Python 2.7 + Django 1.4 on Bluehost

Bluehost is a cheap shared hosting provider, that allows to run applications using fastCGI, among others, webapps created with django - python web framework. In this post you will find information how to install the newest (in April 2012) versions of python and django and how to configure them for  bluehost.

First you need to enable ssh access to your bluehost account. Sign in to their control panel, enter Security > SSH/Shell Access and click Manage SSH Access button. Select SSH Access enabled and submit. Now connect via ssh to your bluehost account.

Python

Download, extract and install python 2.7 in your home directory:

mkdir python27
wget http://www.python.org/ftp/python/2.7.2/Python-2.7.2.tgz
tar xzvf Python-2.7.2.tgz
cd Python-2.7.2
./configure -prefix=/homeX/your_username/python27 --enable-unicode=ucs4
make
make install

Rename the python binary (to avoid overriding current system python version - if you're not using default bluehost python for anything else you can skip this step):
mv ~/python27/bin/python ~/python27/bin/python27
Add new python directory with binaries to your PATH environment variable. To do this edit .bashrc file in your HOME directory, for example with vim:
vim ~/.bashrc
and add the line at the end of the .bashrc file:
PATH=/homeX/your_username/python27/bin:$PATH
load the new settings:
source .bashrc
and then test it:
python27
You should see something similar to:
Python 2.7.2 (default, Apr 11 2012, 01:29:09)
[GCC 4.1.2 20080704 (Red Hat 4.1.2-52)] on linux2
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>>>

New python is available for you. Remember to use command python27 instead of python from now on.

Pip

We're going to use pip here - easy to use python package manager. It requires setuptools before it can be installed:


wget http://pypi.python.org/packages/source/s/setuptools/setuptools-0.6c11.tar.gz
tar xzvf setuptools-0.6c11.tar.gz
cd setuptools-0.6c11
python27 setup.py install
cd
wget http://pypi.python.org/packages/source/p/pip/pip-1.1.tar.gz
tar xzvf pip-1.1.tar.gz
cd pip-1.1
python27 setup.py install

Now thanks to our earlier PATH settings pip is available from command line.

Django installation

With pip you can install latest stable Django (in my case 1.4) simply by entering:

pip install Django

Wait for download and installation process to complete. After that django is installed and command django-admin.py available. You will also probably need python driver for mysql database. Install it with pip:
pip install MySQL-python
If you're going to use PosgreSQL install psycopg2 library:
pip install psycopg2

Django configuration

Create django project:

django-admin.py startproject myproject

Decide what url should be used to access your django app. In my case it will be subdirectory:
http://somedomain.com/myproject

Prepare directory in bluehost public_html:
mkdir public_html/myproject
cd public_html/myproject


In this directory create fastcgi file (for example: mysite.fcgi) with content:
#!/homeX/your_username/python27/bin/python27
import sys, os

# Add a custom Python path.
sys.path.insert(0, "/homeX/your_username/python27")
sys.path.insert(13, "/homeX/your_username/myproject")

os.environ['DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE'] = 'myproject.settings'
from django.core.servers.fastcgi import runfastcgi
runfastcgi(method="threaded", daemonize="false")

Remember to change /homeX/your_username to your home directory path on bluehost. Change myproject.settings to correct project name. The first line contains path to your custom python binary.

Django fastcgi requires flup so install it with pip:
pip install flup
Also change file permissions to mysite.fcgi:
chmod 0755 mysite.fcgi

Now create .htaccess file in the public_html/myproject directory with content:
AddHandler fcgid-script .fcgi
RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ mysite.fcgi/$1 [QSA,L]


That's all. You should see your django start page on: http://somedomain.com/myproject. You can start coding some real stuff in django now. Remember to install every python and django packages using pip - that way they will be available to your django app. Also keep in mind that every django commands like syncdb, collectstatic  etc. should be run using python27 for example:
python27 manage.py syncdb


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Helpful materials, that I consulted during this installation and writing of this post:
Install Python 2.7 on BlueHost | Simply Me
2011 Installation Instructions for Django on Bluehost »

Getting Django working on bluehost - Alex's posterous
Django | How to use Django with FastCGI, SCGI, or AJP | Django documentation