# How to add Wagtail into an existing Django project

To install Wagtail completely from scratch, create a new Django project and an app within that project. For instructions on these tasks, see [Writing your first Django app](inv:django#intro/tutorial01). Your project directory will look like the following:

```
myproject/
    myproject/
        __init__.py
        settings.py
        urls.py
        wsgi.py
    myapp/
        __init__.py
        models.py
        tests.py
        admin.py
        views.py
    manage.py
```

From your app directory, you can safely remove `admin.py` and `views.py`, since Wagtail will provide this functionality for your models. Configuring Django to load Wagtail involves adding modules and variables to `settings.py` and URL configuration to `urls.py`. For a more complete view of what's defined in these files, see [Django Settings](inv:django#topics/settings) and [Django URL Dispatcher](inv:django#topics/http/urls).

What follows is a settings reference which skips many boilerplate Django settings. If you just want to get your Wagtail install up quickly without fussing with settings at the moment, see [](complete_example_config).

## Middleware (`settings.py`)

```python
MIDDLEWARE = [
  'django.contrib.sessions.middleware.SessionMiddleware',
  'django.middleware.common.CommonMiddleware',
  'django.middleware.csrf.CsrfViewMiddleware',
  'django.contrib.auth.middleware.AuthenticationMiddleware',
  'django.contrib.messages.middleware.MessageMiddleware',
  'django.middleware.clickjacking.XFrameOptionsMiddleware',
  'django.middleware.security.SecurityMiddleware',

  'wagtail.contrib.redirects.middleware.RedirectMiddleware',
]
```

Wagtail depends on the default set of Django middleware modules, to cover basic security and functionality such as login sessions. One additional middleware module is provided:

**`RedirectMiddleware`**  
 Wagtail provides a simple interface for adding arbitrary redirects to your site and this module makes it happen.

## Apps (`settings.py`)

```python
INSTALLED_APPS = [

  'myapp',  # your own app

  'wagtail.contrib.forms',
  'wagtail.contrib.redirects',
  'wagtail.embeds',
  'wagtail.sites',
  'wagtail.users',
  'wagtail.snippets',
  'wagtail.documents',
  'wagtail.images',
  'wagtail.search',
  'wagtail.admin',
  'wagtail',

  'taggit',
  'modelcluster',

  'django.contrib.auth',
  'django.contrib.contenttypes',
  'django.contrib.sessions',
  'django.contrib.messages',
  'django.contrib.staticfiles',
]
```

Wagtail requires several Django app modules, third-party apps, and defines several apps of its own. Wagtail was built to be modular, so many Wagtail apps can be omitted to suit your needs. Your own app (here `myapp`) is where you define your models, templates, static assets, template tags, and other custom functionality for your site.

### Wagtail Apps

**`wagtail`**  
 The core functionality of Wagtail, such as the `Page` class, the Wagtail tree, and model fields.

**`wagtail.admin`**  
 The administration interface for Wagtail, including page edit handlers.

**`wagtail.documents`**  
 The Wagtail document content type.

**`wagtail.snippets`**  
 Editing interface for non-Page models and objects. See [](Snippets).

**`wagtail.users`**  
 User editing interface.

**`wagtail.images`**  
 The Wagtail image content type.

**`wagtail.embeds`**  
 Module governing oEmbed and Embedly content in Wagtail rich text fields.

**`wagtail.search`**  
 Search framework for Page content. See [](wagtailsearch).

**`wagtail.sites`**  
 Management UI for Wagtail sites.

**`wagtail.contrib.redirects`**  
 Admin interface for creating arbitrary redirects on your site.

**`wagtail.contrib.forms`**  
 Models for creating forms on your pages and viewing submissions. See [Form builder](form_builder).

### Third-Party Apps

**`taggit`**  
 Tagging framework for Django. This is used internally within Wagtail for image and document tagging and is available for your own models as well. See [](tagging) for a Wagtail model recipe or the [Taggit Documentation](https://django-taggit.readthedocs.io/en/stable/).

**`modelcluster`**  
 Extension of Django ForeignKey relation functionality, which is used in Wagtail pages for on-the-fly related object creation. For more information, see [](inline_panels) or [the django-modelcluster github project page](https://github.com/wagtail/django-modelcluster).

## URL Patterns

```python
from django.contrib import admin

from wagtail import urls as wagtail_urls
from wagtail.admin import urls as wagtailadmin_urls
from wagtail.documents import urls as wagtaildocs_urls

urlpatterns = [
    path('django-admin/', admin.site.urls),

    path('admin/', include(wagtailadmin_urls)),
    path('documents/', include(wagtaildocs_urls)),

    # Optional URL for including your own vanilla Django urls/views
    re_path(r'', include('myapp.urls')),

    # For anything not caught by a more specific rule above, hand over to
    # Wagtail's serving mechanism
    re_path(r'', include(wagtail_urls)),
]
```

This block of code for your project's `urls.py` does a few things:

-   Load the vanilla Django admin interface to `/django-admin/`
-   Load the Wagtail admin and its various apps
-   Dispatch any vanilla Django apps you're using other than Wagtail which require their own URL configuration (this is optional, since Wagtail might be all you need)
-   Lets Wagtail handle any further URL dispatching.

