Archives for the 'Django' category

New Django screencast

Updated Jul 8 at 23:22 CDT (first posted Oct 1 at 11:07 CDT) by Remi in Django  - 4 comment(s)

We've made a new "Getting started with Django" screencast. It is available at http://docs.webfaction.com/software/django/getting-started.html#getting-started-screencast

The video is available in HD and with subtitles. Enjoy while it's hot!

*Update*: Fixed the link location.

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Latest news

Posted Sep 3 at 10:39 CDT by Remi in Django, Documentation  - 4 comment(s)

Here is what's been happening lately:

New software-specific documentation

We've started writing some new documentation about specific software. This new documentation will eventually replace and surpass all of our knowledge base. The two latest guides that we wrote are:


WSGI SSL middleware no longer needed

Our mod_wsgi and django on mod_wsgi apps now come with the following line in their apache configuration:

SetEnvIf X-Forwarded-SSL on HTTPS=1


This means that mod_wsgi will set the right wsgi.url_scheme, removing the need for SSL middlewares such as http://www.djangosnippets.org/snippets/240/

Support for email extensions

Email extensions are now fully supported. This means that you can configure an email such as email@domain.com in the control panel and people can send emails to email+anything@domain.com and it'll work.

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New installers available

Posted Aug 14 at 10:26 CDT by Remi in Django, Drupal, Joomla, Software  - 4 comment(s)

We've just added a bunch of new installers to our control panel:

  • WordPress-2.8.4
  • Joomla-1.5.14
  • Drupal-6.13
  • TurboGears-2.0

These WordPress, Joomla and Drupal releases all fix security issues so upgrading is highly recommended.

Recently we also added mod_wsgi-2.5 and Django-1.1 to our installer.

Enjoy while it's hot!

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Latest news

Posted May 28 at 12:17 CDT by Remi in Django, Drupal, Email, General, Memory, Plone, Python, Software, WordPress, Zope  - 8 comment(s)

Here is a quick update on what's been happening lately at WebFaction:

  • New Webmail interface: Squirrelmail served us well for all these years but it was time for something a little more modern. We've setup a new webmail interface (AtMail) at https://atmail.webfaction.com and we'll make it the default at https://webmail.webfaction.com in the near future (we'll still keep Squirrelmail at https://squirrelmail.webfaction.com for people who want to keep using it).

  • New backup system: In the last few weeks we've rolled out a new backup system on all of our CentOS servers. The new system is a lot faster and lighter on the server and as a result the load on the server isn't impacted when it's being backed up.

  • Mail platform improvements: We keep improving our mail platform and we now have better spam detection than ever and we're able to enable new servers within seconds if mail traffic increases.

  • New installers: We regularly add new software or new versions to our one click installers. Lately we added the latest WordPress, Drupal, Django, Plone, Joomla and more.

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Django-1.0 is here!

Updated Feb 12 at 06:01 CDT (first posted Sep 4 at 03:39 CDT) by Remi in Django  - 22 comment(s)

The highly anticipated Django-1.0 has just been released and we've of course already added it as a one-click installer (with a choice of either a mod_python or mod_wsgi setup)

From the beginning we've worked hard to provide the best possible setup for Django sites so we're very happy to see this project reach this milestone and we congratulate the Django team on their great work.

But that's not all... To celebrate the release of Django-1.0 we are offering a free extra "Shared 1" plan for one year to any new customer signing up in the next month with the right promo code (see below).

You can either get this extra "Shared 1" plan on the same machine as your other plan by using the promo code DJANGO10-SINGLE (this means that you get more memory/diskspace/bandwidth for your sites), or you can get it on a separate machine by using the promo code DJANGO10-MULTIPLE (this means that you can use our load-balancing feature to load-balance your site between two machines).

(Note: This promotion gives you two hosting plans on a single account. It does not give you two separate accounts.)

(Another Note: This promotion expired October 4 2008.)

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Latest improvements

Posted Jul 24 at 08:19 CDT by Remi in Django, Drupal, Email, WordPress  - 5 comment(s)

Just because we're quiet on the blog doesn't mean we're not hard at work... Here are a some improvements that we've made lately:

  • Lots of new installers: WordPress-2.6, Drupal-6.3, Django-0.96.2 and others. We usually add these within hours of their release.
  • New PHP setup: We're gradually rolling out a new PHP setup which fixes a security issue. Your PHP files are now run inside mod_php as your user, which means that there is no more hassle with permissions and uploaded files being owned by apache. See our status blog for details of the rollout.
  • Better spam detection: We're now using a combination of SpamAssassin and some black lists to filter out the spam on our new mail platform.
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Django setup improvements

Posted May 6 at 10:47 CDT by Remi in Django  - 8 comment(s)

We just rolled out a number of improvements to our Django setup:

