How do I connect to development server with my browser?

[Keith]

Greetings:

I am an absolute beginner at Python / Django / Web development. (Old
school COBOL, VB desktop apps. developer trying to update my skills.)
My son gave me some space to play in on an Apache server he rents. I
set up Django, created my first project, and ran it in the
development server. Then the Definitive Guide to Django says to bring
up 127.0.0.1:8000 in my browser and I should see an "It worked"
message. I can't connect to this and, I suspect, this it's because
this is a local host address and I'm not local. Is there a way to
connect with the development server remotely?

TIA
Keith

[Jeff Anderson]

Keith wrote:
> Is there a way to
> connect with the development server remotely

Absolutely!
By default the development server --only-- runs on localhost. If you
want to make it accessible via another interface (like the internet) run
it like this:

python manage.py runserver xxx.xxx.xx.x:8000

where the xxx.xxx.xx.x is the external ip address.

Good luck!

Jeff Anderson

[Empty]

http://www.djangoproject.com/documentation/django-admin/#runserver-optional-port-number-or-ipaddr-port

"Note that the default IP address, 127.0.0.1, is not accessible from
other machines on your network. To make your development server
viewable to other machines on the network, use its own IP address
(e.g. 192.168.2.1) or 0.0.0.0."

Michael Trier
blog.michaeltrier.com

[Peter Rowell]

> My son gave me some space to play in on an Apache server he rents.

Is this a dedicated server or a shared hosting account?

Dedicated? Carry on.

Shared? Watch out! Many shared hosting providers frown on (or outright
forbid) "long running processes." Without thinking about what I was
doing, I started working through the Django tutorial on a 1and1.com
account. The third time I tried to run the development server (It just
wouldn't seem to work) I suddenly found myself locked out of my
account (and all of my domains blocked for web and mail) for 24 hours.

If you need your own play space for cheap, checkout http://www.webfaction.com/.
$10/month with user-configurable Apache. Alternatively, get an old PC,
slap on Ubuntu Linux (or the distro of your choice), and run a local
server. This has the benefit of letting you pickup some LAMP (Linux,
Apache, MySQL, Python) skills while learning Django. Warning: There
can be several steepish learning curves involved here, although most
distros come with a default LAMP setup installed for you. If you are
planning on selling your skills, this might be the right route to take.

[cjl]

Keith:

If you want to take your first steps learning Django without
installing it, I work on a tutorial in my spare time called Instant
Django:

http://www.instantdjango.com

It includes a download that contains a portable Django environment
that runs under Windows, no installation required, and uses the Django
development server and sqlite. It will even from from a USB thumb
drive. There is also a simple tutorial, which takes you through the
steps in creating a very rudimentary Django project.

Of course, part of learning Django is learning how to install and
deploy it, but in my opinion installation shouldn't be the first thing
you need learn.

It needs to be updated, but it should work for your purposes. As soon
as I can find the time I will finish the second chapter of the
tutorial, but I am now working between 60 and 80 hours a week at my
"day job", which has nothing to do with computers or programming, and
my wife is pregnant and due in two weeks, so it may be a while before
I get to it.

Anyway, good luck learning Django!
-cjlesh

[Keith]

Wow! Thanks for all the replies. I appreciate all the help.

I'll check out the tutorial, and hope all goes well with the new baby.

The server is shared. My son doesn't have any problem with me working
on it, but I don't want to cause any problems for him. If I run the
dev server briefly, that won't cause any problems, will it?

I've downloaded the portable django software.

Thanks again, all.

Keith

[Peter Rowell]

> If I run the dev server briefly, that won't cause any problems, will it?

It all depends on your hosting company. When in doubt, ask. It's not
that you are port-scanning their accounting machine, but you are
creating a "long running process" (i.e. it doesn't just generate a
page and exit) that is listening on port xxxx. Many of them don't like
that.

My situation was completely avoidable because (Doh!) I have a Linux
server running in the garage. I just happened to be logged in to
1and1.com and I wasn't thinking. Bam! Locked out for 24 hours.

I like the suggestion of running this locally on your desktop/laptop,
at least until you are doing something more serious than the tutorial.

[zodman]

python manage.py runserver 0.0.0.0:8000

give someone your ip on port 8000 :)

Jeff Anderson escribió: