Django Quickstart#

This page provides step-by-step instructions for how to get quickly started using Django on CodeRed Cloud.

Once you have signed up for a CodeRed Cloud account and logged into your Dashboard, you are ready to get started with building your site!

Launch Your Site#

Click the Create Website button to launch a new site.

Website dashboard landing screenshot

Now you will be able to name your project and input other settings.

Create new Django site screenshot

The Handle that you create will be the website URL. Once you have filled out the basic information for your site, scroll down to Pick Your App. In this case, you want to choose Django. Select the Python and database versions you want.

Next, you will pick your plan level. You may see more options than what is available in the screenshot. Choose the plan level that you need for your projects.

Now click the Launch App button to get it started!

You should see a pending screen at this point. This screen will only last for a few seconds while your site is being launched.

After your site is ready, you will see a dashboard that provides information about your site.

Setting Up Django#

Now that your Django site is launched, you will need to create a superuser to access the Django Admin.

To log in to your new Django site:

  1. From the CodeRed Cloud dashboard, click Manage under your website, then click the Create Superuser link. This will prompt you for an email address and username for the new account.

    Create superuser in dashboard screenshot

  2. Once complete, you will be shown a password. Copy this password and store it somewhere safe, such as in a password manager.

  3. Now login with your new account by clicking the Django Admin button and entering the username and password to log in to the Django Admin.

Get Your Project Source Code#

When launching your site, CodeRed Cloud created a boilerplate Django project. We recommend downloading these files and storing them in version control.

To download your code from the server, follow our SFTP Guide (your project is located in the www folder on the server).

Or, download using the cr command line tool command below. Replace WEBAPP with your webapp handle.

$ cr download WEBAPP

Working with Your Django Project#

From here, you can develop locally as you usually would. When ready to deploy your local code to the server, deploy using the cr command line tool command below:

$ cr deploy WEBAPP

Or to deploy manually using SFTP:

  1. Upload your local code to the server’s www folder using SFTP.

  2. Redeploy your app from the CodeRed Cloud Dashboard by going to the Deployment tab and clicking Deploy Production. This will create a fresh Python environment on the server, install requirements, perform database migrations, and collect static files all at once.

    Alternatively, for minor code changes, you can click Restart Production which only reloads the web server with the new code; it will not update the Python environment or upgrade any pip packages.

Migrating Existing Django Sites#

To load an existing Django site into CodeRed Cloud:

  1. Using SFTP, you may delete all of the files in the www folder on the server.

  2. Update your existing project code to include the necessary settings in settings/prod.py (and optionally settings/staging.py to use the staging environment on Professional plans). These files must be named exactly so. Read our Django Environment Reference for examples of Django settings files.

    You can easily have cr update your settings for you by running:

    $ cr check WEBAPP

    This will scan your current Django project and offer to fix the settings to work optimally with CodeRed Cloud.

  3. If your site requires an existing database, or you need to clear out the current database and start fresh, Reset your CodeRed Cloud Database.

  4. At this point, you may now copy your existing project code to the server and deploy.

    $ cr deploy WEBAPP

Read our detailed migration guide here.