pleasant][whyvenv]. Here are a few tricks I use to make them even
better.

[virtualenv]: http://virtualenv.openplans.org/
[virtualenvwrapper]: http://www.doughellmann.com/docs/virtualenvwrapper/
[whyvenv]:

### The .venv File

In every Python project (and therefore Django project) I work with I create
a `.venv` file at the project root.  This file contains a single line with the
name of the virtualenv for that project.

This lets me create a `wo` shell alias to easily switch to the virtualenv for
that project once I'm in its directory:

    :::bash
    function wo() {
        [ -z "$1" ] && workon "$1" || workon `cat ./.venv`
    }

This little function lets you run `wo somevenv` to switch to that environment,
but the real trick is that running `wo` by itself will read the `.venv` file in
the current directory and switch to the environment with that name.

### Making Pip Safer

Once you start using virtualenv you'll inevitably forget to switch to an
environment at some point before running `pip install whatever`.  You'll swear
as you realize you just installed some package system-wide.

To prevent this I use a pair of shell aliases:

    :::bash
    PIP_BIN="`which pip`"
    alias pip-sys="$PIP_BIN"

    pip() {
        if [ -n "$VIRTUAL_ENV" ]
        then $PIP_BIN -E "$VIRTUAL_ENV" "$@"
        else echo "Not currently in a venv -- use pip-sys to work system-wide."
        fi
    }

This makes `pip` work normally when you're in a virtualenv, but bails if you're
not.  If you really do want to install something system-wide you can use
`pip-sys` instead.

### Making Pip Faster

A little-known feature of pip is that it can cache downloaded packages so you
don't need to re-download them every time you start a new project.

You'll want to set the [PIP\_DOWNLOAD\_CACHE][pipcache] environment variable to enable
this.

[pipcache]: http://tartley.com/?p=1133

### Handling App Media Directories

Some Django applications have media files of their own. I like to create
a `symlink-media.sh` script at the root of my Django projects so I can easily
symlink those media directories into my media folder when I start working on
a new machine:

    :::bash
    #!/bin/bash

    ln -s "$VIRTUAL_ENV/src/django-grappelli/grappelli/media" "media/admin"
    ln -s "$VIRTUAL_ENV/src/django-filebrowser/filebrowser/media/filebrowser" "media/filebrowser"
    ln -s "$VIRTUAL_ENV/src/django-page-cms/pages/media/pages" "media/pages"

Wrangling Databases with South
------------------------------

If you're not using [South][], you need to start.  Now.

No, really, I'll wait.  Take 30 minutes, try the [tutorial][Southtut], wrap
your head around it and come back.  It's far more important than this blog
post.

[South]: http://south.aeracode.org/
[Southtut]: http://south.aeracode.org/docs/tutorial/index.html

### Useful Shell Aliases

South is awesome, but its commands are very long-winded.  Here's the set of
shell aliases I use to save quite a bit of typing:

    :::bash
    alias pmdm='python manage.py datamigration'
    alias pmsm='python manage.py schemamigration --auto'
    alias pmsi='python manage.py schemamigration --initial'
    alias pmm='python manage.py migrate'
    alias pmml='python manage.py migrate --list'
    alias pmmf='python manage.py migrate --fake'
    alias pmcats='python manage.py convert_to_south'

Remember that running a migration without specifying an app will migrate
everything, so a simple `pmm` will do the trick.

Running Locally
---------------

When I'm working on a Django site I run a server on my local machine for quick
development. I want this server to be as close to production as possible, and
I use [Gunicorn][] for deployment, so I like running it on my local
machine for testing as well.

### Running Gunicorn Locally

First, a caveat: I use OS X. These tips will work on Linux too, but if you're
on Windows you're out of luck, sorry.

Gunicorn is a pip-installable Python package, so you can install it in your
virtualenv by just adding a line to your `requirements.txt` file.

Here's the Gunicorn config I use when running locally:

    :::python
    bind = "unix:/tmp/gunicorn.myproj.sock"
    daemon = True                    # Whether work in the background
    debug = True                     # Some extra logging
    logfile = ".gunicorn.log"        # Name of the log file
    loglevel = "info"                # The level at which to log
    pidfile = ".gunicorn.pid"        # Path to a PID file
    workers = 1                      # Number of workers to initialize
    umask = 0                        # Umask to set when daemonizing
    user = None                      # Change process owner to user
    group = None                     # Change process group to group
    proc_name = "gunicorn-myproj"    # Change the process name
    tmp_upload_dir = None            # Set path used to store temporary uploads

I also create two simple files at the root of my project.  The first is `gs`,
a script to start the Gunicorn server for this project:

    :::bash
    #!/usr/bin/env bash

    gunicorn -c gunicorn.conf.py debug_wsgi:application

It's pretty basic.  Don't worry about the `debug_wsgi` bit, we'll get to that
shortly.

The other file is `gk`, a script to *kill* that server:

    :::bash
    #!/usr/bin/env bash

    kill `cat .gunicorn.pid`

You may prefer making these aliases instead of scripts.  That's probably a good
idea.  I don't because I have some older projects that need to be launched in
a different way and I don't want to have to remember separate commands for
each.

