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Day 5 of 5
⏱ ~60 minutes
Django in 5 Days — Day 5

Deploy to Production

Configure Django for production: DEBUG off, static files, PostgreSQL, and deploy to Railway with environment variables.

Production Settings

mysite/settings.py changes
import os

DEBUG = os.environ.get('DEBUG', 'False') == 'True'
SECRET_KEY = os.environ.get('SECRET_KEY', 'fallback-dev-key')
ALLOWED_HOSTS = os.environ.get('ALLOWED_HOSTS', 'localhost').split(',')

# Database: switch to PostgreSQL in production
import dj_database_url
DATABASES = {
    'default': dj_database_url.config(default=os.environ.get('DATABASE_URL'))
}
Static Files with WhiteNoise
pip install whitenoise dj-database-url gunicorn

# settings.py
MIDDLEWARE = [
    'whitenoise.middleware.WhiteNoiseMiddleware',
    # ... existing middleware
]
STATIC_ROOT = BASE_DIR / 'staticfiles'
STATICSFILES_STORAGE = 'whitenoise.storage.CompressedManifestStaticFilesStorage'
Procfile
web: gunicorn mysite.wsgi --log-file -
Deploy to Railway
# railway.app → New Project → Deploy from GitHub
# Add environment variables:
# SECRET_KEY, DATABASE_URL (Railway provisions Postgres),
# ALLOWED_HOSTS=your-app.railway.app,DEBUG=False

# Post-deploy: run migrations
railway run python manage.py migrate
railway run python manage.py collectstatic --noinput
⚠️
Never set DEBUG=True in production. It exposes your full stack trace and settings to anyone who triggers an error. Set it to False and configure ALLOWED_HOSTS properly.
📝 Day 5 Exercise
Deploy Your Django App
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Day 5 Summary

  • DEBUG=False in production — no exceptions. Use env vars for secrets and settings.
  • WhiteNoise serves static files efficiently without a separate file server.
  • dj_database_url.config() parses a DATABASE_URL env var into Django's database dict.
  • gunicorn is the production WSGI server. Replace manage.py runserver which is dev-only.
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