Django Backend Starter

A starter project for a Django backend.

Setup Instructions

Clone the repository:

$ git clone https://github.com/douno/django-backend-starter.git

Ensure you have Docker and Docker Compose installed:

$ docker -v
$ docker-compose -v

Start Docker if not already.

Build the image and start a container:

$ docker-compose up -d --build

You can open the app in the browser at localhost:8009

To stop the container and remove associated volumes, run the command:

$ docker-compose down -v

Deployment

Sign up for a Heroku account (if you don’t already have one)

Install the Heroku CLI (if you haven't already done so)

Create a new app:

$ heroku create

Log in to the Heroku Container Registry:

$ heroku container:login

Provision a new Postgres database with the hobby-dev plan:

$ heroku addons:create heroku-postgresql:hobby-dev --app <app_name>

Update the DJANGO_ALLOWED_HOSTS environment variable in Dockerfile.prod:

ENV DJANGO_ALLOWED_HOSTS .herokuapp.com

Now, we need to build the production Docker image and tag it with the following format registry.heroku.com/<app>/<process-type>:

$ cd app
$ docker build -f Dockerfile.prod -t registry.heroku.com/<app_name>/web .

Push the image to the registry:

$ docker push registry.heroku.com/<app_name>/web:latest

Release the image:

$ heroku container:release web --app <app_name>

This will run the container. You should be able to view the app at https://<app_name>.herokuapp.com/admin/

Note: You will get a 404 error if you go to https://<app_name>.herokuapp.com/

If you see an "Exec format error" and are using an Apple M1 or M2 chip, you may need to use Docker buildx for builds. For example:

$ docker buildx build --platform linux/amd64 -f Dockerfile.prod -t registry.heroku.com/<app_name>/web .

Apply the migrations:

$ heroku run python manage.py migrate --app <app_name>

Useful Commands:

Django Commands with Docker Compose:

Tasks	Commands
Create migrations	$ docker-compose exec backend python manage.py makemigrations
Run migrations	$ docker-compose exec backend python manage.py migrate

PostgreSQL Commands with Docker Compose:

Tasks	Commands
Connect to a specific database	$ docker-compose exec backend-db psql --username=backend --dbname=backend_dev

Code Quality Commands:

Tasks	Commands
Run Flake8	$ $ docker-compose exec movies flake8 .
Format code with Black	$ docker-compose exec movies black --exclude=migrations .
Check if there is code to format with Black	$ docker-compose exec movies black --check --exclude=migrations .
Show the difference before and after formatting with Black	$ docker-compose exec movies black --diff --exclude=migrations .
Sort imports with isort	$ docker-compose exec movies isort .
Check if there are imports that need sorting with Black	$ docker-compose exec movies isort . --check-only
Show the difference before and after sorting imports with isort	$ docker-compose exec movies isort . --diff

Common Docker Commands:

Tasks	Commands
Build an image	$ docker-compose build
Start a container	$ docker-compose up
Start a container (in detached mode)	$ docker-compose up -d
Build and image and start a container (in detached mode)	$ docker-compose up -d --build
Inspect a volume	$ docker volume inspect django-backend-starter_postgres_data
Run migrations	$ docker-compose exec backend python manage.py migrate

Test-Driven Development with Django, Django REST Framework, and Docker