### Watching for Changes

When developing locally you'll want to make a change to your code and have the
server reload that code automatically.  The Django development server does
this, and we can hack it into our Gunicorn setup too.

First, add a `monitor.py` file at the root of your project (I believe I found
this code [here][monitor], but I may be wrong):

    :::python
    import os
    import sys
    import time
    import signal
    import threading
    import atexit
    import Queue

    _interval = 1.0
    _times = {}
    _files = []

    _running = False
    _queue = Queue.Queue()
    _lock = threading.Lock()

    def _restart(path):
        _queue.put(True)
        prefix = 'monitor (pid=%d):' % os.getpid()
        print >> sys.stderr, '%s Change detected to \'%s\'.' % (prefix, path)
        print >> sys.stderr, '%s Triggering process restart.' % prefix
        os.kill(os.getpid(), signal.SIGINT)

    def _modified(path):
        try:
            # If path doesn't denote a file and were previously
            # tracking it, then it has been removed or the file type
            # has changed so force a restart. If not previously
            # tracking the file then we can ignore it as probably
            # pseudo reference such as when file extracted from a
            # collection of modules contained in a zip file.

            if not os.path.isfile(path):
                return path in _times

            # Check for when file last modified.

            mtime = os.stat(path).st_mtime
            if path not in _times:
                _times[path] = mtime

            # Force restart when modification time has changed, even
            # if time now older, as that could indicate older file
            # has been restored.

            if mtime != _times[path]:
                return True
        except:
            # If any exception occured, likely that file has been
            # been removed just before stat(), so force a restart.

            return True

        return False

    def _monitor():
        while 1:
            # Check modification times on all files in sys.modules.

            for module in sys.modules.values():
                if not hasattr(module, '__file__'):
                    continue
                path = getattr(module, '__file__')
                if not path:
                    continue
                if os.path.splitext(path)[1] in ['.pyc', '.pyo', '.pyd']:
                    path = path[:-1]
                if _modified(path):
                    return _restart(path)

            # Check modification times on files which have
            # specifically been registered for monitoring.

            for path in _files:
                if _modified(path):
                    return _restart(path)

            # Go to sleep for specified interval.

            try:
                return _queue.get(timeout=_interval)
            except:
                pass

    _thread = threading.Thread(target=_monitor)
    _thread.setDaemon(True)

    def _exiting():
        try:
            _queue.put(True)
        except:
            pass
        _thread.join()

    atexit.register(_exiting)

    def track(path):
        if not path in _files:
            _files.append(path)

    def start(interval=1.0):
        global _interval
        if interval < _interval:
            _interval = interval

        global _running
        _lock.acquire()
        if not _running:
            prefix = 'monitor (pid=%d):' % os.getpid()
            print >> sys.stderr, '%s Starting change monitor.' % prefix
            _running = True
            _thread.start()
        _lock.release()

Next add a `post_fork` hook to your Gunicorn config file that uses the monitor
to watch for changes:

    :::python
    def post_fork(server, worker):
        import monitor
        if debug:
            server.log.info("Starting change monitor.")
            monitor.start(interval=1.0)

Now the Gunicorn server will automatically restart whenever code is changed.

It will *not* restart when you add new code (e.g. when you install a new app),
so you'll need to handle that manually with `./gk ; ./gs`, but that's not too
bad!

[monitor]: http://code.google.com/p/modwsgi/wiki/ReloadingSourceCode

### Using the Werkzeug Debugger with Gunicorn

The final piece of the puzzle is being able to use the fantastic
[Werkzeug Debugger][debug] while running locally with Gunicorn.

To do this, create a `debug_wsgi.py` file at the root of your project.  This is
what the `gs` script tells Gunicorn to serve, and it will enable the debugger:

    :::python
    import os
    import sys
    import site

    parent = os.path.dirname
    site_dir = parent(os.path.abspath(__file__))
    project_dir = parent(parent(os.path.abspath(__file__)))

    sys.path.insert(0, project_dir)
    sys.path.insert(0, site_dir)

    site.addsitedir('VIRTUALENV_SITE_PACKAGES')

    from django.core.management import setup_environ
    import settings
    setup_environ(settings)

    import django.core.handlers.wsgi
    application = django.core.handlers.wsgi.WSGIHandler()

    from werkzeug.debug import DebuggedApplication
    application = DebuggedApplication(application, evalex=True)

    def null_technical_500_response(request, exc_type, exc_value, tb):
        raise exc_type, exc_value, tb
    from django.views import debug
    debug.technical_500_response = null_technical_500_response

Make sure to replace `'VIRTUALENV_SITE_PACKAGES'` with the _full_ path to your
virtualenv's `site_packages` directory.  You might want to make this a setting
in a machine-specific settings file, which I'll talk about later.

[debug]: http://werkzeug.pocoo.org/docs/debug/

Automating Tasks with Fabric
----------------------------

[Fabric][] is an awesome little Python utility for scripting tasks (like
deployments).  We use it constantly at Dumbwaiter.

