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Part 2- Install Django using Virtualenv, Apache and MySQL on Ubuntu Server 14.10

Introduction

In Part 1 of this tutorial we successfully installed Django. In this tutorial we will build our first Django app. We will build a Personal Budget where you will be able to:
  • Enter an expense on a web page
  • View bar graphs of your expenses on a web page

Objective

In this tutorial we will:
  • Configure Django to use MySQL
  • Configure Django to use Apache
  • Install and configure django-chartit to display pretty graphs
  • Create our Personal Budget Django App

Assumptions

  • Fresh Install of Ubuntu Server 14.10
  • SSH enabled (sudo apt-get install ssh-server)
  • User has root privileges
  • Basic familiarity with using the Linux command line (terminal)
  • Have completed installation steps outlined in Part 1 of this tutorial

Installation

Step 1 - Configure Django to use MySQL

Open the settings.py file
vim /var/www/html/projects/webapps/webapps/settings.py
Comment or Replace the Database section with the following
DATABASES = {
'default': {
'ENGINE': 'django.db.backends.mysql',
'NAME': 'django',
'USER': 'django',
'PASSWORD': 'django',
'HOST': 'localhost', # Or an IP Address that your DB is hosted on
'PORT': '3306',
}
}

Step 2 - Configure Django to use Apache

Take and backup and open the Apache's configuration file
mv /etc/apache2/sites-enabled/000-default.conf /etc/apache2/sites-enabled/000-default.conf.bak
vim /etc/apache2/sites-enabled/000-default.conf
Insert the following configuration
<VirtualHost *:80>
    # The ServerName directive sets the request scheme, hostname and port that
    # the server uses to identify itself. This is used when creating
    # redirection URLs. In the context of virtual hosts, the ServerName
    # specifies what hostname must appear in the request's Host: header to
    # match this virtual host. For the default virtual host (this file) this
    # value is not decisive as it is used as a last resort host regardless.
    # However, you must set it for any further virtual host explicitly.
    #ServerName www.example.com
        WSGIDaemonProcess webapps python-path=/var/www/html/projects/webapps:/var/www/html/projects/lib/python2.7/site-packages
        WSGIProcessGroup webapps
        WSGIScriptAlias / /var/www/html/projects/webapps/webapps/wsgi.py
    ServerAdmin webmaster@localhost
    DocumentRoot /var/www/html

    Alias /static/ /var/www/html/projects/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/django/contrib/admin/static/
        <Directory /var/www/html/projects/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/django/contrib/admin/static/>
            Require all granted
        </Directory>
        # Available loglevels: trace8, ..., trace1, debug, info, notice, warn,
    # error, crit, alert, emerg.
    # It is also possible to configure the loglevel for particular
    # modules, e.g.
    #LogLevel info ssl:warn

    ErrorLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/error.log
    CustomLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/access.log combined

    # For most configuration files from conf-available/, which are
    # enabled or disabled at a global level, it is possible to
    # include a line for only one particular virtual host. For example the
    # following line enables the CGI configuration for this host only
    # after it has been globally disabled with "a2disconf".
    #Include conf-available/serve-cgi-bin.conf
</VirtualHost>

# vim: syntax=apache ts=4 sw=4 sts=4 sr noet
Restart Apache
service apache2 restart
Open your browser and Navigate to your servers URL (http://your-server-ip). The Django webpage should be displayed

Step 3 - Install and configure Chartit

cd /var/www/html/projects/
. bin/activate
pip install django-chartit
pip install simplejson
cd /var/www/html/projects/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/django/contrib/admin/static/
cp -R /var/www/html/projects/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/chartit/static/chartit/ .
Find and Replace 'from django.utils import simplejson' with 'import simplejson' in the following file
vim /var/www/html/projects/lib/python2.7/site-packages/chartit/templatetags/chartit.py

Step 4 - Create a Django App and call it budget

cd /var/www/html/projects/
. bin/activate
cd webapps/
python manage.py startapp budget

Step 5 - Create a Django Model

Edit the following file
vim /var/www/html/projects/webapps/budget/models.py
Delete the contents and insert the following: 
from django.db import models

# Create your models here.
category_choices = (('Housing','Housing'),
                    ('Transportation','Transportation'),
                    ('Personal','Personal'),
                    ('Vacation','Vacation'),
                    ('Savings', 'Savings'))

class Expense(models.Model):
    expense_date = models.DateField('date published')
    category_text = models.CharField(choices=category_choices,max_length=50)
    description_text = models.CharField(max_length=200)
    expense_value = models.DecimalField(default=0, max_digits=10, decimal_places=2)
We have done the following:
  • Created categories for our expenses like Housing, Transportation etc.
  • Created various database fields. When we enter expenses we will have the ability to:
    • Enter a date for the expense
    • Choose a category for the expense
    • Provide a description for the expense
    • Enter the expense value

