Installing 3rd party apps

A simple app - django-extensions

In your virtualenv use pip to install a new app:

pip install django-extensions

In the ‘settings.py’ file add django_extensions to the INSTALLED_APPS. It is a good idea to read the documentation of every app to see what needs to be adjusted in the settings file.:

INSTALLED_APPS = [
    ...
    'django_extensions',
    ...
]

To test it, go into your project folder and run:

./manage.py

A listing will show the additional commands available to the project.

A large app - django-helpdesk

Run:

pip install django-helpdesk

Follow the instructions at: https://django-helpdesk.readthedocs.io/en/latest/install.html

After successful installation visit:

http://127.0.0.1:8000/admin
http://127.0.0.1:8000/helpdesk

New helpdesk app is installed.

Additional notes about development of helpdesk.

Submitting tickets doesn’t work if no email server is set. For development you can set up a console backend which would list the emails to be sent to the console. Also the helpdesk app needs the ‘sites’ module.

Add to settings.py the following:

EMAIL_BACKEND = 'django.core.mail.backends.console.EmailBackend'
SITE_ID = 1