Deploying a Django Project on Vercel

This guide provides step-by-step instructions to deploy a Django project on Vercel. Follow these steps to get your Django application up and running on Vercel.

Prerequisites

• Python and Django installed
• Vercel account
• GitHub account
• A Django project ready for deployment

Steps

1. Create requirements.txt

Generate a requirements.txt file containing all the dependencies required by your project.

pip freeze > requirements.txt

2. Create build_files.sh

Create a file named build_files.sh in the same directory as your manage.py file and add the following code:

# build_files.sh
pip install -r requirements.txt
python3.9 manage.py collectstatic --noinput

3. Create vercel.json

Create a vercel.json file in the same directory as your manage.py file and add the following code:

{
    "version": 2,
    "builds": [
        {
            "src": "DjangoWebScraping/wsgi.py",
            "use": "@vercel/python",
            "config": { "maxLambdaSize": "15mb", "runtime": "python3.9" }
        },
        {
            "src": "build_files.sh",
            "use": "@vercel/static-build",
            "config": {
                "distDir": "staticfiles_build"
            }
        }
    ],
    "routes": [
        {
            "src": "/static/(.*)",
            "dest": "/static/$1"
        },
        {
            "src": "/(.*)",
            "dest": "DjangoWebScraping/wsgi.py"
        }
    ]
}

Note: Change the src and dest according to the path of your wsgi.py file.

4. Modify wsgi.py

Add the following line at the end of your wsgi.py file:

app = application

5. Modify settings.py

Make the following changes in your settings.py file:

STATICFILES_DIRS = (
    os.path.join(BASE_DIR, 'static'),
)

STATIC_ROOT = os.path.join(BASE_DIR, 'staticfiles_build', 'static')

ALLOWED_HOSTS = ['127.0.0.1', '.vercel.app', '.now.sh']

6. Push to GitHub

Create a repository on GitHub and push your project to the repository. You can create a new repository directly on GitHub or use the command line.

git init
git add .
git commit -m "Initial commit"
git branch -M main
git remote add origin <your-repo-URL>
git push -u origin main

7. Deploy on Vercel

1. Go to Vercel and log in with your GitHub account.
2. Click on "Add New" then "Project".
3. Select your GitHub repository.
4. Name your deployment and configure your project settings if needed (such as the root directory).
5. Click "Deploy".

Conclusion

After following these steps, your Django project should be successfully deployed on Vercel. Visit your Vercel dashboard to manage and view your project.

Author

Abhishek Rajput