Boston Python Workshop/Friday handout/Windows

About Django on Windows

• These instructions should work for all versions of Windows from XP on to Windows 7.
• You may need to login as Administrator, or give the Administrator password when installing some programs, depending on your Windows version and user settings.

Open a Command Prompt

• Open a command prompt window, and keep it open along with your browser. Much of installing Python and using Django is typing commands and hitting <enter>. Your experience using Python on Windows greatly depends on your making friends with the command prompt window.
• This is also called the command prompt, command window, command-line window, MS-DOS or DOS window.

http://www.wiki.devchix.com/index.php?title=Opening_a_command_prompt_window

• Try these recommendations:

http://www.wiki.devchix.com/index.php?title=Recommended_setup_for_command-line_windows

• Tip: clear screen
  If you ever want to clear the "output history" to get a clear screen, type:

cls

• Tip: command history
  The command prompt window stores a "command history." To view and re-run previous commands, use the <up arrow> and <down arrow> keys. You can also edit a previous command and run it--this is handy for long commands, or fixing mistakes.
• Tip: copy and paste
  In the instructions below, where it says: "In the command prompt type:", you can, much more easily, copy the command from this page, and right click in the menu bar or command prompt window, then click on "Paste", then hit the <enter> key.

Install Python

• Go to http://python.org/download/ and download the latest version of Python 2.7 (2.7.1 at the time of writing).

• Test your Python install in the command prompt:

\python27\python.exe

You should see something like

Python 2.7.1 (r271:86832, ...) on win32
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>>>

• Type

exit()

and press Enter, and you are back to the command prompt.

Install Git for Windows

• Go to the downloads page for GitBash
  • Download the top .exe file link with the Summary something like "Full installer for official Git 1.7.x.x"
• Run the install.

Note: You can't just click through the installer. You have to answer some questions!

• In the "Select Components" dialog, make sure the checkboxes "Associate ... configuration files ..." and "Use a TrueType font ..." are checked.

• Important: In the "Adjusting your PATH environment" dialog, make sure "Run Git from the Windows Command Prompt" is selected.
• In the "Configuring the line ending conversions" dialog, make sure "Checkout Windows-style, commit Unix-style line endings" is selected.
• To run git, open Programs > Git > Git Bash
• Then to test the Git install and see Git commands, type this into the Git Bash prompt:

git

Note: From here forward, when we need a command prompt, we'll use the Git Bash prompt, because it is more featureful.

Configure Git

• Set up Git with your name and email to tag your code changes. In the command prompt type:

git config --global user.name "Your ActualName"

• Replace Your ActualName with your actual name.

git config --global user.email YourEmail@domain.com

• Replace YourEmail@domain.com with your email address.

Test it:

git config --global user.name
git config --global user.email

Tip: Colors

To have colored output, in the command prompt type each line followed by <enter>:

git config --global color.diff auto
git config --global color.status auto
git config --global color.branch auto

Install SQLite Manager

• If you already have Firefox installed, verify that it is version 3.5.0 or greater. (Help -> About Mozilla Firefox. The version number is right under the "Firefox" title.)
• If you don't have Firefox installed, or it's an older version, install Firefox.
• Once it's installed, open Firefox and go to Tools -> Add-ons. At the top of the add-ons window, click "Get Add-ons."
• There will be search box directly underneath "Get Add-ons" that says "Search All Add-ons." Enter "SQLite" (without the quotes) in the box and hit enter.
• SQLite Manager should be the top result. Click "Add to Firefox..." (If SQLite Manager isn't in the results, check the spelling - SQLite only has one L. Also, check that you have at least Firefox 3.5.)
• Wait for the countdown, then click "Install Now."
• In the Add-ons windows, click "Restart Firefox."
• Once Firefox restarts, the Add-ons window should say "1 new add-on has been installed." Go to the Tools menu and verify that there is an option for SQLite Manager.

Install KomodoEdit

You need a text editor to do Python. If you already have a preferred text editor, such as vi, emacs, jedit, etc., you can skip this step. It must be a plain text editor and not something with styling like Microsoft Word.

When in doubt, use KomodoEdit.

• Download KomodoEdit here.
• Double-click to install.

Create an ssh public key

You'll need one of these to work with Github.

• Get into a GitBash window.
• ssh-keygen -C Your Actual Email -t rsa (email should match git config setting)
• Hit enter to accept default location for ssh key.
• Hit enter to accept blank passphrase (if computer is shared with other people, as in a work laptop, you should create a passphrase). Hit enter again to accept blank passphrase (or enter passphrase again).

• Your brand-new public key is now stored at .ssh/id_rsa.pub inside your Windows profile.

Note: The ssh-keygen command will give you a bunch of output. You don't have to record that output anywhere.

Django

• Open a new GitBash window. Type each of these, and press enter at the end of the line.

curl -L  http://www.djangoproject.com/download/1.2.5/tarball/  -o Django-1.2.5.tar.gz
tar zxvf Django-1.2.5.tar.gz
cd Django-1.2.5
/c/python27/python setup.py install
cd ..

Verify you can create a new Django app

• Create a folder on the desktop called django_projects
• Open a new GitBash window and type the following:

   cd Desktop/django_projects
   /c/python27/scripts/django-admin.py startproject myproject

• Both commands should provide no output.
• Once that's finished, type the following in the Terminal window:

   cd myproject
   /c/python27/python manage.py runserver

• The first command should produce no output. The second command will put out a bunch of output, then just sit there until you cancel it (2 steps from now).
• In your browser, go to http://localhost:8000/
• Back in the Terminal window where you ran manage.py runserver, type control-c to kill the server.

Cleanup

Ok, there is one more step. You won't be using the test project in the workshop; we just created it to make sure everything was working. You should delete it now to reduce confusion during the workshop. Don't worry about losing information; it just has the test project in it.

• Exit the GitBash terminal
• Drag the myproject folder (inside django_projects) to the Recycle Bin. Leave django_projects on the desktop.

Congratulations!

You have everything you need to write a Django web application in Python.

...on your machine.

The next set of directions help you use alwaysdata.com and its free-of-cost hosting.

Install PuTTY

PuTTY is a program we'll use to log in to the server where your Django code runs.

• Go to the PuTTY download page
• Choose the putty-0.60-installer.exe file.
• Run the installer, and now you will find PuTTY in
  • Start->Programs->PuTTY

Now go back to the web app install instructions