Specifying project root when deploying to Heroku

Question

My Problem:

When using gunicorn as my WSGI HTTP server, foreman fails to find the Django (wsgi?) application.

Application Structure:

In my Django application, I have things structured like this:

<git_repository_root>/
  <django_project_root>/
    <configuration_root>/

The <git_repository_root> contains the project management and deployment related things (requirements.txt, Procfile, fabfile.py, etc.)

The <django_project_root> contains my Django apps and application logic.

Finally, the <configuration_root> contains my settings.py and wsgi.py.

What I have tried:

My Procfile should look like this (according to the Heroku Docs):

web: gunicorn myapp.wsgi

When running foreman start with this project layout, I get an error:

ImportError: Import by filename is not supported.

What works:

If I move my Procfile from <git_repository_root> to <git_repository_root> it works locally. After pushing to Heroku (note: Heroku sees <git_repository_root>) I can't scale any workers / add processes. I get the following:

Scaling web dynos... failed
 !    No such process type web defined in Procfile.

I believe I want Procfile in my <git_repository_root> anyway though - so why isn't it working? I also tried changing the Procfile to: web: gunicorn myapp/myapp.wsgi

but no luck. Any help would be much appreciated!

Answer 1

Treat the entry in your Procfile like a bash command. You can cd into your <django_project_root> and then run the server.

For example, your Procfile (which should be in your <git_repository_root>) might look something like this:

web: cd <django_project_root> && gunicorn 
     --env DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE=<configuration_root>.settings 
     <configuration_root>.wsgi

Answer 2

Move your Procfile back to <git_repository_root> and use:

web: gunicorn <django_project_root>.myapp:myapp

replacing the final "myapp" with your app's class name, presumably it is indeed "myapp".

... and read the error message: it is telling you that you can't import your worker class (app) by filename (myapp.wsgi), so of course saying dirname/myapp.wsgi won't work as well. You need a Python module:class syntax.