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Django Deployment Workshop by Jacob Kaplan-Moss

69 points by ahmicro 16y ago

fdb 16y ago
I can recommend this. I've used this workshop to set up a few of my own production Django websites. All materials, source code etc. are here. https://github.com/jacobian/django-deployment-workshop https://github.com/jacobian/django-deployment-workshop One trick I love is that he deletes all Apache configuration files and starts from scratch. I've found this a great way to learn what is necessary and what is overhead. Anybody else using this approach?
- njharman 16y ago
  Stopped using apache long ago, but back then and today I delete every config line I don't understand. Which usually breaks stuff, which usually leads to me understanding (learning) what that config line did and why it's needed.
geekfactor 16y ago
I learned a lot by watching this and I highly recommend it but the viewer should be warned that many of the tools and techniques seem to have fallen out of favor in the Django community. In my personal experience nginx+gunicorn turned out to be much easier to deal with than the reference Apache+mod_wsgi. It also seems to be JKM's current preference. Likewise, buildout, while very powerful can be a bit burdensome, and has fallen out of favor relative to pip+virtualenv. For more current info, check out this extended chat with JKM and other lead Django developers here: [discuss] http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2112160 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2112160 [direct] http://www.revsys.com/officehours/2010/nov/05/ http://www.revsys.com/officehours/2010/nov/05/ Note: This video is a dup to http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1830696 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1830696 though I'm surprised that post only got one point. There are probably others.
- colbyolson 16y ago
  Also, use PIP and VirtualEnv! Makes deps and packages so easy. Especially with virtualenvwrapper.
- frankwiles 16y ago
  Definitely echo pip, virtualenv, and virtualenv-wrapper. They make life so much simpler.
megaman821 16y ago
Why is pulling caching into the middle of an app a good idea? Memcached should be a last resort. The database should have a cache for things that get asked for over and over. Having a full page caching solution like Varnish is pretty doable for most sites where the only customization is the username at the top of the page which could be populated with javascript. Cache invalidation is a hard problem, why would most devs want anything to do with it? On lightly customizable sites, the only thing I would consider using memcached for is a faster session store.
- frankwiles 16y ago
  So caching on the front and back ends is perfectly acceptable, but in the middle is not? In reality, large sites would and should use all three to their advantage.
  - megaman821 16y ago
    It's perfectly acceptable. I just think it should be the last thing you do instead of the first. If you are Twitter or Facebook caching in the middle is a must, pages are just too unique. If you have some newspapper site, why add the complexity to your app when there are great solutions on the front and back ends written by really smart developers.

69 points by ahmicro 16y ago

fdb 16y ago

I can recommend this. I've used this workshop to set up a few of my own production Django websites. All materials, source code etc. are here. https://github.com/jacobian/django-deployment-workshop https://github.com/jacobian/django-deployment-workshop One trick I love is that he deletes all Apache configuration files and starts from scratch. I've found this a great way to learn what is necessary and what is overhead. Anybody else using this approach?

njharman 16y ago
Stopped using apache long ago, but back then and today I delete every config line I don't understand. Which usually breaks stuff, which usually leads to me understanding (learning) what that config line did and why it's needed.

geekfactor 16y ago

I learned a lot by watching this and I highly recommend it but the viewer should be warned that many of the tools and techniques seem to have fallen out of favor in the Django community. In my personal experience nginx+gunicorn turned out to be much easier to deal with than the reference Apache+mod_wsgi. It also seems to be JKM's current preference. Likewise, buildout, while very powerful can be a bit burdensome, and has fallen out of favor relative to pip+virtualenv. For more current info, check out this extended chat with JKM and other lead Django developers here: [discuss] http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2112160 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2112160 [direct] http://www.revsys.com/officehours/2010/nov/05/ http://www.revsys.com/officehours/2010/nov/05/ Note: This video is a dup to http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1830696 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1830696 though I'm surprised that post only got one point. There are probably others.

colbyolson 16y ago
Also, use PIP and VirtualEnv! Makes deps and packages so easy. Especially with virtualenvwrapper.
frankwiles 16y ago
Definitely echo pip, virtualenv, and virtualenv-wrapper. They make life so much simpler.

megaman821 16y ago

Why is pulling caching into the middle of an app a good idea? Memcached should be a last resort. The database should have a cache for things that get asked for over and over. Having a full page caching solution like Varnish is pretty doable for most sites where the only customization is the username at the top of the page which could be populated with javascript. Cache invalidation is a hard problem, why would most devs want anything to do with it? On lightly customizable sites, the only thing I would consider using memcached for is a faster session store.

frankwiles 16y ago
So caching on the front and back ends is perfectly acceptable, but in the middle is not? In reality, large sites would and should use all three to their advantage.
- megaman821 16y ago
  It's perfectly acceptable. I just think it should be the last thing you do instead of the first. If you are Twitter or Facebook caching in the middle is a must, pages are just too unique. If you have some newspapper site, why add the complexity to your app when there are great solutions on the front and back ends written by really smart developers.