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Deploying Python on AWS Elastic Beanstalk

I'm coming from a php background and now I'd like to host a Python web application on AWS but have a few questions about it.
Do I need to use a framework like Django/Flask? Is there anyway I can use core Python to do the same? Back in php, although I tried learning Laravel in the middle, I was able to just use core php with apache and host up my website.
Tried deploying my Python code on my AWS but got an error that application.py was missing. I'd like to know, what exactly is application.py and what is it supposed to contain? Similarly, what's wsgi.py I see here and there. Are these actual files I need to create for the web app to be hosted? Is there some specific code that has to go into them or are the pre-created files by frameworks like Django, etc? Because I could hardly find too much information on them online.
I had recently tried following this tutorial from the AWS official site but to no luck.
The reason for being reluctant to use Django is the shortage of time to learn it. But if it were to make the task of hosting a Python web app easier, I would definitely look at it.
And how is the version of Python set? Because the Python codes I've written use the python3 libraries for BeautifulSoup and urllib.
I have read a lot of articles on the web but the first thing I get on searching for Python on the web or with AWS, is Django or Flask or something. How exactly does it work? When it came to php, it was simple copying the files into the /www/ folder of the server machine and I could access the website via it's url. Maybe I've read too many posts to put them all together so could someone please set it straight for me? It would be greatly appreciated!
Thanks a lot!

You will waste a lot more time trying to write a WSGI application yourself from scratch. Use a framework, it will save you a lot of time.
PHP is very different to WSGI and WSGI sits well below the level of functionality that PHP provides out of the box. PHP is more like what frameworks in Python provide. So go learn a framework. If Django seems too complicated, try Flask first.
Also don't try and do it on AWS from the outset, learn the frameworks by using the development servers they provide on your own box. Just work through their respective tutorials.

Actually AWS Elastic Beanstalk give you pure Python (2.6/2.7/3.4) with Apache + mod_wsgi as web proxy. You can look all supported Python environment in here. So, you can use any Python web framework (such as Django, Flask, etc.) in your web app. If you can, choose common and supported framework by AWS (Django/Flask).
You can think: Python + Apache + mod_wsgi is equivalent to PHP + Apache + mod_php.
Please take a look into AWS Elastic Beanstalk documentation for how to working with Python here. Read the Deploying a Django Application or Deploying a Flask Application if you choose one of them. You need to provide what Elastic Beanstalk environment (mod_wsgi) needs.
Same as PHP, Python actually only copy and paste the files. If you want to make Python web app without framework, you need to follow the WSGI standard. You can take look into this question. In my opinion, better if you use a framework, because it handles the WSGI part for you.

First of all this is a good blog post to start from if you are using Django
I don't know much about Flask, with Django once you understand the core concepts it's not hard at all.
application.py is the file that aws looks for as stated in the blog post I pointed to:
By default eb assumes our wsgi file is called application.py
this can be changed to your local wcgi.py file that Django makes when you start your project with django.
Beware that you want to use your static url correctly so aws will read them from the right folder. I personally disagree about the way the static files configuration in the post.
It's better to stay with the aws default which is "static" and just set static url in django settings to "/static/"

Usage of Heroku with Django

I'm currently learning Django and getting a decent grasp of it. I know you can start the server with python manage.py runserver. But then there is also heroku ps:scale web=1 followed by heroku open to open the web page at the subdomain you chose on the host herokuapp.com. What is the point of using heroku vs just runserver? When it comes time to deploy to production is that what heroku is used for as I read it was for deployment? What is exactly is heroku used for and what are the reasons? When creating a professional django web site/application is heroku required or just very useful? If so why? I don't really understand the reason for using heroku. And I'm curious what the best practices are for django and whether they include using or not using heroku.
Aside from the heroku question, what are the best practices for django as far as setting a domain name and such (other than the herokuapp.com subdomain name) and also as far as what other components/software solutions are worth using with django?
One of the things I'm working on is an FTP portal on the website that people can login to and upload files. Does django have plugins/python modules for such a thing or must it be done custom? Which brings me to my final question, What kind of addons/modules does django offer to avoid reinventing the wheel when implementing a django website/app's certain features?
The tutorial I'm following: http://tutorial.djangogirls.org/en/django_orm/README.html
has helped me get a grasp on django, but I'm curious about the more advanced parts of it. Such as custom modules, custom styling, custom scripts (whether they are js or strictly python).
If someone could point me in the right direction or offer any suggestions it would be much appreciated. The tutorial has me using the modules: dj-database-url, whitenoise, gunicorn, python-dateutil, psycopg2 , requests. I know what some of them do, but what is the purpose of psycopg2, whitenoise, dateutil, and dj-database,url? Are there any other modules worth using?
Sorry for the wall of questions, but I'm trying to understand django as best I can so that I can do a correct assessment when putting together a django project.
Thanks in advance.
EDIT, final questions:
1) Also when i used heroku they gave me a subdomain at herokuapps.com Can I set my own URL and still use heroku?
2) And last but not least, heroku makes you register and gives you a subdomain on herokuapp.com Is there a way to use heroku with your own domain rather than the one they give you? Is there a specific way to do it?
EDIT 2:
When I do runserver it works fine, but when i run it with heroku ps:scale web=1 and then heroku open it opens but only shows the title at the top of the page, and no content. Not sure exactly why that is. Can someone explain the difference between runserver and heroku ps:scale web=1 followed by heroku open??

python manage.py runserver is only for development. Never use it in production.
Heroku makes it super easy to deploy your Django code. You only need some configs and git push heroku master. But it's not the only way to deploy your code. You can also set up a server with a webserver like Nginx, Gunicorn as WSGI server, and a database of your choice. To set things up, you need to know something about Linux and the command line.
So if you don't know how to set up a server, Heroku can be very useful.
Heroku supports custom domains, and it's easy to set up.
As Mikeec3 mentioned, "Two Scoops of Django" is a very good read.
If you are looking for django packages, www.djangopackages.com is a good place to start.

psycopg2 is for postgresql usage with your app. White noise allows you to serve your staticfiles without nginx if using gunicorn. Requests is an easy to use urllib2 library with pythonic calls to work with apis from other websites.
If you want to do some testing with say facebook logins Heroku is a great place to go to, especially if you need a url outside of localhost.
My suggestion is you read Two scoops of Django http://twoscoopspress.org/products/two-scoops-of-django-1-6
It goes over alot of best practices and serves as a great tutorial after polls. I suggest also incorporating django-bower into your project. Ill list a few great things to add.
Django Bower: https://github.com/nvbn/django-bower - Helps organize static files
Crispy Forms : https://github.com/maraujop/django-crispy-forms - Great form rendering, great with bootstrap
Django Rest Framework: https://github.com/tomchristie/django-rest-framework - REST APIs
These are just to start, there's alot to learn.

Django deployment final step

I have a Django project with 1 app that is working locally and I am trying to make it work on the server but I imagine I am still missing something...
The steps I have followed are:
1) create a virtualnev
2) Install django and the libraries I need
3) copy my local project to the server, keeping the same directory structure
4) create the file passenger_wsgi.py (python passenger_wsgi.py did not return any error)
After this do I need to do anything like python manage.py runserver? Or with this I should be already able to see the site through mydomain/my project/ my app (when I do ot just get an error 404)?
I have read the django book and followed the tutorial, but this part is not well described anywhere...
Thanks in advance for any help!

Deployment is explained in the documentation.
You need to actually serve your application with some kind of HTTP server and something to run your python code. Some of the possible combinations are:
nginx with uWSGI
Any web server as reverse proxy with gunicorn
Apache with mod_wsgi
Your hosting service may or may not give you the choice or even the possibilty to do this.
There is a list of Django friendly hosters in the Django wiki.

Well firstly you might want to go through the previously asked questions.
When you are deploying using passenger you do not need to run manage.py runserver , etc. The passenger_wsgi file should take care of it.
You might want to check this link out, in the first answer also contains link to Dreamhost which details quite extensively on how to achieve the same.
Visit Deploying Django app using passenger
From my personal experience I found Nginx and uwsgi setup to be much more easier to handle and work and debug in the logs, but this is subjective to your needs and platform you may have.

Amazon ec2 - Deploying a python app

I read though the whole docs and I learned a lot. Many parts really well documented. http://aws.amazon.com/documentation/
The problem is I am a newbie in web development. I know how to deploy my app on gae but I don't know how to deploy it on a remote virtual server.
Amazon doesn't really explain how to deploy a python app. The have complete solutions for .net java and php with 'ealsticbeanstalk', but not for python. They mentioned a 3rd party AMI called "ActivePython" but this didn't help me much.
I hope you can clear things up for me.
Thanks.

If you are using DJango try looking at bitnami
bitnami's Django - this really makes things easier
I deployed a Django app on EC2 recently and my 'brain dump' is here

Python webapp - moving from testing to production

I've made a small web app using web.py that I now want to put into production. I dont anticipate this will have very high concurrent use (probably max of 5 or so users at any given time, if that).
That said, I dont want to go with the cherry.py server that comes with web.py (and which i have been using for debugging), because one of my main motivations for the app was to learn how to properly put apps in production.
Reading up on options - there seems to be dizzying array of stuff. Tornoado, nginx, lighttpd etc etc. Also stuff like Gunicorn, which I cant quite grasp the use of so far.
It seems WSGI is the way to go - and I wanted some help with what would be an appropriate, relatively easy to administer setup that i can run on an EC2 instance (ubuntu), perhaps using nginx/wsgi. Specifically, do i need gunicorn (or equivalent), and are there any good intros anybody may know of so i can actually get my web.py code running and at least start to understand this jigsaw of various technologies/options?
Many thanks

Available options are:
apache + mod_python
apache + mod_wsgi
lighttpd + mod_fastcgi
lighttpd + gunicorn
nginx + gunicorn
I suggest you to go for gunicorn.

CherryPy is a pretty good choice for deployment. It's a good WSGI server, and is known to work on EC2. Straightforward mapping of HTTP requests onto your python code. I have run it behind Apache, behind lighttpd, and by itself.

I suggest you use Apache + modpython. Even though you expect less load, it's always good to be prepared :)
Plus this is a tried and tested setup.