• Python 2.7
• pip and virtualenv

virtualenv venv

# On Windows, replace the following line with 'venv\Scripts\activate'.
source venv/bin/activate

pip install -r requirements.minimal.txt
python manage.py syncdb --noinput
python manage.py migrate
python manage.py seeddata
python manage.py runserver

At this point, you can visit http://localhost:8000/admin and log in as user admin with password test.

Unlike traditional Django settings, we use environment variables for configuration to be compliant with twelve-factor apps.

Note: When an environment variable is described as representing a boolean value, if the variable exists with any value (even the empty string), the boolean is true; otherwise, it's false.

Note: When running manage.py, the following environment variables are given default values: SECRET_KEY, PORT, ORIGIN, EMAIL_BACKEND_URL. Also, DEBUG is enabled.

• SECRET_KEY is a large random value.
• DEBUG is a boolean value that indicates whether debugging is enabled (this should always be false in production).
• PORT is the port that the server binds to.
• ORIGIN is the origin of the server, as it appears to users. If DEBUG is enabled, this defaults to http://localhost:PORT. Otherwise, it must be defined.
• DATABASE_URL is the URL for the database. Defaults to a sqlite:// URL pointing to db.sqlite3 at the root of the repository. If this value is the name of another (all-caps) environment variable, e.g. HEROKU_POSTGRESQL_AMBER_URL, that variable's value will be used as the database URL.
• EMAIL_BACKEND_URL is a URL representing the email backend to use. Examples include console:, smtp://hostname:port, and smtp+tls://user:pass@hostname:port. Mandrill can also be used via 'mandrill://your-mandrill-api-key', though this requires the djrill package.
• DEFAULT_FROM_EMAIL is the default email address to use for various automated correspondence from the site manager(s), such as password resets. Defaults to webmaster@localhost.
• ADMIN_EMAIL is the email address to send error reports to. If undefined, error reports will not be emailed.
• MINIGROUP_DIGESTIF_USERPASS is a string of the form username:password that enables the sending of Minigroup digests from external jobs. For more information, see minigroup_digestif/README.md.
• SECURE_PROXY_SSL_HEADER is an optional HTTP request header field name and value indicating that the request is actually secure. For example, Heroku deployments should set this to X-Forwarded-Proto: https.