DEV Community

DoriDoro
DoriDoro

Posted on • Edited on

Deploy a Django app with PostgreSQL database on Vercel

#django #vercel #deployment #postgressql

I was facing the question: How can I deploy my Django project on Vercel?

My requirements:

  • Ubuntu 22.04.3 (Linux)
  • Django project with 3 apps
  • change for the deployment on Vercel the SQLite database to PostgreSQL
  • my static files are in one app (ui) and not in the root directory
# project tree (short version):

.
├── accounts
├── build_files.sh
├── db.sqlite3
├── project
│   ├── asgi.py
│   ├── __init__.py
│   ├── settings.py
│   ├── urls.py
│   └── wsgi.py
├── manage.py
├── README.md
├── requirements.txt
├── second_app
├── ui
│   ├── static
│   │   └── css
│   │       └── styles.css
└── vercel.json
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

1) deployment on Vercel

I had already an account on Vercel and the vercel-cli installed.

step 1
create in root directory of your project the file: build_files.sh and add these lines of code

# build_files.sh

pip install -r requirements.txt
python3.9 manage.py collectstatic --noinput
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

step 2
create in root a versel.json file, which is the configuration for the versel deployment:

# versel.json

{
  "version": 2,
  "builds": [
    {
      "src": "<projectname>/wsgi.py",
      "use": "@vercel/python",
      "config": { "maxLambdaSize": "15mb", "runtime": "python3.9" }
    },
    {
      "src": "build_files.sh",
      "use": "@vercel/static-build",
      "config": {
        "distDir": "ui/staticfiles"
      }
    }
  ],
  "routes": [
    {
      "src": "/static/(.*)",
      "dest": "/static/$1"
    },
    {
      "src": "/(.*)",
      "dest": "<projectname>/wsgi.py"
    }
  ],
  "outputDirectory": "ui/staticfiles"
}
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

make sure to update the "projectname" _
_"src": "<projectname>/wsgi.py", points to the wsgi.py file of your project
"outputDirectory": "ui/staticfiles" tells vercel where to look because I have the static and staticfiles directories in the app called ui instead of root directory

step 3
tell where the static and staticfiles directories are located:

# settings.py

STATICFILES_DIRS = [os.path.join(BASE_DIR, "ui/static")]
STATIC_URL = "static/"
STATIC_ROOT = os.path.join(BASE_DIR, "ui/staticfiles")
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

NOTE: If in your project the static directory is in root directory:
# versel.json

{
  "version": 2,
  "builds": [
    {
      "src": "<projectname>/wsgi.py",
      "use": "@vercel/python",
      "config": { "maxLambdaSize": "15mb", "runtime": "python3.9" }
    },
    {
      "src": "build_files.sh",
      "use": "@vercel/static-build",
      "config": {
        "distDir": "staticfiles"
      }
    }
  ],
  "routes": [
    {
      "src": "/static/(.*)",
      "dest": "/static/$1"
    },
    {
      "src": "/(.*)",
      "dest": "<projectname>/wsgi.py"
    }
  ]
}
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode 
# settings.py

STATICFILES_DIRS = [os.path.join(BASE_DIR, "static")]
STATIC_URL = "static/"
STATIC_ROOT = os.path.join(BASE_DIR, "staticfiles")
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

step 4
Integrate the PostgreSQL database into the Django project:

# settings.py

DATABASES = {
    'default': {
        'ENGINE': 'django.db.backends.postgresql_psycopg2',
        'NAME': '<mydb>',
        'USER': '<myuser>',
        'PASSWORD': '<mypass>',
        'HOST': 'localhost',
        'PORT': '5432',
    }
}
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

to create a PostgreSQL database look at the end of this article

step 5
update the allowed hosts to give vercel access and being a valid host name:

# settings.py

ALLOWED_HOSTS = ["127.0.0.1", ".vercel.app", ".now.sh"]
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

step 6
create the vercel variable app in your Django project

# wsgi.py

application = get_wsgi_application()
# add this vercel variable
app = application
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

step 7
add the static folder to the urls of your project

# your_project/urls.py

urlpatterns = [
    path("admin/", admin.site.urls),
]

if settings.DEBUG:
    urlpatterns += static(settings.STATIC_URL, document_root=settings.STATIC_ROOT)
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

step 8
open terminal:

vercel
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

The vercel cli will ask you:

