#python-mysql

- Are you still use macports to install software? Try HomeBrew, - she advised

- Home what?

- HomeBrew is the new way to install everything on the mac

Well, I was too skeptic after all this time fighting with mysql and python but decided to give homebrew a try. I searched (can't say googled as I use duckduckgo and it's not the easiest word to create a verb) it and loved their ads "MacPorts driving you to drink? Try Homebrew!". This was so true. And I tried.

Here is my steps.

install Homebrew

ruby -e "$(curl -fsSkL raw.github.com/mxcl/homebrew/go)"

check if there are any software that homebrew needs to work

brew doctor

I had to upgrade my Xcode to 4.5. Then update homebrew itself

brew update

Check is anything is outdated

brew outdated

Upgrade everything with

brew upgrade

Install git

brew install git

Install python. First run the following

brew install readline sqlite gdbm

Then python itself

brew install python --universal --framework 

Install pip. You would need it to install python packages

 easy_install pip

Install virtualenv. It's just better to have your python environments isolated for the development.

 pip install virtualenv

Now we need to create a virtual environment for our django project. Create a folder (I created my_django_project)

mkdir my_django_project

Go inside the folder

cd my_django_project

And start a virtual environment (I named it my_env, you can use any names)

virtualenv my_env --no-site-packages

Run your environment

source my_env/bin/activate 

What next? Yeah, Django. We already have pip so we can use it install django

pip install django

And we still have to install mysql

brew install mysql

And python connector to mysql

pip install http://downloads.sourceforge.net/project/mysql-python/mysql-python-test/1.2.3c1/MySQL-python-1.2.3c1.tar.gz?use_mirror=cdnetworks-us-2

To start using mysql we have to setup our systems databases

unset TMPDIR

mysql_install_db --verbose --user=`whoami` --basedir="$(brew --prefix mysql)" --datadir=/usr/local/var/mysql --tmpdir=/tmp

To test if it has been setup correctly try to start mysql server

mysql.server start

It didn't want to start for me until I rebooted the mac. After reboot it started successfully. I go to python shell to check that mysql connector is working

python

>>>import MySQLdb()

>>>

That's it! Activate virtual environment 

source my_env/bin/activate

And create your django project

django-admin.py startproject my_project