Question

How to install Django applications in Plesk?

Answer

While it is not yet officially supported, it can be configured manually at your own risk & will.
Vote for adding Python support to the Plesk on our UserVoice.

Note: Here and forth Python 3.x will be used as a target Python version.

Prepare the server

Connect to the server via SSH and apply the steps according to the installed Linux distribution:

Deploy the application

1. Connect to the server via SSH as the subscription's system user (this can be found in Subscriptions > example.com > System User) and navigate to the Document Root

   $ ssh example@example.com
   $ cd ~/httpdocs/

2. Move existing files to the backup directory in the subscription, so they will not be processed instead of the application:

   $ mkdir ~/backup
   $ mv ~/httpdocs/* ~/backup/

3. Create a new virtual environment for the Django application:

   • On Ubuntu and Debian:

     $ python3 -m virtualenv -p python3 python-app-venv

   • On RHEL and CentOS:

     $ python3.6 -m virtualenv -p python3.6 python-app-venv

   • On CloudLinux:

     $ /opt/alt/python36/bin/python3.6 -m virtualenv -p python3.6 python-app-venv

4. Enter the virtual environment:

   $ source ./python-app-venv/bin/activate

5. Install the Django framework and check if it could be imported:

   • On RHEL/CentOS/CloudLinux 7:

     (python-app-venv) $ pip install 'Django>=2.1,<2.2'
     (python-app-venv) $ python -c "import django;print(django.get_version())"
     2.1.8

   • On Debian 8, 9 and Ubuntu 14.04, 16.04 and 18.04:

     (python-app-venv) $ pip install Django
     (python-app-venv) $ python -c "import django;print(django.get_version())"
     2.2

6. Create a passenger_wsgi.py file using vi:

   (python-app-venv) $ vi ~/httpdocs/passenger_wsgi.py

   Add the following content to it:

   CONFIG_TEXT: import sys, os
   ApplicationDirectory = 'djangoProject'
   ApplicationName = 'djangoProject'
   VirtualEnvDirectory = 'python-app-venv'
   VirtualEnv = os.path.join(os.getcwd(), VirtualEnvDirectory, 'bin', 'python')
   if sys.executable != VirtualEnv: os.execl(VirtualEnv, VirtualEnv, *sys.argv)
   sys.path.insert(0, os.path.join(os.getcwd(), ApplicationDirectory))
   sys.path.insert(0, os.path.join(os.getcwd(), ApplicationDirectory, ApplicationName))
   sys.path.insert(0, os.path.join(os.getcwd(), VirtualEnvDirectory, 'bin'))
   os.chdir(os.path.join(os.getcwd(), ApplicationDirectory))
   os.environ.setdefault('DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE', ApplicationName + '.settings')
   from django.core.wsgi import get_wsgi_application
   application = get_wsgi_application()

   Note: This file describes to Passenger and WSGI how to correctly start and run the application.
   Here djangoProject is used as the project name. It must be modified to the actual project name.

7. Create the application itself (for example, Django CMS, or a scaffold Django project):

   Create a "scaffold" Django application

   1. Create the default Django project:

      (python-app-venv) $ django-admin startproject djangoProject

   2. Edit configuration of the project to allow serving requests from any host:

      (python-app-venv) $ sed -i "s/ALLOWED_HOSTS = \[\]/ALLOWED_HOSTS = ['*']/" djangoProject/djangoProject/settings.py

      Note: By default, django does not permit application to be run on any host, therefore, ALLOWED_HOSTS value in the settings.py file of the application should be adjusted for it to run correctly.

   3. Create a tmp directory for Passenger and a file restart.txt in it:

      (python-app-venv) $ mkdir tmp
      (python-app-venv) $ touch tmp/restart.txt

      Note: Passenger caches application to allow for faster responses. In order to apply changes made in code, this file must be created: Restarting Applications: restart.txt

   Django CMS application

   1. Install djangocms-installer Python package:

      (python-app-venv) $ pip install djangocms-installer

   2. Create the djangoProject to hold the project files:

      (python-app-venv) $ mkdir djangoProject

   3. Deploy the Django CMS instance to the djangoProject directory with the correct name:

      (python-app-venv) $ djangocms -f -p ./djangoProject djangoProject

      Note: Django CMS will also create a superuser admin with password admin by default.

   4. Edit configuration of the project to allow serving requests from any host:

      (python-app-venv) $ sed -i "s/ALLOWED_HOSTS = \[\]/ALLOWED_HOSTS = ['*']/" djangoProject/djangoProject/settings.py

      Note: By default, django does not permit application to be run on any host, therefore, ALLOWED_HOSTS value in the settings.py file of the application should be adjusted for it to run correctly.

   5. Create a tmp directory for Passenger and a file restart.txt in it:

      (python-app-venv) $ mkdir tmp
      (python-app-venv) $ touch tmp/restart.txt

      Note: Passenger caches application to allow for faster responses. In order to apply changes made in code, this file must be created: Restarting Applications: restart.txt

8. Log into Plesk

9. Navigate to Domains > example.com > Hosting Settings and set Document Root to httpdocs/djangoProject

Note: If the application is showing error 403, please review that the domain's Additional Apache & Nginx directives are applied from the Service Plan. If these do not exist in the domain, copy them from the Service Plan and apply them directly in Domain > example.com > Additional Apache and Nginx Directives.

Additional information

Django Documentation

DjangoCMS Documentation