This document will get you up and running with Django.
Being a Python Web framework, Django requires Python.
It works with any Python version from 2.3 to 2.6 (due to backwards incompatibilities in Python 3.0, Django does not currently work with Python 3.0; see the Django FAQ for more information on supported Python versions and the 3.0 transition).
Get Python at http://www.python.org. If you’re running Linux or Mac OS X, you probably already have it installed.
Django on Jython
If you use Jython (a Python implementation for the Java platform), you’ll need to follow a few additional steps. See Running Django on Jython for details.
If you just want to experiment with Django, skip ahead to the next section; Django includes a lightweight web server you can use for testing, so you won’t need to set up Apache until you’re ready to deploy Django in production.
If you want to use Django on a production site, use Apache with mod_wsgi. mod_wsgi is similar to mod_perl – it embeds Python within Apache and loads Python code into memory when the server starts. Code stays in memory throughout the life of an Apache process, which leads to significant performance gains over other server arrangements. Make sure you have Apache installed, with the mod_wsgi module activated. Django will work with any version of Apache that supports mod_wsgi.
See How to use Django with mod_wsgi for information on how to configure mod_wsgi once you have it installed.
If you can’t use mod_wsgi for some reason, fear not: Django supports many other deployment options. A great second choice is mod_python, the predecessor to mod_wsgi. Additionally, Django follows the WSGI spec, which allows it to run on a variety of server platforms. See the server-arrangements wiki page for specific installation instructions for each platform.
If you plan to use Django’s database API functionality, you’ll need to make sure a database server is running. Django supports many different database servers and is officially supported with PostgreSQL, MySQL, Oracle and SQLite (although SQLite doesn’t require a separate server to be running).
In addition to the officially supported databases, there are backends provided by 3rd parties that allow you to use other databases with Django:
The Django versions and ORM features supported by these unofficial backends vary considerably. Queries regarding the specific capabilities of these unofficial backends, along with any support queries, should be directed to the support channels provided by each 3rd party project.
In addition to a database backend, you’ll need to make sure your Python database bindings are installed.
If you’re using PostgreSQL, you’ll need the psycopg package. Django supports both version 1 and 2. (When you configure Django’s database layer, specify either postgresql [for version 1] or postgresql_psycopg2 [for version 2].)
If you’re on Windows, check out the unofficial compiled Windows version.
If you’re using MySQL, you’ll need MySQLdb, version 1.2.1p2 or higher. You will also want to read the database-specific notes for the MySQL backend.
If you’re using SQLite and either Python 2.3 or Python 2.4, you’ll need pysqlite. Use version 2.0.3 or higher. Python 2.5 ships with an SQLite wrapper in the standard library, so you don’t need to install anything extra in that case. Please read the SQLite backend notes.
If you’re using Oracle, you’ll need a copy of cx_Oracle, but please read the database-specific notes for the Oracle backend for important information regarding supported versions of both Oracle and cx_Oracle.
If you’re using an unofficial 3rd party backend, please consult the documentation provided for any additional requirements.
If you plan to use Django’s manage.py syncdb command to automatically create database tables for your models, you’ll need to ensure that Django has permission to create and alter tables in the database you’re using; if you plan to manually create the tables, you can simply grant Django SELECT, INSERT, UPDATE and DELETE permissions. On some databases, Django will need ALTER TABLE privileges during syncdb but won’t issue ALTER TABLE statements on a table once syncdb has created it.
If you’re using Django’s testing framework to test database queries, Django will need permission to create a test database.
If you are upgrading your installation of Django from a previous version, you will need to uninstall the old Django version before installing the new version.
If you installed Django using setup.py install, uninstalling is as simple as deleting the django directory from your Python site-packages.
If you installed Django from a Python egg, remove the Django .egg file, and remove the reference to the egg in the file named easy-install.pth. This file should also be located in your site-packages directory.
Where are my site-packages stored?
The location of the site-packages directory depends on the operating system, and the location in which Python was installed. To find out your system’s site-packages location, execute the following:
python -c "from distutils.sysconfig import get_python_lib; print get_python_lib()"
(Note that this should be run from a shell prompt, not a Python interactive prompt.)
Installation instructions are slightly different depending on whether you're installing a distribution-specific package, downloading the latest official release, or fetching the latest development version.
It's easy, no matter which way you choose.
Check the distribution specific notes to see if your platform/distribution provides official Django packages/installers. Distribution-provided packages will typically allow for automatic installation of dependencies and easy upgrade paths.
These commands will install Django in your Python installation's site-packages directory.
Tracking Django development
If you decide to use the latest development version of Django, you'll want to pay close attention to the development timeline, and you'll want to keep an eye on the list of backwards-incompatible changes. This will help you stay on top of any new features you might want to use, as well as any changes you'll need to make to your code when updating your copy of Django. (For stable releases, any necessary changes are documented in the release notes.)
If you'd like to be able to update your Django code occasionally with the latest bug fixes and improvements, follow these instructions:
Make sure that you have Subversion installed, and that you can run its commands from a shell. (Enter svn help at a shell prompt to test this.)
Check out Django's main development branch (the 'trunk') like so:
svn co http://code.djangoproject.com/svn/django/trunk/ django-trunk
Next, make sure that the Python interpreter can load Django's code. There are various ways of accomplishing this. One of the most convenient, on Linux, Mac OSX or other Unix-like systems, is to use a symbolic link:
ln -s `pwd`/django-trunk/django SITE-PACKAGES-DIR/django
(In the above line, change SITE-PACKAGES-DIR to match the location of your system's site-packages directory, as explained in the "Where are my site-packages stored?" section above.)
Alternatively, you can define your PYTHONPATH environment variable so that it includes the django-trunk directory. This is perhaps the most convenient solution on Windows systems, which don't support symbolic links. (Environment variables can be defined on Windows systems from the Control Panel.)
What about Apache and mod_python?
If you take the approach of setting PYTHONPATH, you'll need to remember to do the same thing in your Apache configuration once you deploy your production site. Do this by setting PythonPath in your Apache configuration file.
More information about deployment is available, of course, in our How to use Django with mod_python documentation.
On Unix-like systems, create a symbolic link to the file django-trunk/django/bin/django-admin.py in a directory on your system path, such as /usr/local/bin. For example:
ln -s `pwd`/django-trunk/django/bin/django-admin.py /usr/local/bin
This simply lets you type django-admin.py from within any directory, rather than having to qualify the command with the full path to the file.
On Windows systems, the same result can be achieved by copying the file django-trunk/django/bin/django-admin.py to somewhere on your system path, for example C:\Python24\Scripts.
You don't have to run python setup.py install, because you've already carried out the equivalent actions in steps 3 and 4.
When you want to update your copy of the Django source code, just run the command svn update from within the django-trunk directory. When you do this, Subversion will automatically download any changes.
Sep 20, 2009