Deploying Django at Dreamhost

Question

I'm trying to get the Poll tutorial working at my Dreamhost account (I don't have any prior experience of deploying Django). I downloaded the script I found here (http://gabrielfalcao.com/2008/12/02/hosting-and-deploying-django-apps-on-dreamhost/) at my home directory and executed it. Now I have Python 2.5 and Django in ~/.myroot/ and my Django projects directory is ~/projects/

Here's the content of ~/projects/ directory (I copied the polls/ and and templates/polls/ directories myself).

projects/
|-- admin_media -> /home/imran2140/.myroot/usr/lib/python2.5/site-packages/django/contrib/admin/media
|-- dispatch.fcgi
|-- polls
|   |-- __init__.py
|   |-- __init__.pyc
|   |-- admin.py
|   |-- admin.pyc
|   |-- models.py
|   |-- models.pyc
|   |-- polls.db
|   |-- urls.py
|   |-- urls.pyc
|   |-- views.py
|   `-- views.pyc
|-- script_templates
|   |-- dispatch.template
|   `-- htaccess.template
`-- templates
    `-- polls
        |-- detail.html
        |-- index.html
        `-- results.html

5 directories, 17 files

Now what should I do to get the Polls app working?

Update

I finally got a "Hello World" Django app working with Passanger WSGI. It worked fine with both Server's default Python 2.3.5 and my installed Python 2.5.2.

Passanger WSGI - Django at Dreamhost Wiki

Answer 1

Since DreamHost supports mod_passenger, and AFAIK it works not only for Ruby/Rails apps but also for Python/Django - you might give it a try.

Just put app there and select directory where execute script are (eg. dispatch.fcgi). You might wanna see/study a working example at GitHub.

Answer 2

There is now a script that you can run that does most of the set up for you. It is mentioned on the main page about Django on the Dreamhost wiki here: http://wiki.dreamhost.com/Django

Answer 3

This is the official Dreamhost wiki. I don't know what the script, you mention, is doing, but you have to setup rewrite rules in .htaccess to run your fcgi scripts.

But it is much more easier to setup Django on any VPS host than on shared hosting. Consider also their disclaimer:

If Django is crucial to your site, you may wish to consider another host since Dreamhost does not officially support Django. In the past, some users have reported reliablity problems; however, others have had no problems.

Answer 4

I've been through it with dreamhost, and I decided it was simply too much trouble to set up Django.

But it is much more easier to setup Django on any VPS host than on shared hosting.

I've had good luck with webfaction. They're not a VPS but they still give you a lot of control over your site (like you can set up your own Apache instance if you want).

Answer 5

Passenger is the way to go. I wrote a little HOWTO on building a modern (2.6.5) Python and configuring Django, etc. with Passenger, it may be helpful if you already have a project.