Openshift.md

Hi all,

In this post I will be talking about how to host a Django based app on OpenShift.

• First of all, why only Openshift, when there are so many alternatives: Well I will keep this as Openshift vs Heroku. Ok so Heroku has a nice support and its really easy if you are using PostgreSql or Sql as a database, but when you need to perform geospatial queries like all the places within 5 km of range, then Heroku loses. You can install Geodjango and its associated libraries SO link but you cannot create POSTGIS extension because one is not given SuperUser access on Hobby-Dev plan.

  So after struggling the whole day, next day in the morning I looked for Openshift and yes! It worked. Its because you are given express edition of database in Openshift under Free Tier and so you can create POSTGIS extension very easily.

• Now installing Client Tools for Openshift

  • The instruction for installing can be found here. If you are following the tutorial and using Ubuntu 14.04 like me, you fill face an error like

   E: Package 'rubygems' has no installation candidate

  So use

   sudo apt-get install rubygems-integration

  • After the installation is complete, follow this link. I will explain here though. Unlike Heroku, where you can directly commit code from local to heroku server, in openshift you need to specify repo.

   rhc app create <nameofApp> python-2.6 	#creating app
   cd nameofApp
   rhc cartridge add postgresql-9.2 -a nameofApp	#attaching postgresql cartridge

  Now ssh into your app to create postgis extension

   #create postgis extension
   rhc ssh nameofApp
   psql
   CREATE EXTENSION postgis;
   \q
   exit
   #till here you have created a database with postgis extension

  Now you must be in your nameofApp directory where a folder named .openshift will be there. Now lets add a remote and pull the code from there.

   git remote add newremote https://github.com/staranjeet/geoloc23.git
   git fetch newremote

  Its time to edit some files now.

   mkdir wsgi
   cd wsgi
   touch application
   vim application

   #!/usr/bin/env python
  
   import os
   import sys
  
   sys.path.append(os.path.join(os.environ['OPENSHIFT_REPO_DIR']))
  
   os.environ['DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE'] = 'geodjtj.settings'
  
   virtenv = os.environ['OPENSHIFT_HOMEDIR'] + 'python-2.6/virtenv/'
  
   # env shows this as the egg cache:
   # PYTHON_EGG_CACHE=/var/lib/openshift/ecad07d3b3a7455085c8644d2f04e6bc/python-2.6/.python-eggs/
   os.environ['PYTHON_EGG_CACHE'] = os.path.join(virtenv, 'lib/python2.6/site-packages')
  
   virtualenv = os.path.join(virtenv, 'bin/activate_this.py')
   try:
       execfile(virtualenv, dict(__file__=virtualenv))
   except IOError:
       pass
   #
   # IMPORTANT: Put any additional includes below this line.  If placed above this
   # line, it's possible required libraries won't be in your searchable path
   # 
  
   from django.core.wsgi import get_wsgi_application
   application = get_wsgi_application()

  This wsgi file is necesarry because it will tell Openshift which app to serve. If this is not there, then your app will be hosted but you will see a default welcome to Openshift page.

  Now edit setup.py

   from setuptools import setup
  
   setup(name='nameofApp',
     version='1.0',
     description='OpenShift App',
     author='Taranjeet',
     author_email='reachtotj@gmail.com',
     url='https://github.com/staranjeet/geoloc23',
     install_requires=['Django>=1.3', 'psycopg2'],
    )

  Next you need to edit settings.py

  #database
  if 'OPENSHIFT_POSTGRESQL_DB_URL' in os.environ:
  DATABASES = {
  'default': {
     'ENGINE': 'django.contrib.gis.db.backends.postgis',
     'NAME': os.environ['OPENSHIFT_APP_NAME'],
     'USER': 'admine3cgl3b',
     'PASSWORD': "FgZKC6e7QAEZ",
     'HOST': os.environ['OPENSHIFT_POSTGRESQL_DB_HOST'],
     'PORT': os.environ['OPENSHIFT_POSTGRESQL_DB_PORT'],
     }
  }
  else:
  DATABASES = {
  'default': {
     'ENGINE': 'django.contrib.gis.db.backends.postgis',
     'NAME': 'dbname',
     'USER':'username',
     'PASSWORD':'********',
  }
  }
  #serve static files
  if 'OPENSHIFT_REPO_DIR' in os.environ:
     STATIC_ROOT = os.path.join(os.environ.get('OPENSHIFT_REPO_DIR'), 'wsgi', 'static')
  else:
     STATIC_ROOT = 'staticfiles'

  Thats all, Now commit the changes and push the code

  git add -A
  git commit -m "code to openshift deployed"
  git push

  Note that in the link mentioned, they are using deploy script to perform syncdb and collectstatic but you can do it by using ssh as

  rhc ssh nameofApp
  cd app-root
  cd repo
  python manange.py syncdb
  python manage.py collectstatic

  Hope it helps!