Deploying GeoDjango applications on heroku: Easy workthrough

Motivation

Recently, I was in the position to quickly prototype a location-based application. Since Django is pretty awesome for quick scaffolding with all other requirements still intact, I went straight for it using its extension GeoDjango¹. The development process was pretty interesting 😌. However, deploying the prototyped application on Heroku was a huge pain 😢 since resources were sparse and those available were seemingly outdated.

This guide tends to provide an updated workthrough to overcome this hurdle.

Assumption

It is assumed that you have a GeoDjango¹ application available for deployment. If not, go through ¹ or Make a Location-Based Web App With Django and GeoDjango². Another assumption is that you have chosen to host your application on Heroku and your database is PostgreSQL.

Content

Let's get started. Having configured your application for Heroku deployment³, append the following to your settings.py file.

...
DATABASES['default']['ENGINE'] = 'django.contrib.gis.db.backends.postgis'

If you follow Django Tutorial Part 11: Deploying Django to production³, it should come directly after:

# Heroku: Update database configuration from $DATABASE_URL.
import dj_database_url
db_from_env = dj_database_url.config(conn_max_age=500)
DATABASES['default'].update(db_from_env)

The added code instructs Heroku to use a spatial database extension called postgis. In most cases, failure to include that line results in this error:

AttributeError: 'DatabaseOperations' object has no attribute 'geo_db_type'

Next, we need to add a custom buildpack to our project on Heroku. By default, all Python applications are automatically given heroku/python official buildpack. However, since our application needs more than just a python runtime environment — our application needs GDAL, GEOS, and PROJ in addition to a python runtime environment — we must get the additional environment in place for our application to compile. There are various buildpacks out there for this, however Heroku Buildpack Geo worked seamlessly.

NOTE: It should be noted that this buildpack only provides the runtime environments for GIS related projects therefore, it cannot be used alone. You still need a Python runtime environment for your applications to run.

Doing this is pretty easy with Heroku since it supports multiple buildpacks.

To add this custom buildpack — after you created your heroku application using heroku create application_name — follow the steps below:

• Set the official python buildpack:
  

  heroku buildpacks:set heroku/python
  

• Insert the custom heroku-geo-buildpack:
  

  heroku buildpacks:add --index 1 https://github.com/heroku/heroku-geo-buildpack.git
  

  This will insert the heroku-geo-buildpack buildpack at the first position in the order of buildpack execution, and move the other buildpacks that are ahead of it down one position.⁴

NOTE: Ensure heroku-geo-buildpack buildpack comes first! It installs the basic requirements of a GIS application.

You can confirm it has been included by issuing the following command in your terminal:

heroku buildpacks

You can now happily deploy your application 😊㊗️🎈.

Did you run into some issues? The comment session is live 🤗.

Outro

Enjoyed this article? I'm a Software Engineer and Technical Writer actively seeking new opportunities, particularly in areas related to web security, finance, healthcare, and education. If you think my expertise aligns with your team's needs, let's chat! You can find me on LinkedIn and Twitter.

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Attribution

• Cover image: https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DR9ZJZtHY7RY&psig=AOvVaw1PEbujb86dE7nkyQJAv5gU&ust=1624852485065000&source=images&cd=vfe&ved=0CAwQ3YkBahcKEwiw6ee39bbxAhUAAAAAHQAAAAAQAw

---

1. GeoDjango Tutorial - by Official Django Docs ↩

2. Make a Location-Based Web App With Django and GeoDjango - by Ahmed Bouchefra ↩

3. Django Tutorial Part 11: Deploying Django to production - by MDN ↩

4. Using Multiple Buildpacks for an App - by Heroku ↩

Comments

[Micheal Ojemoron]

battling serious issues with deploying to heroku: dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/up...

[John Owolabi Idogun]

Worked locally?

[Micheal Ojemoron]

yes

[John Owolabi Idogun]

Did you put GDAL buildpack before python's? Did you configure your production database as specified in the post?

[Micheal Ojemoron]

yes I did,
dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/up...
is there a way we can have a google meet, i would be very grateful for this, i have spent the week debugging the issues

[John Owolabi Idogun]

Before doing that, do you mind sending links to the screenshots of your settings.py? Ensure all sensitive data are properly hidden.

[John Owolabi Idogun]

Also, can you let me see the output of heroku buildpacks?

[Micheal Ojemoron]

thats the first link i sent: dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/up...

[Micheal Ojemoron]

from sentry_sdk.integrations.celery import CeleryIntegration
from sentry_sdk.integrations.redis import RedisIntegration

from .base import *
import django_heroku
import sentry_sdk
from sentry_sdk.integrations.django import DjangoIntegration

Build paths inside the project like this: os.path.join(BASE_DIR, ...)

