Setting Up a Hydra Project#

There are two main scripts that you need to know about in this template, create_new_project.sh and setup_existing_project.sh. These both do pretty much what they say, however here is an expanded list of what each will do when run:

  • Create a poetry/direnv virtual environment

  • install python and js requirements (dev and regular) via poetry and npm (or optionally yarn)

  • Create a database

  • Run the django migrations

  • Setup git

Follow the below guide to set up a new project or get started on an existing one.

Note

If you’re getting set up on an existing project, skip to step 4b.

  1. Clone the template

    $ git clone https://github.com/Lightmatter/django-hydra.git

  2. Use cookiecutter to create a new version of the project.

    Warning

    This command should be run from this project’s parent directory.

    $ cookiecutter django-hydra

    Cookiecutter will ask you some questions about which integrations you might want.

  3. Navigate into the project directory that you just created

    $ cd <project_name>

  4. Set up the project

    1. For a new project:

    $ ./scripts/create_new_project.sh

    1. For an existing project

    $ ./scripts/setup_existing_project.sh

  5. Run Django server with runserver_plus

    $ ./manage.py runserver_plus

  6. In a new shell tab/window navigate to the project directory and run the vite server

    $ npm run dev

  1. View the project in your browser

    Open your preferred browser to http://127.0.0.1:8000/ or http://localhost:8000

Configuring environment variables#

Before you may develop on the app itself you will need a .env file.

Provided in the template is a .env.example which can be copy and pasted into a new .env file if setting up the project manually.

This template leverages this file using the dotenv JavaScript library as part of Vite.

Note

When following the steps above, the .env.example will be copied to new instance under .env automatically by the respective setup script.

Accessing Environment Variables in Python#

Environment vars are available in all settings file, more details here

Accessing Environment Variables in JavaScript/TypeScript#

Environment vars prefixed with VITE_ are available in all .js files and html script tags using the special import.meta.env object.

This can be used like so:

import.meta.env.VARIABLE_NAME // note the removal of the `VITE_` prefix

more details here

Installing#

The setup_existing_project.sh and the create_new_project.sh scripts will automatically install both the JavaScript and the Python dependencies, however if you need to install them yourself manually at a later date, you can run the below commands independently to do that.

Install JavaScript dependencies#

$ npm install

Install Python Dependencies#

$ ./scripts/setup_python.sh

Note

Once that’s been run the first time you can just run:

$ poetry install