Question

I wanted to start getting into developing with Django, however, I am unable to figure out how to make it work. I have installed apache2, I have tried many tutorials on configuring apache to run Django, but I just do not understand how it all works together. Can someone give me a dummies guide on how to install it, how things work, and why?

Answer 1

The best way to link between Django and Apache is using WSGI. You will need to install the mod_wsgi apache module to do this.

Next step: modify the apache configuration file to designate where you want the root of your django website.

 WSGIScriptAlias / /path/to/mysite/apache/myApp.wsgi

Next, you should create the wsgi file. This is what initializes your django application. An example wsgi file looks like this

import sys                                                       
import os
                                                                                            sys.path.insert(0,os.path.normpath(os.path.dirname(os.path.abspath(__file__))))   

sys.path.insert(0,'/path/to/directory/containing/application')        

import django.core.handlers.wsgi 

os.environ['DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE'] = 'twitmycity.settings'  

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

Once you have this, restart apache

sudo /etc/init.d/apache2 restart

Now, point your browser to the root directory where you established the wsgi handler. This should bring you to the root to your django application. I hope this helps!

Also note, when you make a change to your application, you need to refresh the modified time on the wsgi file to prevent wsgi from just using a cache version of the django application. To do this, execute

touch myApp.wsgi