Setup Django on Mac in 2020

What we need

To run a Django project, all you technically need is: Python, Django and one database platform (Postgres, MySQL, etc.). You could install all of it directly and start coding your first project.

The problem is that you will likely work on projects which requires different versions of Django and different versions of Python. To handle different versions of Python, we’ll use PyEnv. To handle different versions of Django (within the right version of Python), we need to setup Python virtual environments. We will use pyenv-virtualenv for that.

In short, with PyEnv, we can create a virtual environment with a specific version of Python and a specific version of Django.

For most projects, we will also need Git, CSS tools such as SASS and last but not least: Postgres.

1.Setup Python via Pyenv

To install PyEnv on MacOS, we’ll use Homebrew (brew) so we’ll install brew and then PyEnv.

Open up your terminal (in the Finder it’s located under: Applications/Utilities/Terminal) and type the following commands one by one.

The two first commands will take a while. For the third one, check the output of the PyEnv installation; you might get a different path (depending on the most recent version of openssl):

/bin/bash -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/master/install.sh)"
brew install pyenv
echo 'export PATH="/usr/local/opt/openssl@1.1/bin:$PATH"' >> ~/.zshrc

Now that PyEnv is installed; you can check all the available versions of Python via the pyenv install -l command. At the moment (June 2020), the latest version is Python 3.8.3. We’ll install it and set it up as the default version globally on our machine:

pyenv install 3.8.2
pyenv global 3.8.2

For PyEnv to work properly, we also need to make sure it always starts with our terminal. To do so, simply type:

echo -e 'if command -v pyenv 1>/dev/null 2>&1; then\n  eval "$(pyenv init -)"\nfi' >> ~/.zshrc

The latest version of Python should now be set via PyEnv. To double check that it’s all setup properly, open a new window and have a look at the following executables paths: python itself and pip (its package manager). Both PIP and Python must be correct (3.8.2); if these were different, nothing would work as expected.

pip -V                                                                                        
> pip 19.2.3 from /Users/francois/.pyenv/versions/3.8.2/lib/python3.8/site-packages/pip (python 3.8)
python -V
> Python 3.8.2

At this stage, you’ve got Python properly setup. You could install other versions easily via pyenv install (pyenv install 2.7.0 for example). This is enough to start one Django project for each Python version. To run multiple projects, we’ll add pyenv-virtualenv.

2.Install & setup virtual environments

pyenv-virtualenv is also installed via brew:

brew install pyenv-virtualenv
echo -e 'if which pyenv-virtualenv-init > /dev/null; then eval "$(pyenv virtualenv-init -)"; fi' >> ~/.zshrc

You can finally create a virtual-environment for your project with the following command:

pyenv virtualenv 3.8.2 myblog

When you want to you work on your project, you must type the following command to “activate” the virtual-environment:

pyenv activate myblog

Within myblog virtual-environment, you can now install Django:

pip install Django

3.Other tools to install

Git & gitk

gitk is a simple graphic tool for Git. I use it to review my local changes before committing.

brew install git
brew install git-gui

NPM, LESS & SASS

brew install npm
npm install less -global
sudo gem install sass

PostgreSQL

For Postgres on Mac, PostgresApp is a no-brainer. First download it and then add it to your path so Django can find it.

The path to to postgres binary files might be different. Simply use ls to double check it.

# find the bin path to add
ls /Applications/Postgres.app/Contents/Versions/ 
ls /Applications/Postgres.app/Contents/Versions/12/

# add it
echo 'export PATH="/Applications/Postgres.app/Contents/Versions/12/bin:$PATH"' >> ~/.zshrc

All done

You are now ready to go. With that configuration, you will be able to run any Django project on your Mac.