In this episode of Running in Production, Andy Ide goes over building a SAAS app for horses with Django and Python. It’s hosted on a single Linode server and has been running in production since May 2021.

Andy talks about learning Django while building his app, using Django Unicorn, creating a Django monolith that’s broken up with Django apps, outsourcing setting up a server, the importance of having a good testing team and more.

Andy was kind enough to give listeners of this podcast 20% off for life if you use promo code RUNNING20 when signing up, that includes signing up for free since it carries over to a paid plan.

Topics Include

• 6:11 – About 60ish users signed up about a month after launching
• 8:34 – The process of learning Django while building this app
• 11:29 – Using the Django admin and a bunch of other useful packages
• 14:34 – Django Unicorn is being used for interactive bits w/o having to write a lot of JS
• 18:34 – It’s a Django monolithic with a bunch of Django apps
• 22:27 – How Django Rest Framework is being used for the reporting part of the app
• 28:46 – The app is mostly Django rendered templates with sprinkles of JS and Unicorn
• 34:00 – Stripe is handling payments, their API and docs are great
• 41:02 – (1) $10 / month Linode server hosts everything with 1 CPU core and 2GB of memory
• 45:25 – Picking the most recent version of Ubuntu and keeping deploys simple
• 52:05 – Using Cloudflare for DNS and using their paid plan
• 56:54 – Running tests locally before deploying it
• 59:12 – Handling backups with Django DB Backup and Linode’s backup service
• 1:02:12 – Using Sentry for exception reporting, viewing logs and Uptime Robot
• 1:08:50 – Best tips? Install Sentry and have a good testing team
• 1:13:37 – Check out HorseRecords on Facebook and Andy’s Django Blog

Links

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stud_farm
• https://djangochat.com/
• https://djangoandy.com/2021/05/14/integrating-django-rest-framework-and-retool/
• https://djangoandy.com/2021/05/02/what-i-learned-in-the-first-2-days-of-launching-my-saas-startup/

• django →
• python →
• cloudflare →
• jquery →
• linode →
• nginx →
• postgres →
• retool →
• sentry →
• stripe →
• systemd →
• ubuntu →
• uptime-robot →

• https://github.com/pennersr/django-allauth
• https://github.com/select2/select2
• https://www.django-rest-framework.org/
• https://github.com/matthewwithanm/django-imagekit
• https://github.com/dmpayton/django-admin-honeypot
• https://github.com/django-hijack/django-hijack
• https://www.django-unicorn.com/
• https://github.com/yourlabs/django-autocomplete-light
• https://github.com/benoitc/gunicorn
• https://github.com/pypa/pipenv
• https://github.com/django-dbbackup/django-dbbackup

Support the Show

This episode does not have a sponsor and this podcast is a labor of love. If you want to support the show, the best way to do it is to purchase one of my courses or suggest one to a friend.

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