django-livereload-server

This django app adds a management command that starts a livereload server watching all your static files and templates as well as a custom runserver command that issues livereload requests when the development server is ready after a restart.

Installation

Install package:

$ pip install django-livereload-server

Add 'livereload' to the INSTALLED_APPS, before 'django.contrib.staticfiles' if this is used:

INSTALLED_APPS = (
    ...
    'livereload',
    ...
)

Next you need to inject the loading of the livereload javascript. You can do this in one of two ways:

• Through middleware by adding 'livereload.middleware.LiveReloadScript' to MIDDLEWARE (probably at the end):

  MIDDLEWARE = (
      ...
      'livereload.middleware.LiveReloadScript',
  )
  

• Through a templatetag in your base.html (or similar) template:

  {% load livereload_tags %}
  ...
  {% livereload_script %}
  </head>
  

Either of these options will inject the livereload.js script into your webpages if DEBUG setting is on.

Configuration

If you need the livereload server to use a different host and port than the default 127.0.0.1 and 35729, specify them by setting LIVERELOAD_HOST and LIVERELOAD_PORT in settings.py.

Usage

Start the livereload server:

$ python manage.py livereload

keep the livereload server running.

Start the django development server as usual (in another console):

$ python manage.py runserver

In the browser's address bar access your web app by doing:

127.0.0.1:8000 or localhost:8000

now every time you hit save in your editor, the django-development-server/livereload-server automatically updates the staticfiles

Customization

By default both template and staticfiles directories are watched.

You can ignore template directories using:

$ ./manage.py livereload --ignore-template-dirs

Or staticfiles directories using:

$ ./manage.py livereload --ignore-static-dirs

You can ignore file extensions:

$ ./manage.py livereload --ignore-file-extensions=.less,.scss

Extra files and/or paths to watch for changes can be added as positional arguments. By default livereload server watches the files that are found by your staticfiles finders and your template loaders.

$ python manage.py livereload path/to/my-extra-directory/

This will be excluded from the paths ignored by --ignore-template-dirs and --ignore-static-dirs.

Host and port can be overridden with --host and --port options.

$ python manage.py livereload --host=myhost.com --port=9090

the runserver command python manage.py runserver also accepts three additional options:

* ``--nolivereload`` to disable livereload functionality
* ``--livereload-host`` to override both default and settings file specified host address
* ``--livereload-port`` to override both default and settings file specified port

Background

This project is based on a merge of python-livereload and django-livereload, excellent projects both and even better for smooth django development when combined.