Deploy your Django project to PythonAnywhere with a Postgres database.

<pre class="language-markup"><code>pip install python-dotenv</code></pre>
<h4>settings.py:</h4>
<pre class="language-python"><code>import os
from dotenv import load_dotenv

load_dotenv()</code></pre>
This is for Django to recognize and read our environment variables.

Env Variables -1

<h4>Secret Key:</h4>
Save your SECRET_KEY somewhere, and replace it with this.
<pre class="language-python"><code>SECRET_KEY = os.getenv('SECRET_KEY', 'change-me')</code></pre>
<h4>Debug:</h4>
<pre class="language-python"><code>DEBUG = os.getenv('DEBUG', '1') == '1'</code></pre>
Note:&nbsp;This means that if the DEBUG(environment variable) is equal to '1', then DEBUG is True.
<h4>Allowed Hosts:</h4>
<pre class="language-python"><code>ALLOWED_HOSTS = os.environ.get("DJANGO_ALLOWED_HOSTS", "127.0.0.1").split(",")</code></pre>
The split() method splits the DJANGO_ALLOED_HOSTS environment variables where the "," exist, and turns the string variable into a list.
<h4>Database:</h4>
<pre class="language-python"><code>DATABASES = {
 "default": {
 "ENGINE": "django.db.backends.sqlite3",
 "NAME": BASE_DIR / "db.sqlite3",
 }
}

POSTGRES_DB = os.getenv("POSTGRES_DB") # database name
POSTGRES_PASSWORD = os.getenv("POSTGRES_PASSWORD") # database user password
POSTGRES_USER = os.getenv("POSTGRES_USER") # database username
POSTGRES_HOST = os.getenv("POSTGRES_HOST") # database host
POSTGRES_PORT = os.getenv("POSTGRES_PORT") # database port

POSTGRES_READY = (
 POSTGRES_DB is not None
 and POSTGRES_PASSWORD is not None
 and POSTGRES_USER is not None
 and POSTGRES_HOST is not None
 and POSTGRES_PORT is not None
)
if POSTGRES_READY:
 DATABASES = {
 "default": {
 "ENGINE": 'django.db.backends.postgresql_psycopg2',
 "NAME": POSTGRES_DB,
 "USER": POSTGRES_USER,
 "PASSWORD": POSTGRES_PASSWORD,
 "HOST": POSTGRES_HOST,
 "PORT": POSTGRES_PORT,
 }
 }
</code></pre>
This code calls our Postgres environment variables, if they are all available, POSTGRES_READY will be True. That will result in Django connecting to our database. But if they are not available, Django will simply set our database to the default database, which is the sqlite3 default database.
<h4>Install psycopg2-binary:</h4>
<pre class="language-markup"><code>pip install psycopg2-binary</code></pre>
This package will take care of our PostgreSQL database connection.
<h4>Create a .env file:</h4>
Create a file and call it .env, then:
<pre class="language-markup"><code>SECRET_KEY=&lt;your_secret_key&gt;
DEBUG=1
POSTGRES_DB=&lt;your_postgres_db_name&gt;
POSTGRES_PASSWORD=&lt;your_postgres_db_password&gt;
POSTGRES_USER=&lt;your_postgres_db_user&gt;
POSTGRES_HOST=&lt;your_postgres_db_host&gt;
POSTGRES_PORT=&lt;your_postgres_db_port&gt;
</code></pre>
Note 1:&nbsp;This file should not be staged to version control (.env file should be added to gitignore).
Note 2:&nbsp;If you don't desire to have a postgres database in your local machine, remove the related postgres variables.

Env Variables -2

Before pushing your code, make sure to pip freeze:
<pre class="language-markup"><code>pip freeze &gt; requirements.txt</code></pre>
Push your code to GitHub(or any remote repository) to be able to clone it in PythonAnywhere.
Important Note:&nbsp;You have to make sure not to stage your .env file to the version control (git), because the purpose of the .env file and environment variables is to keep the Development environment and the Production separated.
For that, you'll need to add your .env file to .gitignore.

