1 [[!meta title="How can I import an outside Django project?"]]
2 Configuring an outside Django project to run on scripts can be a
3 bit tricky if you’ve only before had experience with “./manage.py
4 runserver”. Here’s one way to get a Django project running on
7 1. Start with the [regular scripts Django autoinstaller](/start/)
9 /mit/lockername/Scripts/django/projname^[1](#fn7483266754e7f7937783a8)^
10 aside to /mit/lockername/Scripts/django/projname.auto
11 3. Copy in *your* application’s code to
12 /mit/lockername/Scripts/django/projname
13 4. Update the paths in
14 /mit/lockername/web\_scripts/progname/index.fcgi
15 1. Make sure that the sys.path.insert line points to the directory
16 *containing* projname (likely /mit/lockername/Scripts/django/)
17 2. Possibly add a sys.path.insert line that points to
18 /mit/lockername/Scripts/django/projname, if your includes are
19 appname.models, not projname.appname.models (or similar)
20 3. Make sure the chdir line is right —- it should point to the
21 directory containing your project code
23 5. Add a symbolic link from
24 /mit/lockername/web\_scripts/projname/media/ to
25 /mit/lockername/Scripts/django/projname/media/
26 6. Merge the autoinstalled settings.py (that is,
27 /mit/lockername/Scripts/django/projname.auto/settings.py) into your
29 1. Copy the database information
30 2. Copy the SECRET\_KEY, or make your own new one
31 3. Copy the ADMIN\_MEDIA\_PREFIX —- for scripts.mit.edu, this
32 should be “/\_\_scripts/django/media/”
33 4. Make sure the value of MEDIA\_URL is reasonable (generally
36 7. Set up your database appropriately, either by running
37 “./manage.py syncdb” or by installing a database dump from a
38 running copy of your project
39 8. Once you’ve confirmed that your Django project works, delete
40 /mit/lockername/Scripts/django/projname.auto/
42 ^1^ On Athena 9 or the Sun dialups, you may need to do “attach