Installation

Does Edge support Python 2.7?

No, since the latest version of Django now supports only Python 3 and edge is always designed to the latest Django version, Python 3 support is removed.

Versions earlier than 2.1 used to support both Python 2 and 3. You can use that if you are stuck with Python 2.

What is local.env file and why should I copy it?

Django requires you to mention certain confidential information in settings.py like your SECRET_KEY and database connection details. This could get added to your git repository and reach the wrong hands. Ideally, Django Edge can pick these details from the environment variables (say set in your Python virtual env activate script).

However, this can be cumbersome to setup while you want to quickly start working on a new project. So you have the option of using a .env file where all the environment variables can be defined. When a new project is created a sample local.sample.env will be provided which can be used for development.

Later you can use environment variables say in production which will override the values in your local.env. For security reasons, local.env will be ignored by git. So make sure you have noted the details in this file seperately.

Why do I get an ImproperlyConfigured exception about "SECRET_KEY setting must not be empty", after installation?

You need to copy local.env file as mentioned in the installation steps. The previous answer explains why this is needed.

Why do I keep getting "OSError: decoder zip not available" errors?

This is a problem with Pillow library being unable to handle PNG files. Since Pillow is usually compiled while installing the dependencies in requirements.txt, you will need to reinstall Pillow.

On Ubuntu, the fix is running the following commands (in your virtualenv):

$ pip uninstall Pillow
$ sudo apt-get install libjpeg-dev zlib1g-dev
$ pip install -I Pillow

Sign up and Sign in

I want to add an extra field or step to signup or sign in process. Where should I start?

The accounts app contains most of the sign up and sign in functionality. The views are all class based and can be easily extended. There are two places you can start:

• src/accounts/forms.py: You can add extra fields like captchas here
• src/accounts/views.py: You can change the functionality like sending confirmation emails here

Design and UI

How can I customized the appearance in terms of logo, icon, Bootstrap theme etc?

1. Brand Name: Edit src/templates/_brandname.html. Or use a one-liner:

   echo "Fantasy Quidditch" > src/templates/_brandname.html
   

2. Logo: Change src/static/site/img/logo.png. Or use a one-liner:

   curl -o src/static/site/img/logo.png http://icons.iconarchive.com/icons/iconka/harry-potter/32/broom-icon.png
   

3. Banner: Change src/static/site/img/banner.jpg. Or use a one-liner:

   curl -o src/static/site/img/banner.jpg https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7153/6709315743_5412d64169_o_d.png
   

4. Bootstrap Theme: Change src/static/bootstrap/css/bootstrap.min.css. Or use a one-liner:

   curl -o src/static/bootstrap/css/bootstrap.min.css http://bootswatch.com/paper/bootstrap.min.css
   

I don't prefer a full height cover image. How can I change it?

You can reduce the height of the jumbotron, say add this to the end of in main.css to make the cover image half the height of the browser window:

.corporate-jumbo { height: 50%; }

Deployment

How to use other databases like PostgreSQL, MySQL etc.?

You will need to change the DATABASE_URL in your environment's settings.py. Unlike the default Django settings, you do not have to set DATABASES to a large dictionary of key-value pairs. Instead, you can set a database URL in DATABASE_URL containing the engine, username, password, port etc.

By default, this is set to sqlite:///db.sqlite3 to use a SQLite3 database. To use other databases use the following URL patterns (based on dj-database-url):

Engine	Django Backend	URL
PostgreSQL	django.db.backends.postgresql_psycopg2	postgres://USER:PASSWORD@HOST:PORT/NAME
PostGIS	django.contrib.gis.db.backends.postgis	postgis://USER:PASSWORD@HOST:PORT/NAME
MySQL	django.db.backends.mysql	mysql://USER:PASSWORD@HOST:PORT/NAME
MySQL (GIS)	django.contrib.gis.db.backends.mysql	mysqlgis://USER:PASSWORD@HOST:PORT/NAME
SQLite	django.db.backends.sqlite3	sqlite:///PATH

For example, a PostgreSQL database setting might be:

DATABASE_URL=postgres://admin_user:SeCRet143232@127.0.0.1:5432/database

Notice that special characters can be URL encoded (say in the password) but it is better to avoid them.

How to run this with gunicorn?

Pass the WSGI callable as a commandline argument while invoking gunicorn (change my_proj to your Edge project's name):

{ venv_path }/bin/gunicorn my_proj.wsgi -c gunicorn.conf.py -p gunicorn.pid

In production you would want to use the settings/production.py. Hence, wsgi.py points to the production settings by default. It will already have a line like the following:

os.environ.setdefault("DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE", "my_proj.settings.production")

In case you want to run gunicorn with a different settings file say settings/staging.py you will need to set the environment variable DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE, say like this:

{ venv_path }/bin/gunicorn --env DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE=my_proj.settings.staging my_proj.wsgi -c gunicorn.conf.py -p gunicorn.pid

[Thanks to abadger1406 for this question]