Notes and research on deploying a Django app to PythonAnywhere for Django Girls

[copelco]

My running notes and research on developing a PythonAnywhere plugin for django-simple-deploy.

Background

• The Django Girls tutorial contains a deploy section that explains how to deploy a Django app to PythonAnywhere. Sometimes users get stuck at this step and it can be frustrating.
• django-simple-deploy aims to simplify the initial deployment process for Django applications, and includes support for fly.io, Heroku, and platform.sh. However, these services require a credit card to sign up, which can be a barrier for some users. PythonAnywhere offers a free tier that allows users to deploy small Django applications without needing a credit card.
• The goal of this effort is to explore creating a PythonAnywhere plugin for django-simple-deploy that automates the deployment of Django applications to PythonAnywhere, if possible.

Running questions

1. The Beginner: Free! plan allows hosting an app, but PostgreSQL appears to be a paid feature. Is that a blocker for django-simple-deploy, which uses PostgreSQL by default?

Research

• PythonAnywhere provides 512MB of disk space for free accounts, which theoretically could be used to store the SQLite database file that's used in the Django Girls tutorial.
• PythonAnywhere has an API to perform various tasks, including running bash commands.
  • pythonanywhere-core is a Python client library for the API.
• PythonAnywhere doesn't have Docker support. Based on the Django Girls tutorial, it seems that users set up their Django apps using the Python Anywhere interface and web-based bash console.
  • The tutorial includes a pa_autoconfigure_django.py script that automates some of the setup steps, including pulling from your public GitHub repo:

  pip3.10 install pythonanywhere
  pa_autoconfigure_django.py --python=3.10 https://github.com/<your-github-username>/my-first-blog.git

• PythonAnywhere has a cli tool, pa. It supports some webapp commands, but appears to have some specific django support too.
  • AFAICT, the django commands are meant to be run from within a PythonAnywhere bash console, not locally, which isn't really compatible with django-simple-deploy. However, some of the code could be useful.

Idea 1 - Run bash commands through the PythonAnywhere API

1. User creates a free PythonAnywhere account and generates an API token in the web console.

2. User sets environment variables locally, following the pattern established by pa, for example:

   export API_TOKEN="<your_api_token>"
   export PYTHONANYWHERE_SITE="<your_username>.pythonanywhere.com"

3. Use pa or pythonanywhere-core to create a new PythonAnywhere web app.

4. Use the PythonAnywhere API to run bash commands to:

   • Pull from the user's public GitHub repo
   • Set up a virtual environment
   • Install dependencies
   • Set up static files
   • Run migrations
   • Configure the web app to point to the Django app's WSGI file

   Running bash commands through the API is a bit clunky. It could work, or maybe

5. Use the PythonAnywhere API to reload the web app.

6. Open the web app in a browser.

[copelco]

Started exploring options in #2

[salvorapi]

Hi @copelco ,

I have an idea and I want to share with you.
As you reporterd on your research, you can use pa_autoconfigure_django.py to support creation of webapp and add pythonanywhere as a requirement.

Then, you can use pa cli on remote host for running specific Django command.

What do you think about ?

Salvo.

[copelco]

Hi @copelco ,

I have an idea and I want to share with you. As you reporterd on your research, you can use pa_autoconfigure_django.py to support creation of webapp and add pythonanywhere as a requirement.

Then, you can use pa cli on remote host for running specific Django command.

What do you think about ?

Salvo.

I like the idea! AFAICT, I think we want some commands run locally vs remotely, though. For example, updating the settings file and wsgi file should probably happen locally, pushed to Github, and pulled on PythonAnywhere, so those files are committed to the repo? I'm not sure how best to split it up yet.

[ehmatthes]

Hey, it's nice to see progress on this! I looked at PythonAnywhere again and remembered why I didn't build this plugin earlier. Their pricing policy uses a completely different model than every other hosting platform I've used. Everyone else has pro-rated pricing on the resources you're using. So when I deploy and kill a bunch of test instances, I don't accrue any meaningful charges.

PA charges >=$5/month just to have an account, even if you have no apps deployed. I'm going to write to them and ask if that's an accurate interpretation. Do you have an active PA account?

[copelco]

Hi @ehmatthes! I do have an active PA account (free tier) currently. I thought it would work for the Django Girls use case, but admittedly I have been stuck testing the API console interactions (challenging w/o ssh!) to get something functional and not actually running a Django app.

https://www.pythonanywhere.com/pricing/

Based on the pricing matrix, while the 100 second CPU allowance does seem quite low, maybe that's enough for Django Girls? I suppose it may not work for integration testing though. I agree the free tier is quite limiting.

[ehmatthes]

Yeah, that's why I didn't pursue it earlier. I wanted to build the API workflow first, and then build out something that would work on the free tier. The API approach should work cleanly, just like other plugins, but the free tier approach will probably include some "log in to your console and click through...".

This just points to how useful the plugin might be for running tutorials. For participants who are willing and able to make an account, you could use the API-based workflow. For participants who are starting on the free tier, you can use the approach with a few more steps. The configuration work should be consistent across those different approaches.

I reached out to Python Anywhere to ask if they can support development of this plugin. I'll let you know what I hear.

[pauloxnet]

Thanks for continuing to work on this. 🙏

I've tried to direct a few people to this repository. 😅

I think the strength of Python Anywhere is that creating a free account doesn't require a credit card. 🆓

I imagine Django Girls chose it for this very reason, beyond the technical aspects, because many students don't have a credit card, and it's not a given that you can get one in every country in the world. 🌍

[colleenDunlap]

I'd love to help on this but this is my first time seeing this repo. If someone would be willing to pair with me on this I'd love to help out. I'm located in GMT -4 (NYC, USA Time)

[ehmatthes]

Hi @colleenDunlap! Are you familiar with django-simple-deploy at all, or is this the first you're seeing of it? Have you used Python Anywhere much? Do you have a sense of how you might want to help out?

Colin is still working through the first implementation of this plugin, so I'll let him say something more specific about what might be helpful here.