BASE_DIR = os.path.dirname(os.path.dirname(os.path.abspath(file)))

SECURITY WARNING: don't run with debug turned on in production!

DEBUG = config('DEBUG', '', cast=bool)

Application definition

Database

docs.djangoproject.com/en/2.2/ref/...

DATABASES = {
'default': {
'ENGINE': 'django.contrib.gis.db.backends.postgis',
}
}

------------------- HEROKU----------------------

SECURE_PROXY_SSL_HEADER = ('HTTP_X_FORWARDED_PROTO', 'https')
SECURE_SSL_REDIRECT = config('SECURE_SSL_REDIRECT', default=False)
django_heroku.settings(locals())

--------------------------SENDGRID-----------------------

EMAIL_BACKEND = "sendgrid_backend.SendgridBackend"
SENDGRID_API_KEY = config('SENDGRID_KEY', '')
SENDGRID_SANDBOX_MODE_IN_DEBUG = False
SENDGRID_TRACK_CLICKS_HTML = False
SENDGRID_TRACK_CLICKS_PLAIN = False
DEFAULT_FROM_EMAIL = 'Support Team [e-mail]'

----------------- SENTRY-------------------------

if not DEBUG:
sentry_sdk.init(
dsn="11add338ccc345c6a402cd8cb20d2bc1@o...",
integrations=[DjangoIntegration(), CeleryIntegration(), RedisIntegration()],

    # If you wish to associate users to errors (assuming you are using
    # django.contrib.auth) you may enable sending PII data.
    send_default_pii=True
)

django_heroku.settings(locals())
SIMPLE_JWT = {
"ACCESS_TOKEN_LIFETIME": timedelta(weeks=521), # 10 years
"REFRESH_TOKEN_LIFETIME": timedelta(weeks=521),
}

Your stuff...

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

REST_FRAMEWORK = {
'DEFAULT_AUTHENTICATION_CLASSES': (
'rest_framework_simplejwt.authentication.JWTAuthentication',
),
# Permission settings
'DEFAULT_PERMISSION_CLASSES': [
'rest_framework.permissions.IsAuthenticated'
],
}
DEFAULT_AUTO_FIELD = 'django.db.models.AutoField'
DJSTRIPE_USE_NATIVE_JSONFIELD = True

these are required by Herokuuu

GEOS_LIBRARY_PATH = '/app/.heroku/vendor/lib/libgeos_c.so' if os.environ.get('ENV') == 'HEROKU' else os.getenv('GEOS_LIBRARY_PATH')
GDAL_LIBRARY_PATH = '/app/.heroku/vendor/lib/libgdal.so' if os.environ.get('ENV') == 'HEROKU' else os.getenv('GDAL_LIBRARY_PATH')

[John Owolabi Idogun]

Your configurations don't conform with some of the details of this post. If you follow through, the following is not needed:

...
GEOS_LIBRARY_PATH = '/app/.heroku/vendor/lib/libgeos_c.so' if os.environ.get('ENV') == 'HEROKU' else os.getenv('GEOS_LIBRARY_PATH')
GDAL_LIBRARY_PATH = '/app/.heroku/vendor/lib/libgdal.so' if os.environ.get('ENV') == 'HEROKU' else os.getenv('GDAL_LIBRARY_PATH')

They are the prime suspects of your issues.

[Micheal Ojemoron]

I added that when i discovered the issue, removing it still reproduces the issue. I am on Django 3.2.1 and Heroku 20

[John Owolabi Idogun]

Did you add any buildpack aside the default one heroku gives?

[Micheal Ojemoron]

no

[John Owolabi Idogun]

GDAL can't work on heroku without you adding external buildpack to help you build Geospatial configurations. That is why I recommend you go through this article again and implement the stuff suggested. They are easy and not detrimental.

[John Owolabi Idogun]

The error you are getting sterms from directing heroku to look for buildpacks and runtimes in arbitary paths that do not really exist.

[Micheal Ojemoron]

i added this heroku buildpacks:add --index 1 github.com/heroku/heroku-geo-build...
according to your article

[John Owolabi Idogun]

In your settings.py, add this to the bottom of the file:

DATABASES['default']['ENGINE'] = 'django.contrib.gis.db.backends.postgis'

[Micheal Ojemoron]

in my settings, i already added Database Engine and the error i am getting is related to the library gdal

[John Owolabi Idogun]

What database are you using? And do you use heroku's dj_database_url?

[Daniel John]

Thank you very much. Followed the instructions and things went smoothly.