 Set up and deploy “~/<path_of_your_project>”? [Y/n] y
? Which scope do you want to deploy to? <your_github_name>
? Link to existing project? [y/N] n
? What’s your project’s name? <name_of_project>
? In which directory is your code located? ./
🔗  Linked to <your_github_name>/<name_of_project> (created .vercel and added it to .gitignore)
🔍  Inspect: https://vercel.com/<your_github_name>/<name_of_project>/<vercel_specifics> [5s]
 To deploy to production (<name_of_project>.vercel.app), run `vercel --prod`
❗️  Due to `builds` existing in your configuration file, the Build and Development Settings defined in your Project Settings will not apply. Learn More: https://vercel.link/unused-build-settings
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

to run the deployed Django app on vercel, run:

vercel --prod
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

2) create and set up the PostgreSQL database:

We need to install several libraries and dependancies:

A) install PostgreSQL:

sudo apt-get install postgresql postgresql-contrib
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

B) install dependencies necessary for Linux:

sudo apt-get install libpq-dev python3-dev
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

C) install the PostgreSQL database adapter to communicate to the database:

# install inside the virtual environment of your project:
pip install psycopg2
pip freeze > requirements.txt
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

use the pip freeze > requirements.txt to save the new installed package inside the requirements.txt file

D) Create the database and a user:
We use the PostgreSQL database adapter to create a database and a user:

sudo -u postgres psql
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

first we create the database named: "mydb"

CREATE DATABASE <mydb>;
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

end the command with a semicolon!

create a user "myuser" with password "mypass":

CREATE USER <myuser> WITH ENCRYPTED PASSWORD '<mypass>';
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

optimize PostgreSQL's settings:

 ALTER ROLE <myuser> SET client_encoding TO 'utf8';
 ALTER ROLE <myuser> SET default_transaction_isolation TO 'read committed';
 ALTER ROLE <myuser> SET timezone TO 'UTC';
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

these parameter are recommended by Django docs

grant permission to the user:

GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON DATABASE <mydb> TO <myuser>;
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

addapt the name of the database and the user name

quit the SQL prompt

\q
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

E) Integrate the PostgreSQL database into the Django project:

# settings.py

DATABASES = {
    'default': {
        'ENGINE': 'django.db.backends.postgresql_psycopg2',
        'NAME': '<mydb>',
        'USER': '<myuser>',
        'PASSWORD': '<mypass>',
        'HOST': 'localhost',
        'PORT': '',
    }
}
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

For production or hosting on Vercel the better version will be to store sensitive information in the .env file in root of your project.

To be able to use a .env file in your project we need to install:

pip install python-dotenv
pip freeze > requirements.txt
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

use the pip freeze > requirements.txt to save the new installed package inside the requirements.txt file

# settings.py

from dotenv import load_dotenv
load_dotenv()

DATABASES = {
    "default": {
        "ENGINE": "django.db.backends.postgresql_psycopg2",
        "NAME": os.environ.get("DB_NAME"),
        "USER": os.environ.get("DB_USER"),
        "PASSWORD": os.environ.get("DB_PASSWORD"),
        "HOST": os.environ.get("DB_HOST"),
        "PORT": os.environ.get("DB_PORT"),
    }
}
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

add a new file .env in root of your project:

# .env

DB_NAME= "<mydb>"
DB_USER= "<myuser>"
DB_PASSWORD= "<mypass>"
DB_HOST= "localhost"
DB_PORT= "5432"
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

finish the creation of the PostgreSQL database with

python manage.py makemigrations
python manage.py migrate
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

Hope this post helps!

Top comments (3)

Collapse
 
sokhavuth profile image
Sokhavuth TIN •

Vercel also has Postgresql database on its platform. How to host Django app on Vercel using this Postgresql database?
vercel.com/docs/storage/vercel-pos...

Collapse
 
doridoro profile image
DoriDoro •

Honestly I do not know yet. Could not host the project until now completely. The project has to be evaluated before. For the evaluation I need to use the SQLite. If the evaluation is done I will host the project and I will create an other article how I created the PostgreSQL database on Vercel and what I have done.
Sorry for the bad news.

Collapse
 
zachwithcoherence profile image
zach-withcoherence •

If looking to deploy Django and PostgreSQL to Google Cloud Platform or Amazon Web Services, check out docs.withcoherence.com/docs/config...

Read next

budiwidhiyanto profile image

Synchronizing Threads with Semaphores: Practicing Concurrency in Java - LeetCode Problem 1115, "Print FooBar Alternately"

Budi Widhiyanto -

jestsee profile image

Hacky Way to Customize Shadcn’s Tooltip Arrows

Jesica -

gablemathias profile image

Bubble Sort Algorithm

Gabriel Mathias -

gudo-tcp profile image

The Winter Solstice

Guido -