Step 6 - Enable our newly created app (budget) and installed app (chartit)

Edit the following file
vim /var/www/html/projects/webapps/webapps/settings.py
Find 'INSTALLED_APPS' and replace it with the following:

INSTALLED_APPS = (
    'django.contrib.admin',
    'django.contrib.auth',
    'django.contrib.contenttypes',
    'django.contrib.sessions',
    'django.contrib.messages',
    'django.contrib.staticfiles',
    'budget',
    'chartit',
)

Step 7 - Run migrations on your Models

python manage.py makemigrations budget
python manage.py sqlmigrate budget 0001
python manage.py migrate

Step 8 - Create an Admin account

(projects)root@django:/var/www/html/projects/webapps# cd /var/www/html/projects/
(projects)root@django:/var/www/html/projects/webapps# python manage.py createsuperuser
Username (leave blank to use 'root'): admin
Email address: admin@admin.com
Password:
Password (again):
Superuser created successfully.
Navigate to the server http://your-server-ip/admin. Enter your credentials and verify you can access the admin console.

Step 9 - Add our app to the Admin site

from django.contrib import admin
from budget.models import Expense

class ExpenseAdmin(admin.ModelAdmin):
    fields = ['expense_date', 'category_text', 'description_text', 'expense_value']
    list_display = ('expense_date', 'category_text', 'description_text', 'expense_value')
    list_filter = ['category_text']
    search_fields = ['description_text', 'expense_value']

admin.site.register(Expense, ExpenseAdmin)
Restart Apache

service apache2 restart
Navigate to the Admin site. There should be an option to add expenses. Add a few expenses

Step 10 - Create a Django Views to display the expense graphs

cd /var/www/html/projects/webapps/budget/
mv views.py views.py.bak
vim views.py
Cut and paste the following in views.py 
from django.shortcuts import render, render_to_response
from django.db.models import *

# Create your views here.
from chartit import DataPool, Chart, PivotDataPool, PivotChart
from budget.models import *


#Create a data  source  
    total_per_category_pivot = \
        PivotDataPool(
           series=
            [{'options': {
               'source': Expense.objects.all().values(),
               'categories': [‘category_text']},
              'terms': {
                'sum' : Sum('expense_value')}}])

    chart1 = PivotChart(
            datasource = total_per_category_pivot,
            series_options =
              [{'options':{
                  'type': 'column',
                  'stacking': False},
                'terms':[
                  'sum']}],
            chart_options =
              {'title': {
                   'text': 'Total Expenditure per Category'},
               'xAxis': {
                    'title': {
                       'text': 'Categories'}}})

    #Step 3: Send the chart object to the template.
    return render(request, 'budget/index.html',{'totalpermonth': [chart1]})

Step 11 - Create a Web Template to display the graphs

cd /var/www/html/projects/webapps/budget/
mkdir templates
cd templates
mkdir budget
cd budget
vim index.html
<head>
    {% load staticfiles %}
    <!-- code to include the highcharts and jQuery libraries goes here -->
    <!-- load_charts filter takes a comma-separated list of id's where -->
    <!-- the charts need to be rendered to                             -->
    <script src="http://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.7.1/jquery.min.js" type="text/javascript"></script>
    <script src="http://code.highcharts.com/highcharts.js" type="text/javascript"></script>
    <script src="/highcharts.js" type="text/javascript"></script>

    {% load chartit %}
    {{ totalpermonth|load_charts:"chart1" }}
</head>
<body>
    <div id="chart1">
 Chart will be rendered here </div>
</body>

Step 12 - Edit budget url.py file

cd /var/www/html/projects/webapps/budget/
vim urls.py
Replace the contents of url.py file with the following
from django.conf.urls import patterns, url

from  budget import views

urlpatterns = patterns('',
    url(r'^$', views.total, name='total'),
)

Step 13 - Edit the urls.py file for the project webapps

cd /var/www/html/projects/webapps/webapps/
vim urls.py
Replace the contents of url.py file with the following
from django.conf.urls import patterns, include, url
from django.contrib import admin

urlpatterns = patterns('',
    # Examples:
    # url(r'^$', 'webapps.views.home', name='home'),
    # url(r'^blog/', include('blog.urls')),

    url(r'^admin/', include(admin.site.urls)),
    url(r'^total/', include('budget.urls')),
)

Restart Apache and check out the fancy bar graph

service apache2 restart
Navigate to http://your-server-ip/total and you should see a graph load as long as your server can communicate over the Internet with highcharts and javascript web servers


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