  • Support for mod_wsgi: Setting up a default Django app with mod_wsgi is now an option in our one-click installer. So if you prefer mod_wsgi over mod_python you will no longer have to install it manually. I just ran a simple benchmark using "ab -n 5000 -c 2" against a default Django site using mod_wsgi and the same using mod_python. Both were using 2 Apache worker processes. mod_wsgi was slightly faster (1400 req/sec vs 1250 req/sec) and was using slightly less memory (10MB per Apache worker process vs 12MB). Note that you can also setup a standalone mod_wsgi application in our control panel (without Django).
  • Support for the latest trunk: When you create a Django app you now have the option to use the latest trunk.
  • More django docs: We've added some more knowledge base entries at https://help.webfaction.com/django and we'll keep on adding more.
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New django installers

Posted Jun 29 at 05:32 CDT by Remi in Django  - 9 comment(s)

We've just rolled out some new django installers. New features are:

  • Latest mod_python version (3.3.1): when you create a new django app it will install the latest mod_python version by default (3.3.1). Amongst other things, this version fixes some memory leaks.
  • mod_python compiled with shared python library: the mod_python.so file went from 3MB down to 300KB.
  • Support for Python-2.5: when you create the app you can now choose between Python-2.4 and 2.5.
Remi. Read the full article and comments


Tips to keep your Django/mod_python memory usage down

Updated Jul 19 at 13:33 CDT (first posted May 30 at 09:57 CDT) by Remi in Django, Memory, Tips  - 21 comment(s)

Note: For updated tips for use with mod_wsgi, please see Reducing Memory Consumption.

Most people manage to run their Django site on mod_python within the memory limits of their "Shared 1" or "Shared 2" plans but a few people are struggling to stay within the limits.

So here are a few tips that you can use to try and keep your memory usage down when using Django on mod_python:

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Django-0.96, Zope-2.9.7, MySQLdb-1.2.2

Posted Mar 28 at 03:54 CDT by Remi in Django, MySql, Software, Zope  - 4 comment(s)

We've just added Django-0.96 and Zope-2.9.7 to our control panel. Since Django-0.96 required a newer version of MySQLdb we've upgrade MySQLdb to 1.2.2 on all servers.

If you have an existing Django app and wish to upgrade the recommended way is to manually replace the django module in $HOME/lib/python2.4 as described here.

A security hole has been found in earlier versions of Zope so it is highly recommended to upgrade to this latest Zope version. The procedure to upgrade is described here.

Remi. Read the full article and comments


Django-0.95.1, Zope-2.10.1, Plone-2.5.2-1

Updated Feb 9 at 04:21 CDT (first posted Jan 22 at 08:05 CDT) by Remi in Django, Plone, Software, Zope  - 4 comment(s)

We've just added Django-0.95.1 and Zope-2.10.1 with Plone-2.5.2-1 to our control panel.

Note that if you have an existing Django app and wish to upgrade the recommended way is to manually replace the django module in $HOME/lib/python2.4 as described in the forum.

This is because right now you can't use the one-click installer to install two different Django versions (because they both reside in the same $HOME/lib/python2.4 directory). If you want to run two different Django versions you have to install one of them manually as a custom app

Update: Since Plone-2.5.2-1 is not compatible with Zope-2.10.1 we reverted back to Zope-2.9.6 for now.

Remi. Read the full article and comments


BIG holiday present !

Updated Dec 29 at 09:34 CDT (first posted Dec 22 at 05:06 CDT) by Remi in Django, General, Plone, Python, Rails, Shared, TurboGears, Zope  - 14 comment(s)

Well, here comes our BIG holiday present to everyone:

We've added one long-running process and 40MB of RAM to all plans !

This means that Rails, Django and TurboGears hosting is now available on our "Shared 1" plan, starting at $7.50/month. Zope is now available on our "Shared 2" plan and Plone on our "Shared 3" plan.

But that's not it: we've doubled the diskspace and quadrupled the bandwidth included in each plan !

Also, a private IP address is now only $5/month and an extra 40MB of RAM is only $7/month.


Happy holidays everyone :)


Remi.

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New Django screencast, Rails-1.1.6

Updated Feb 19 at 05:58 CDT (first posted Aug 10 at 06:27 CDT) by Remi in Django, General, Python, Rails, Screencast  - 1 comment(s)

Another quick update:
  • Ian Holsman has made a new version of the Django screencast. It is updated for Django-0.95 and the sound is much better this time.
  • Rails-1.1.5 is now available in our control panel. It includes a critical security patch.

Update: Rails-1.1.6 was just released (it includes more security patches) so we've added it to our control panel.

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Django-0.95, Zope-2.9.4, Plone-2.5, Mongrel for Rails

Updated Dec 29 at 09:34 CDT (first posted Jul 31 at 05:15 CDT) by Remi in Django, General, Plone, Python, Rails, Software, Zope  - 1 comment(s)

Just a quick update on what's been happening lately:
  • Django-0.95 is already in our one-click installer, less than 24 hours after its release !
  • Zope-2.9.4 and Plone-2.5 are also in there now
  • All new Rails application are now setup to run with Mongrel by default (much faster than WEBrick)
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Django screencast

Updated Feb 19 at 05:45 CDT (first posted Jul 10 at 08:43 CDT) by Remi in Django, Help, Python, Screencast  - 16 comment(s)

Thanks to Ian Holsman, we have a screencast showing how to install a real-life Django application on our servers. Check it out here.

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