The document provides a step-by-step guide on how to build and deploy a Django app using Heroku in under 20 minutes. It covers the prerequisites, including installing necessary tools and setting up the project structure, as well as details on creating a Procfile, modifying configuration files, and deploying the app. Finally, it explains how to start and access the live Django application on Heroku.

1. Building a Django
App with Heroku
Get your project up and running in 20 minutes
or less.

2. What is Heroku?
● Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS)
● Acquired by salesforce.com in 2010

3. Why Heroku?
●
●
●
●
Focus on developer productivity
100% free plan includes hosting & db
No need to think about servers
Easily scales

4. Prerequisites
Familiarity with:
● command line
● git

5. Prerequisites
Install:
● pip
http://www.pip-installer.org
● Postgres
pip install psycopg2
http://initd.org/psycopg/

6. Prerequisites
Install:
● Virtualenv
pip install virtualenv

7. Getting Started
1. Sign up for a Heroku account at Heroku.com
2. Install Heroku Toolbelt: https://toolbelt.heroku.com
3. Log in via command line

8. Create a Django app locally
$
$
$
$
$
mkdir mysite && cd mysite
virtualenv venv --distribute
source venv/bin/activate
pip install django-toolbelt
django-admin.py startproject mysite .

9. Create a Procfile
Create a Procfile in your root project directory:
# Procfile
web: gunicorn hellodjango.wsgi

10. Create requirements.txt
$ pip freeze > requirements.txt
Note: If you do this out of order, you’ll need to
manually create requirements.txt

11. Modify settings.py
import dj_database_url
DATABASES['default'] =
dj_database_url.config()
SECURE_PROXY_SSL_HEADER = ('HTTP_X_FORWARDED_PROTO', 'https')
ALLOWED_HOSTS = ['*']
# Static asset configuration
import os
BASE_DIR = os.path.dirname(os.path.abspath(__file__))
STATIC_ROOT = 'staticfiles'
STATIC_URL = '/static/'
STATICFILES_DIRS = (
os.path.join(BASE_DIR, 'static'),
)

12. Modify wsgi.py
from django.core.wsgi import get_wsgi_application
from dj_static import Cling
application = Cling(get_wsgi_application())

13. Store your app in git
First create a .gitignore file; add:
venv
*.pyc
staticfiles

14. Store your app in git
Initialize a new git repository
$ git init
Add the new files
$ git add .
Commit your files
$ git commit -m "initial commit"

15. Push your code to Heroku
Create a new app on Heroku
$ heroku create
Deploy your code to Heroku
$ git push heroku master

16. Start your app
Each Heroku
app comes
with 1 free
dyno.
Start a Heroku dyno
$ heroku ps:scale web=1
Scaling dynos... done, now running web at 1:1X.
Terminology: Dynos are isolated, virtualized Unix containers, that
provide the environment required to run an application.

17. Visit your app
$ heroku open

18. Visit your app
Congrats! You’ve set up a live Djangopowered application via Heroku.