Dockerize Python Django Project + Docker-compose | Ep 1

Welcome to the first episode of our series on dockerizing a Python Django project using docker-compose. Docker is a platform for developing, shipping, and running applications using containerization. By containerizing our Django project, we can easily manage dependencies, ensure consistent environments across different machines, and streamline the deployment process.

Prerequisites

Before we begin, make sure you have Docker and Docker-compose installed on your system. You can download and install them from their official websites or use package managers like Homebrew (for macOS) or Chocolatey (for Windows).

Setting up the Django project

If you already have a Django project, great! If not, you can create a new one using the following command:

    $ django-admin startproject myproject
    

Replace ‘myproject’ with the name of your project.

Creating a Dockerfile

Now, we need to create a Dockerfile to define the environment for our Django project. This file will contain instructions for building the Docker image.

    FROM python:3.8
    ENV PYTHONUNBUFFERED 1
    WORKDIR /code
    COPY requirements.txt /code/
    RUN pip install -r requirements.txt
    COPY . /code/
    

This Dockerfile uses the official Python 3.8 image as the base, sets the working directory to ‘/code’, copies the ‘requirements.txt’ file, installs the project dependencies, and then copies the rest of the project files into the container.

Creating a docker-compose.yml file

Next, we need to create a docker-compose.yml file to define our multi-container Docker application. This file will specify the services (containers) for our Django project and any additional dependencies, such as a database.

    version: '3.8'
    services:
      web:
        build: .
        command: python manage.py runserver 0.0.0.0:8000
        volumes:
          - .:/code
        ports:
          - "8000:8000"
    

This docker-compose.yml file defines a service called ‘web’ that builds the Docker image using the current directory as the build context, sets the command to run the Django development server, mounts the project directory as a volume inside the container, and maps port 8000 on the host machine to port 8000 on the container.

Conclusion

That’s it for the first episode of our series on dockerizing a Python Django project using docker-compose. In the next episode, we’ll continue building our Dockerized Django project and add a database service to our docker-compose.yml file. Stay tuned!