Code Campfire Python Backend

A Django REST API project for Code Campfire.

Setup and Installation

Quick Setup Using Scripts

For a quick and automated setup, we provide scripts for both macOS and Windows environments:

macOS

1. Open Terminal and navigate to the project root directory.
2. Run the setup script:

   chmod +x scripts/setup_mac.sh  # Make script executable (first time only)
   ./scripts/setup_mac.sh

3. The script will:
   • Install required dependencies
   • Set up Python 3 and required packages
   • Create a virtual environment and install Django
   • Create a .env file with database settings
   • Offer to create the PostgreSQL database for you
   • Run initial database migrations
4. After the script completes, you MUST activate the virtual environment:

   source venv/bin/activate

5. Start the development server:

   python3 manage.py runserver

6. Access the application at http://localhost:8000/api/hello/
7. For future sessions, always activate the virtual environment first:

   source venv/bin/activate
   python3 manage.py runserver

Windows

1. Open Command Prompt or PowerShell as administrator and navigate to the project root directory.
2. Run the setup script:

   scripts\setup_windows.bat

3. The script will:
   • Check for Python and required packages
   • Create a virtual environment
   • Install project dependencies
   • Create a .env file with database settings
   • Offer to create the PostgreSQL database for you
   • Run initial database migrations
4. After the script completes, verify the virtual environment is activated.
5. Start the development server:

   python manage.py runserver

6. Access the application at http://localhost:8000/api/hello/
7. For future sessions, always activate the virtual environment first:

   venv\Scripts\activate.bat
   python manage.py runserver

Manual Setup Instructions

Setting up a Debian-based Linux Development Environment

This guide will help you set up your Debian-based Linux environment for development.

Prerequisites

Make sure you have sudo privileges on your system.

Installation Steps

This is the recommended environment setup for projects. The team can choose to use a different environment, but less support will be available in the community for differing environments.

Linux (Debian-based e.g. Ubuntu)

1. Update Package Lists

   sudo apt update

2. Install Required Dependencies

   sudo apt install -y build-essential python3-dev python3-pip python3-venv git \
       postgresql postgresql-contrib libpq-dev \
       make libssl-dev zlib1g-dev libbz2-dev libreadline-dev libsqlite3-dev \
       wget curl llvm libncurses5-dev libncursesw5-dev xz-utils \
       tk-dev libffi-dev liblzma-dev python-openssl jq httpie