Django on Docker - A Simple Introduction

This is a simple tutorial but it isn't exactly for beginners. It's for people with some programming experience.

But it's still very basic.

Docker is a great way to manage system-wide dependencies for your applications. Django is a easy way to launch web applications. The two together make a great pair.

Are you new to...

Django? Start here
Docker? Start here
Python? Start here

What we're going to cover

In this one we're only going to cover creating a Django project and use Docker containers. We cover going into deployment with Django on Docker here.

Requirements

Docker installed. Do you not? Check out the post on simple docker

System Requirements

Windows 10 Professional docs (seriously; you need Virtual Machine support and Windows 10 Pro has it)
macOS docs

Final Project Structure

simple_dj_docker
|   .env
|   db.sqlite3
|   Dockerfile
│   manage.py
│   Pipfile  
│   Pipfile.lock
│
└───cfehome
│   │   __init__.py
│   │   settings.py
│   │   urls.py
│   │   wsgi.py

Your Django Project.

1. Create a virtual environment with pipenv

Open up terminal (Mac) or PowerShell (Windows)

cd path/to/your/dev/folder/

mkdir simple_dj_docker
cd simple_dj_docker
pipenv install django==2.2.4 gunicorn --python 3.6
pipenv shell

2. Create a Django project

django-admin startproject cfehome .

3. Local DB & Migrations

python manage.py makemigrations
python manage.py migrate
python manage.py createsuperuser

4. Update Django settings.py

# DEBUG can be True/False or 1/0
DEBUG = int(os.environ.get('DEBUG', default=1))

5. Create .env

DEBUG=1

6. Test Gunicorn

gunicorn cfehome.wsgi:application --bind 0.0.0.0:8000

Your Docker File, Image, & Container.

1. Create your Dockerfile

$ cd path/to/your/dev/folder
$ cd simple_dj_docker
$ touch Dockerfile
$ ls
Dockerfile

# Base Image
FROM python:3.6

# create and set working directory
RUN mkdir /app
WORKDIR /app

# Add current directory code to working directory
ADD . /app/

# set default environment variables
ENV PYTHONUNBUFFERED 1
ENV LANG C.UTF-8
ENV DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive 

# set project environment variables
# grab these via Python's os.environ
# these are 100% optional here
ENV PORT=8000

# Install system dependencies
RUN apt-get update && apt-get install -y --no-install-recommends \
        tzdata \
        python3-setuptools \
        python3-pip \
        python3-dev \
        python3-venv \
        git \
        && \
    apt-get clean && \
    rm -rf /var/lib/apt/lists/*


# install environment dependencies
RUN pip3 install --upgrade pip 
RUN pip3 install pipenv

# Install project dependencies
RUN pipenv install --skip-lock --system --dev

EXPOSE 8888
CMD gunicorn cfehome.wsgi:application --bind 0.0.0.0:$PORT

2. Build your Docker Image

$ cd path/to/your/dev/folder
$ cd simple_dj_docker
$ ls
Dockerfile

$ docker build -t simple-django-on-docker -f Dockerfile .

3. Run your Container

$ docker run -it -p 80:8888 simple-django-on-docker

Now open up http://localhost

Use Ctrl + C to cancel the container running.

4. Clean up

List running containers

$ docker ps -a
CONTAINER ID        IMAGE               COMMAND                  CREATED             STATUS                    PORTS               NAMES
5966a461fa9d        simple-django-on-docker         "/bin/sh -c 'gunicorn …"   3 seconds ago       Exited (0) 1 second ago                       thirsty_cori

Stop your container

docker stop 5966a461fa9d
docker rm 5966a461fa9d