hybrid-django-react 0.2.2

Django starter project template. Dockerized Django serving a static React app

Starter project template

🤠⚛️ Dockerized hybrid Django React app

Starter project template using Docker to build a Django app that serves React apps statically (as JavaScript files)

Tech stack

• Django (with Rest framework, PostgreSQL, SMTP gmail backend, whitenoise, etc.)
• React (bundled with webpack and transpiled with babel)
• Docker
• Deployment to Heroku

Prerequisites

• Docker
• pip, poetry, pyenv or a similar tool to access pypi

Installation

Install with the following command

pip install hybrid-django-react

Usage

Run the scripts with the following command:

create-django-react-app

You will be prompted for some information like project name, email, etc. This data is needed to change the configuration files accordingly

After the script has run, you don't need this tool anymore 😀

Simply start the docker container to start working:

docker-compose up -d

You can then work as usual on your Django project.

The entry point of the React render can be edited from the file frontend/index.js

Debugging with Docker and VSCode

Support for debugging remotely with VSCode is supported out-of-the-box.

To debug with Docker:

1. Run your Docker containers as usual: docker-compose up -d --build

2. Start the debug session from VS Code for the [django:docker] runserver configuration (either from the Debugger menu or with F5)

   • Logs will redirect to your integrated terminal as well.

3. Set some breakpoints in functions or methods executed when needed. Usually it's Model methods or View functions

Adding external libraries

It's better to install external libraries from from Docker directly

Python libraries:

• Production libraries

docker-compose exec web poetry add [pip_package]

• Development libraries

docker-compose exec web poetry add [pip_package] --dev

JavaScript libraries:

• Production libraries

docker-compose exec web npm install [npm_package]

• Development libraries

docker-compose exec web npm install -D [npm_package]

Deploy to Heroku

First setup

1. Create an account and install Heroku CLI
2. Create a new app on Heroku

   heroku create
   

   Your app will get a randomly generated name, like lazy-beyond-52146. Let's call this name [APP_NAME]
3. Add environment variables that Django needs to read:
   1. DJANGO_ENVIRONMENT:

      heroku config:set DJANGO_ENVIRONMENT=production
      

   2. DJANGO_SECRET_KEY: You can create a safe secret key using this site

      heroku config:set DJANGO_SECRET_KEY=[secret_key]
      

   3. DJANGO_DEBUG:

      heroku config:set DJANGO_DEBUG=False
      

4. Set the stack to Docker containers using the app's name

   heroku stack:setcontainer -a [APP_NAME]
   

5. Create a managed postgresql database on Heroku

   heroku addons:create heroku-postgresql:hobby-dev -a [APP_NAME]
   

6. Create a heroku remote repository and push changes to it

   heroku git:remote -a [APP_NAME]
   git push heroku main
   

7. Migrate Database and create superuser

   heroku run python manage.py migrate
   heroku run python manage.py createsuperuser
   

8. After deployment, check that the site's security audit shows no warnings

Consecutive deployments to production

Deploy by pushing to Heroku git repository:

git push heroku main