In order to configure the settings.py file for production deployment in Django, you must consider several key elements.
Before proceeding with the changes, remember to be cautious when editing the settings.py file, as incorrect configuration can lead to security vulnerabilities or malfunctioning of the app.
First, you must separate and keep track of your local development settings and your production settings as these two environments are not meant to be configured the same way. In most cases, these vary greatly. Most notable differences fall in DEBUG and the ALLOWED\_HOSTS settings.
In a local environment, DEBUG is usually set to True to make debugging during development easier. In production, you should always set DEBUG to False. If you don’t, all error details will be exposed to the users whenever a server error occurs and this makes your application vulnerable (Source: Django Documentation).
The ALLOWED\_HOSTS setting defines the host/domain names that your Django site can serve. For a production environment, this setting MUST contain the actual domain name or IP address for security reasons.
Here is an example:
ALLOWED\_HOSTS = [‘yourdomain.com’, ‘www.yourdomain.com’, ’123.456.78.9’]
As security in Django is very important, it is essential for production that you use HTTPS and secure your cookies by changing the settings. You can do this by adding this to your settings.py file:
CSRF_COOKIE_SECURE = True
SESSION_COOKIE_SECURE = True
This forces Django to only send the cookies over HTTPS (Source: Django Documentation).
Furthermore, serving static files in Django is handled within settings.py when DEBUG is True. But in a production environment (where DEBUG is False), Django does not handle static files for you, it’s done by your web server configuration. So, you should set STATIC_ROOT for static files and MEDIA_ROOT for media files (uploaded by user) to your require respective directories (Source: Django Documentation).
Another important aspect you shouldn’t ignore is to use different databases for development and production. In your settings.py file, you should configure a production database like PostgreSQL which is more apt for production than SQLite used for development.
Finally, remember to protect secret keys and never expose them in the settings file especially for production. You can use environment variables or dedicated config files which are not tracked by version control like git.
These are the basic settings for a Django Production Deployment. To ensure that your app runs perfectly, other settings and configuration might also need to be changed based on the specific requirements of your project.
Sources:
1. Django settings: https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/3.2/topics/settings/
2. Securing Django: https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/3.2/topics/security/
3. Deploying Django: https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/3.2/howto/deployment/checklist/
