Getting Started¶

This project will likely be something no one else will want to play with, but the steps to getting a local working copy up and running are below. (It’s also good practice for me to thoroughly document my code, as I am very liable to forget stuff.)

First, clone this repo from GitHub:

git clone git@github.com:Meganmccarty/memcollection-wagtail.git

Environment Variables¶

You’ll need to create an .env file in the project’s root directory. Both Django and Docker expect a few environment variables to be present to properly run.

After creating the .env file, add the following variables to it:

DATABASE_NAME=postgres
DATABASE_PASSWORD=postgres
DATABASE_USER=postgres
DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE=memcollection.settings.dev
SECRET_KEY=Your Django Secret Key Here

You can use a secret key generator for the SECRET_KEY value.

Docker¶

This project uses Docker Compose to manage containers (one for the Wagtail web app, and another for the Postgres database).

If you’re using a Macbook with an M1/M2/M3 chip, you’ll need to use a different set of commands. Because these commands are a bit unwieldy, I created a Makefile to make typing the commands out easier. Feel free to look in the Makefile to see what these commands are actually doing under-the-hood. You can also run make help for a list of all the available Makefile commands (and what they do!).

Building and Spinning Up Containers¶

To build an image (non-M chip), run

make build

or, if on an M chip, run

make mac-build

Once the image finishes building, run

make up

make mac-up

to spin up the containers.

After the containers are up, you should find that two services have been created: one for the Wagtail app, and another for the Postgres database. You could be able to access the app at http://localhost:8000/.

You may need to run migrations before anything else. To do so, run the following in a separate terminal:

make migrations
make migrate

You’ll then need to create a user account to access the Wagtail admin. In the terminal, run:

make createsuperuser

You should then be prompted in the terminal for credentials. You can press enter to select the defaults (user = ‘wagtail’, email = ‘’) and input a password. Afterwards, use your newly-created user account to log into the Wagtail admin at http://localhost:8000/admin.

Stopping and Tearing Down Containers¶

To stop the containers, press Ctrl+C in the terminal where your containers are running.

If you want to tear down the containers, simply run the following:

make down

This command works for both non-M chip and M chip laptops. It will NOT wipe out the contents of your database, as they are stored on a volume (/postgres-data) within the project directory.

If you find you want to wipe out everything, simply run:

make prune

This will prune your system, containers, images, and volumes. Be careful with this command!

If, while developing, you find you need to rebuild an image without caching, there’s a command for that:

make build-no-cache

make mac-build-no-cache