Push to GitHub

Create a pythonanywhere free account, then head over to the Account tab. Then click Switch Now.
<img src="https://fra1.digitaloceanspaces.com/kowe/media/uploads/content/568728b0-57ae-499a-85cb-129e80d330f6_0ec3b69f-991e-41de-8187-577607fd9ab8.webp" alt="" width="1728" height="1100" />
After that, choose the following configuration, and proceed with payment:
<img src="https://fra1.digitaloceanspaces.com/kowe/media/uploads/content/6b0e6333-4354-4f1d-bd93-a35c8a511685_0ec3b69f-991e-41de-8187-577607fd9ab8.webp" alt="configuration" width="1728" height="1100" />
The configuration is as follows:
<ul>
<li>Every option is at its low possible.</li>
<li>The Postgres server is active.</li>
</ul>

Create & Upgrade your account

After creating and upgrading your PythonAnywhere account, head over to the Web tab, then:
<img src="https://fra1.digitaloceanspaces.com/kowe/media/uploads/content/e7393ee1-4606-4929-92bf-d59ba4841778_e58c1ea7-e3ed-4f9b-b777-1cfb6db1049e.gif" alt="" width="1728" height="972">
<ol>
<li>Select Add a new web app</li>
<li>Click Next</li>
<li>Click Manual Configuration</li>
<li>Select the Python version (3.10)</li>
<li>Click Next</li>
</ol>
&nbsp;

Create a Site

Go to Consoles (or Dashboard), then create a new bash console:
<img src="https://fra1.digitaloceanspaces.com/kowe/media/uploads/content/e0928887-17d7-4183-9db8-084d29702fd3_e58c1ea7-e3ed-4f9b-b777-1cfb6db1049e.gif" alt="" width="800" height="439">
Once you're in, pull your code from <a title="demo project postgresql" href="https://github.com/simofirdoussi/django-demo-postgres" target="_blank" rel="noopener">GitHub</a>:
<pre class="language-markup"><code>git clone &lt;link&gt;</code></pre>
<img src="https://fra1.digitaloceanspaces.com/kowe/media/uploads/content/5dd5a7f6-5521-406b-bb39-5bf53d153b11_0ec3b69f-991e-41de-8187-577607fd9ab8.gif" alt="" width="800" height="362">
Change your directory to the project's directory:
<pre class="language-markup"><code>cd django-demo-postgres/</code></pre>

Clone Your Code

Go to the console you created earlier, then:
<pre class="language-markup"><code>mkvirtualenv env --python=/usr/bin/python3.10</code></pre>
This command will create a virtual environment called env and it will activate it.
<img src="https://fra1.digitaloceanspaces.com/kowe/media/uploads/content/1e630427-6716-45b4-9c93-afeb84424905_0ec3b69f-991e-41de-8187-577607fd9ab8.webp" alt="virtual env creation" width="1728" height="279">
<h4>Add your virtual environment to the web app config:</h4>
<img src="https://fra1.digitaloceanspaces.com/kowe/media/uploads/content/f39db354-e88a-4122-b03f-93bc2d31ed3f_e58c1ea7-e3ed-4f9b-b777-1cfb6db1049e.gif" alt="" width="800" height="414">
Under Virtualenv in your web tab, add the name of your previously created virtual environment followed by a slash. Pythonanywhere will take care of the rest.

Virtual Env - 1

<h4>Head over to the console, then;</h4>
<pre class="language-markup"><code>cd django-demo-postgres/</code></pre>
Move to your django project's (in this case&nbsp;django-demo-postgres/) directory (AKA where manage.py exists).
<h4>Install the requirements:</h4>
<pre class="language-markup"><code>pip install -r requirements.txt</code></pre>
Note:&nbsp;You should generate a requirements file from your local virtual environment and push it with your code.
<img src="https://fra1.digitaloceanspaces.com/kowe/media/uploads/content/17630f17-234d-434e-8467-740be7015b27_0ec3b69f-991e-41de-8187-577607fd9ab8.webp" alt="" width="1728" height="498">

