I just finished going through the process of installing and configuring Django (with FastCGI) on Hostmonster's Shared hosting. It was more painful than I expected, so I decided write a post about how I got it working...

First, I wanted to create a subdomain which would host my django stuff. In order to do this, I created a subdomain using the cPanel (the item is called "Subdomains"). This created the directory and a basic .htaccess file (along with a few error pages).

I then went through the basic processes described on these pages:

• http://www.infoinfoc.us/django/hostmonster
• http://www.techgeekguy.com/2011/01/how-to-install-python-svn-django-osqa-web-hosting-server-hostmonster-dreamhost-bluehost-godaddy-hostgator/

When I finished these guides, I kept getting a 500 error. I eventually found that I can access the error log through cPanel (maybe there is a more direct way?). Then I went through and fixed error by error. Hostmonster's helpdesk has a great Troubleshooting Django page which was helpful once the error log started showing python-related errors.

So after all this pain, I finally got it working. I now present to you my basic setup:

Directory structure:

/home4/questiq1/
|
|-- django/
|   |-- django_src/
|   |-- django_projects/
|   |   |-- mysite/
|   |   |   |-- manage.py
|   |   |   |-- mysite/
|   |   |   |   |-- __init__.py
|   |   |   |   |-- settings.py
|   |   |   |   |-- urls.py
|   |   |   |   |-- wsgi.py
|
|-- python/
|   |-- bin/
|   |-- include/
|   |-- lib/
|   |-- share/
|
|-- public_html/
|   |-- highaltitudescience/
|   |   |-- .htaccess
|   |   |-- django.fcgi

A few things to note about the directory structure:

• ~/django/django_src is a direct svn checkout of the django project (svn co http://code.djangoproject.com/svn/django/trunk/ django_src)
• ~/django/django_projects contains the actual django code (rather than it living under public_html).
• django.fcgi must be executable (chmod a+x django.fcgi)

django.fcgi file:

 1
 2
 3
 4
 5
 6
 7
 8
 9
10
11
12
13

#!/home4/questiq1/python/bin/python
import sys, os

# Add a custom Python path.
sys.path.insert(0, "/home4/questiq1/django/django_src")
sys.path.insert(0, "/home4/questiq1/django/django_projects")
sys.path.insert(0, "/home4/questiq1/django/django_projects/mysite")

# Set the DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE environment variable.
os.environ['DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE'] = "mysite.settings"

from django.core.servers.fastcgi import runfastcgi
runfastcgi(method="threaded", daemonize="false")

Notice that I use a custom python path for django.fcgi (to force FastCGI to use my custom-installed version of python rather than the older, pre-installed one).

.htaccess file:

Options +SymLinksIfOwnerMatch
AddHandler fcgid-script .fcgi
RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^(www.)?highaltitudescience.calebmadrigal.com$
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f [NC]
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ django.fcgi/$1 [QSA,L]

.bashrc file:

if [ -f /etc/bashrc ]; then
        . /etc/bashrc
fi

export PATH=~/python/bin:$PATH
export PATH=~/django/django_src/django/bin:$PATH
export PYTHONPATH=~/django/django_src:$PYTHONPATH
export PYTHONPATH=~/django/django_projects:$PYTHONPATH