Deployment

In short:

• Create a local_settings.py alongside settings.py for your host-specific settings (like database connection, email, etc).
• Configure mod_wsgi or mod_python.
• Set up cron job for mailer and asynchronous notifications.

Using mod_wsgi

If you are using mod_wsgi, which we recommend, you will need to give it a WSGI file. Here is a sample WSGI file that correctly sets up your sys.path to use all of the correct components:

import os
import sys

# redirect sys.stdout to sys.stderr for bad libraries like geopy that uses
# print statements for optional import exceptions.
sys.stdout = sys.stderr

from os.path import abspath, dirname, join
from site import addsitedir

path = addsitedir(abspath(join(dirname(__file__), "pinax", "libs", "external_libs")), set())
if path:
    sys.path = list(path) + sys.path

sys.path.insert(0, abspath(join(dirname(__file__), "pinax", "apps", "external_apps")))
sys.path.insert(0, abspath(join(dirname(__file__), "pinax", "apps", "local_apps")))
sys.path.insert(0, abspath(join(dirname(__file__), "pinax", "apps", "core_apps")))

sys.path.insert(0, abspath(join(dirname(__file__), "pinax", "projects")))

from django.core.handlers.wsgi import WSGIHandler

os.environ["DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE"] = "complete_project.settings"

application = WSGIHandler()

Using mod_python

If mod_python is your flavor we have provided the correct hooks for you to use Pinax. Here is a sample Apache config that you can use:

<Location "/">
    SetHandler python-program
    PythonHandler complete_project.deploy.modpython
    SetEnv DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE complete_project.settings
    PythonDebug On
    PythonPath "['/path/to/pinax/projects'] + sys.path"
</Location>

Note

It is important to note that you should pay careful attension to the value of PythonHandler above. It is not using django.core.handlers.modpython. It is using a mod_python handler located in your project’s deploy/ directory. The reason why we have our own mod_python handler is because we need to setup the Pinax environment otherwise you will see failing imports.

Sending Mail and Notices

Both mail messages and (some) notifications are queued for asynchronous delivery. To actually deliver them you need to run

./manage.py send_mail

and

./manage.py emit_notices

on a frequent, regular basis.

Because failed mail will be deferred, you need an additional, less frequency run of

./manage.py retry_deferred

We recommend setting up cron jobs similar to the following:

* * * * * (cd /path/to/pinax; /usr/local/bin/python2.5 manage.py send_mail >> /path/to/pinax/cron_mail.log 2>&1)
* * * * * (cd /path/to/pinax ; /usr/local/bin/python2.5 manage.py emit_notices >> /path/to/pinax/emit_notices.log 2>&1)

0,20,40 * * * * (cd /path/to/pinax; /usr/local/bin/python2.5 manage.py retry_deferred >> /path/to/pinax/cron_mail_deferred.log 2>&1)

This runs send_mail and emit_notices every minute and retry_deferred every 20 minutes.

See also

• Pinax Setup and Deployment by Greg Newman
• Getting Started With Pinax by Eric Holscher