Virtual Env - 2

In production, static files are served differently from development. In our case, our Django Project is going to serve its own static files from the STATIC_ROOT. Here is the static files configuration if not using any third party to serve our static files:
<pre class="language-python"><code>STATIC_URL = 'static/'
STATIC_ROOT = BASE_DIR / 'static/'</code></pre>
Head over to the console one more time, and run:
<pre class="language-markup"><code>python manage.py collectstatic</code></pre>
<img src="https://fra1.digitaloceanspaces.com/kowe/media/uploads/content/abed8eb8-1240-4281-900b-b0a62f00c6bc_0ec3b69f-991e-41de-8187-577607fd9ab8.webp" alt="" width="1432" height="490">
This command will copy all of the static files to the&nbsp;STATIC_ROOT. In production, they're going to be served from there.
<h4>Configure static files in PythonAnywhere (web tab):</h4>
<img src="https://fra1.digitaloceanspaces.com/kowe/media/uploads/content/934b49ba-309c-4d81-bfd0-94fd7efa35e4_0ec3b69f-991e-41de-8187-577607fd9ab8.gif" alt="static files" width="800" height="331">
Note: The directory will contain the directory of our static files (the one we got as a result of running collectstatic)
<img src="https://fra1.digitaloceanspaces.com/kowe/media/uploads/content/c751152d-41ac-49a8-bd1a-e0363b7d12dd_0ec3b69f-991e-41de-8187-577607fd9ab8.webp" alt="static path" width="1432" height="490">

Static Files

When not using any third party to handle our media files, all we need to do in our settings.py is this:
<pre class="language-python"><code>MEDIA_URL = 'media/'
MEDIA_ROOT = BASE_DIR / 'media/'</code></pre>
<h4>Configure media files in PythonAnywhere:</h4>
<img src="https://fra1.digitaloceanspaces.com/kowe/media/uploads/content/d8c11f6b-eedf-4338-94bb-252f38cbf0f1_768732f1-4dff-4b51-aa65-2dab1427a380.gif" alt="" width="600" height="354">
Note: Be careful if your media files are stored in a file called media/ vs medias/, you don't wanna misspell it.

Media Files

Open your WSGI file:
<img src="https://fra1.digitaloceanspaces.com/kowe/media/uploads/content/fc6bfb8e-6488-4f8d-8425-ec1f46584849_e58c1ea7-e3ed-4f9b-b777-1cfb6db1049e.webp" alt="" width="1728" height="1034">
In your web tab, under Code. Click WSGI configuration file.
Replace everything with this:
<pre class="language-python"><code># +++++++++++ DJANGO +++++++++++
# To use your own django app use code like this:
import os
import sys
from dotenv import load_dotenv
#
## assuming your django settings file is at '/home/username/mysite/mysite/settings.py'
## and your manage.py is is at '/home/username/mysite/manage.py'
path = '/home/username/mysite/'

if path not in sys.path:
 sys.path.append(path)

os.environ['DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE'] = 'mysite.settings'
project_folder = os.path.expanduser(path)
load_dotenv(os.path.join(project_folder, '.env'))
from django.core.wsgi import get_wsgi_application
application = get_wsgi_application()</code></pre>
Replace the path variable with the path to your Django project:
You can know the path to your Django project by moving to the directory where&nbsp;manage.py exists, then typing pwd (in the PythonAnywhere bash console):
<img src="https://fra1.digitaloceanspaces.com/kowe/media/uploads/content/8a83fbb0-30f2-4b9b-954c-ebb7464f8447_0ec3b69f-991e-41de-8187-577607fd9ab8.webp" alt="" width="858" height="408">
Also, replace mysite with the name of your django project, in our case: project.

Configure the WSGI file

Go to Databases, then create a PostgreSQL server.&nbsp;
<img src="https://fra1.digitaloceanspaces.com/kowe/media/uploads/content/457116ea-3cb1-464c-8979-a7f576513260_0ec3b69f-991e-41de-8187-577607fd9ab8.webp" alt="create a postgres server" width="1606" height="1102">
Click Create your Postgres server, you should see something like this:
<img src="https://fra1.digitaloceanspaces.com/kowe/media/uploads/content/8d453bf6-6f84-4fa0-b919-885f445b8c0f_0ec3b69f-991e-41de-8187-577607fd9ab8.webp" alt="create postgres server wait" width="1606" height="1102">
Wait until a Postgres server is created.

