Python and Django wrapup

Almost a wrapup.

Got django installed in /usr/lib/python2.4/site-packages/

Got django deployed in /var/www/vhosts/unplugtheinternet.com/django/test01/ with subfolder cms autogenerated

Got MySQLdb module added to python so django can use a MySQL database, and django has been successfully configured to build the schemas for the modules it deploys.

Created a vhost.conf to take care of webserver requests that python should handle (courtesy of Nick Sergeant's blog entry).

Still it isn't working properly. But since I'm leaving for a camping trip in ~1 hour, it's time to switch it off and go join my friends at Assateague Island.

Arrividerci pals.

MediaTemple, Python and Django

Just installing Django on my Mediatemple dv account.

First, log in to SSH as root user. Then use subversion, provided by mediatemple in

WebControl > Root Access & Developer Tools > Install Developer Tools,

which must at some point be enabled to be accessible. Following this,

Subversion grabs the latest version to /var/trunk/django.

In the case of dv accounts, python packages are located in /usr/lib/python2.4/site-packages

Create a symbolic link between these two locations using

ln -s /var/trunk/django /usr/lib/python2.4/site-packages

then add another symbolic link to bring the underlying python script to the root of the django trunk:

ln -s /var/trunk/django/bin/django-admin.py /usr/local/bin

Basically, what is happening here is:

Django Source /var/trunk : Subversion project root

\ --> accessible to /usr/lib : Libraries for programming and packages
\ --> accessible to /usr/local : Local hierarchy

More on this. Now:

import django

and


django.version

voila!

Next, you must add the MySQLdb interface for python if you are planning to use mySQL as your cms database. Here's a good reference for once you have the tarball in your directory. However, I'd rather wget it directly from the sourceforge site. Here is the command to use from root SSH:

wget http://downloads.sourceforge.net/mysql-python/MySQL-python-1.2.2.tar.gz

Works fine. Now install the module and it should run without an error.

Time Spent on Technology

My most recent client project tossed me headlong me into the programmer's briar patch. And there were some sharp thorns in there. C Sharp to be exact. (C# is the programming language of ASP.NET).

Digressions aside, there's an unmistakable Pyhrric thorn in a technical victory. Namely, it is not a visual victory. It is only part of the solution.

Design | Develop.

Web projects are a calico of the visual and the symbolic. Envisioning a project requires understanding it inside out. Learning the development side dispels the magic inside the application. When you have parsed it, it's obvious.

On the other hand, a technical project might drain visual creativity or vice versa. Math may diminish poetry, or medicine smoking. If a designer develops, can a developer design?

In a word, yes.

(but it takes more time)