[Fabric]: http://fabfile.org/

### Pulling Uploads

Once you give a client access to a site they'll probably be uploading images
(through Django's built-in file uploading features or with django-filebrowser).

When you're making changes locally it's often useful to have these uploaded
files on your local machine, otherwise you end up with a bunch of broken
images.

Here's a simple Fabric task that will pull down all the uploads from the
server:

    :::python
    def pull_uploads():
        '''Copy the uploads from the site to your local machine.'''
        require('uploads_path')

        sudo('chmod -R a+r "%s"' % env.uploads_path)

        rsync_command = r"""rsync -av -e 'ssh -p %s' %s@%s:%s %s""" % (
            env.port,
            env.user, env.host,
            env.uploads_path.rstrip('/') + '/',
            'media/uploads'
        )
        print local(rsync_command, capture=False)

In your host task you'll need to set the `uploads_path` variable to something
like this:

    :::python
    import os
    env.site_path = os.path.join('var', 'www', 'myproject')
    env.uploads_path = os.path.join(env.site_path, 'media', 'uploads')

Now you can run `fab production pull_uploads` to pull down all the files people
have uploaded to the production server.

### Sanity Checking

As part of a deployment I like to do a very basic sanity check to make sure the
home page of the site loads properly.  If it doesn't then I've broken something
and need to fix it *immediately*.

Here's a simple Fabric task to make sure you haven't completely borked the
site:

    :::python
    def check():
        '''Check that the home page of the site returns an HTTP 200.

        If it does not, a warning is issued.
        '''
        require('site_url')

        if not '200 OK' in run('curl --silent -I "%s"' % env.site_url):
            warn("Something is wrong (we didn't get a 200 response)!")
            return False
        else:
            return True

Your host task will need to set the `site_url` variable to the full URL of the
home page.

You can run this task on its own with `fab production check`, and you can also
run it at the end of your deployment task.

### Preventing Accidents

Deploying to test and staging servers should be quick and easy. Deploying to
production servers should be harder to prevent people from accidentally doing
it.

I've created a little function that I call before deploying to production
servers.  It forces me to type in random words from the system word list before
proceeding to make sure I *really* know what I'm doing:

    import os, random

    from fabric.api import *
    from fabric.operations import prompt
    from fabric.utils import abort

    WORDLIST_PATHS = [os.path.join('/', 'usr', 'share', 'dict', 'words')]
    DEFAULT_MESSAGE = "Are you sure you want to do this?"
    WORD_PROMPT = '  [%d/%d] Type "%s" to continue (^C quits): '

    def prevent_horrible_accidents(msg=DEFAULT_MESSAGE, horror_rating=1):
        """Prompt the user to enter random words to prevent doing something stupid."""

        valid_wordlist_paths = [wp for wp in WORDLIST_PATHS if os.path.exists(wp)]

        if not valid_wordlist_paths:
            abort('No wordlists found!')

        with open(valid_wordlist_paths[0]) as wordlist_file:
            words = wordlist_file.readlines()

        print msg

        for i in range(int(horror_rating)):
            word = words[random.randint(0, len(words))].strip()
            p_msg = WORD_PROMPT % (i+1, horror_rating, word)
            answer = prompt(p_msg, validate=r'^%s$' % word)

You may need to adjust `WORDLIST_PATHS` if you're not on OS X.

Working with Third-Party Apps
-----------------------------

One of the best parts about working with Django is that many problems have
already been solved and the solutions released as open-source applications.

We use quite a few open-source apps, and there are a couple of tricks I've
learned to make working with them easier.

### Installing Apps from Repositories

If I'm going to use an open-source Django app in a project I'll almost always
install it as an editable reopsitory with pip.

Others may disagree with me on this, but I think it's the best way to work.

Often I'll find a bug that I think may be in one of the third-party apps I'm using. Installing the apps as repositories makes it easy to read their source and adding

### Useful Shell Aliases

Improving the Admin Interface
-----------------------------

### Installing Grappelli (and Everything Else)

### Customizing the Dashboard

### Making Pretty Fields

### An Ugly Hack to Show Usable Foreign Key Fields

Managing Machine-Specific Settings
----------------------------------

### Using local\_settings Files

Using Django-Annoying
---------------------

### The render\_to Decorator

### The ajax\_request Decorator

User Profiles that Don't Suck
-----------------------------

### Profile Basics

### Hacking Django's User Admin

Templating Tricks
-----------------

### Null Checks and Fallbacks

### Manipulating Query Strings

### Satisfying Your Designer with Typogrify

The Flat Page Trainwreck
------------------------

### Installing Page-CMS

### (Almost) Solving the Trailing Slash Problem

Editing with Vim
----------------

### Vim Plugins for Django

### Filetype Mappings

### HTML Template Symlinks

### Javascript Syntax Checking

### Django Autocommands

### Sanity Checking with Pyflakes

### Editing Third-Party Apps

{% endblock %}