Configure Postgres - 1

Still, in the databases tab, set up and remember a password:
<img src="https://fra1.digitaloceanspaces.com/kowe/media/uploads/content/c4f0ed0f-54fe-4d09-988a-bccb266923e7_0ec3b69f-991e-41de-8187-577607fd9ab8.webp" alt="set up password" width="1420" height="820">
Then, start a Postgres console:
<img src="https://fra1.digitaloceanspaces.com/kowe/media/uploads/content/3863d290-c9fc-4a32-acd8-afc6f1795a9a_0ec3b69f-991e-41de-8187-577607fd9ab8.webp" alt="start a postgres console" width="1420" height="496">
Finally, create a Postgres database using this command:
<pre class="language-markup"><code>CREATE DATABASE dbname;</code></pre>
<img src="https://fra1.digitaloceanspaces.com/kowe/media/uploads/content/0650d43a-a83e-41b5-9a1a-363d77c03a86_0ec3b69f-991e-41de-8187-577607fd9ab8.webp" alt="create database command" width="1198" height="396">
Change dbname with your desired database name.
&nbsp;

Configure Postgres - 2

Go to files, then go into the project directory (where manage.py exists)&nbsp;and create a .env file:
<img src="https://fra1.digitaloceanspaces.com/kowe/media/uploads/content/a02d2525-7044-4930-b504-af4a7a8ae6de_768732f1-4dff-4b51-aa65-2dab1427a380.gif" alt="" width="800" height="459">
<pre class="language-markup"><code>SECRET_KEY='your secret key here'
DEBUG=0
DJANGO_ALLOWED_HOSTS='apidemokoweio.pythonanywhere.com'
POSTGRES_DB='database_name'
POSTGRES_PASSWORD='database_password'
POSTGRES_USER='super'
POSTGRES_HOST='postgres_host'
POSTGRES_PORT=PORT</code></pre>
To replace in your .env file:
<ol>
<li>Make your own SECRET_KEY.</li>
<li>Replace the domain in DJANGO_ALLOWED_HOSTS with your PythonAnywhere domain. If you wanna do multiple domains, split them with a comma ",".</li>
<li>Your POSTGRES_DB, POSTGRES_PASSWORD, POSTGRES_USER, POSTGRES_HOST, and POSTGRES_PORT will be found in your PostgreSQL config in the Databases tab.</li>
</ol>
<h4>How to generate a new SECRET_KEY:</h4>
In your local terminal or CMD run:
<pre class="language-markup"><code>python manage.py shell</code></pre>
then:
<pre class="language-python"><code>from django.core.management.utils import get_random_secret_key
print(get_random_secret_key())</code></pre>
This will generate a random secret key. You should use it in your .env file, and make sure it's kept secret.

Configure Postgres - 3

<h4>Enable HTTPS:</h4>
<img src="https://fra1.digitaloceanspaces.com/kowe/media/uploads/content/a612bd20-2873-4fbe-9ccb-97f7a193d6e0_e58c1ea7-e3ed-4f9b-b777-1cfb6db1049e.webp" alt="" width="1456" height="1272">
To apply the changes to a web app hosted in PythonAnywhere, we should reload the web app, here is how:
<img src="https://fra1.digitaloceanspaces.com/kowe/media/uploads/content/86e3a122-e361-41f9-81f2-8eecd0754011_e58c1ea7-e3ed-4f9b-b777-1cfb6db1049e.webp" alt="" width="1728" height="817">

HTTPs & Reload App

Having the development database and the production database separated is what is strictly recommended.
This means that we'll have to run the migrations to our new database.
<h4>Activate the virtual environment:</h4>
<pre class="language-markup"><code>workon env</code></pre>
<h4>Run the migrations:</h4>
<pre class="language-markup"><code>python manage.py migrate</code></pre>
<img src="https://fra1.digitaloceanspaces.com/kowe/media/uploads/content/a8073ab4-bc65-4e2a-afa8-ac568a9fa529_e58c1ea7-e3ed-4f9b-b777-1cfb6db1049e.webp" alt="" width="1212" height="906">
&nbsp;

Run the Migrations

<h4>Deploy code updates:</h4>
To publish changes you made to your Django project:
<ol>
<li>Push the code to GitHub</li>
<li>Pull the code from the PythonAnywhere bash console (make sure you're inside of the Django project)</li>
<li>If there are any migrations to do, run them, but make sure your virtual environment is active.</li>
<li>Finally, reload your web app.</li>
</ol>

Deploy Django to PythonAnywhere - PostgreSQL

Env Variables -1

settings.py:

30%

30%

Env Variables -1

Env Variables -2

Push to GitHub

Create & Upgrade your account

Create a Site

Clone Your Code

Virtual Env - 1

Virtual Env - 2

Static Files

Media Files

Configure the WSGI file

Configure Postgres - 1

Configure Postgres - 2

Configure Postgres - 3

HTTPs & Reload App

Run the Migrations

Code updates