That's not everything you might want to include in your project's URL configuration, but it's what's necessary for Wagtail to flourish.

(complete_example_config)=

## Ready to Use Example Configuration Files

These two files should reside in your project directory (`myproject/myproject/`).

### `settings.py`

```python
import os

PROJECT_DIR = os.path.dirname(os.path.dirname(os.path.abspath(__file__)))
BASE_DIR = os.path.dirname(PROJECT_DIR)

DEBUG = True

# Application definition

INSTALLED_APPS = [
    'myapp',

    'wagtail.contrib.forms',
    'wagtail.contrib.redirects',
    'wagtail.embeds',
    'wagtail.sites',
    'wagtail.users',
    'wagtail.snippets',
    'wagtail.documents',
    'wagtail.images',
    'wagtail.search',
    'wagtail.admin',
    'wagtail',

    'taggit',
    'modelcluster',

    'django.contrib.auth',
    'django.contrib.contenttypes',
    'django.contrib.sessions',
    'django.contrib.messages',
    'django.contrib.staticfiles',
]


MIDDLEWARE = [
    'django.contrib.sessions.middleware.SessionMiddleware',
    'django.middleware.common.CommonMiddleware',
    'django.middleware.csrf.CsrfViewMiddleware',
    'django.contrib.auth.middleware.AuthenticationMiddleware',
    'django.contrib.messages.middleware.MessageMiddleware',
    'django.middleware.clickjacking.XFrameOptionsMiddleware',
    'django.middleware.security.SecurityMiddleware',

    'wagtail.contrib.redirects.middleware.RedirectMiddleware',
]

ROOT_URLCONF = 'myproject.urls'

TEMPLATES = [
    {
        'BACKEND': 'django.template.backends.django.DjangoTemplates',
        'DIRS': [
            os.path.join(PROJECT_DIR, 'templates'),
        ],
        'APP_DIRS': True,
        'OPTIONS': {
            'context_processors': [
                'django.template.context_processors.debug',
                'django.template.context_processors.request',
                'django.contrib.auth.context_processors.auth',
                'django.contrib.messages.context_processors.messages',
            ],
        },
    },
]

WSGI_APPLICATION = 'myproject.wsgi.application'

# Database

DATABASES = {
    'default': {
        'ENGINE': 'django.db.backends.postgresql',
        'NAME': 'myprojectdb',
        'USER': 'postgres',
        'PASSWORD': '',
        'HOST': '',  # Set to empty string for localhost.
        'PORT': '',  # Set to empty string for default.
        'CONN_MAX_AGE': 600,  # number of seconds database connections should persist for
    }
}

# Internationalization

LANGUAGE_CODE = 'en-us'
TIME_ZONE = 'UTC'
USE_I18N = True
USE_L10N = True
USE_TZ = True


# Static files (CSS, JavaScript, Images)

STATICFILES_FINDERS = [
    'django.contrib.staticfiles.finders.FileSystemFinder',
    'django.contrib.staticfiles.finders.AppDirectoriesFinder',
]

STATICFILES_DIRS = [
    os.path.join(PROJECT_DIR, 'static'),
]

STATIC_ROOT = os.path.join(BASE_DIR, 'static')
STATIC_URL = '/static/'

MEDIA_ROOT = os.path.join(BASE_DIR, 'media')
MEDIA_URL = '/media/'


ADMINS = [
    # ('Your Name', 'your_email@example.com'),
]
MANAGERS = ADMINS

# Default to dummy email backend. Configure dev/production/local backend
# as per https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/stable/topics/email/#email-backends
EMAIL_BACKEND = 'django.core.mail.backends.dummy.EmailBackend'

# Hosts/domain names that are valid for this site; required if DEBUG is False
ALLOWED_HOSTS = []

# Make this unique, and don't share it with anybody.
SECRET_KEY = 'change-me'

EMAIL_SUBJECT_PREFIX = '[Wagtail] '

INTERNAL_IPS = ('127.0.0.1', '10.0.2.2')

# A sample logging configuration. The only tangible logging
# performed by this configuration is to send an email to
# the site admins on every HTTP 500 error when DEBUG=False.
# See https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/stable/topics/logging for
# more details on how to customize your logging configuration.
LOGGING = {
    'version': 1,
    'disable_existing_loggers': False,
    'filters': {
        'require_debug_false': {
            '()': 'django.utils.log.RequireDebugFalse'
        }
    },
    'handlers': {
        'mail_admins': {
            'level': 'ERROR',
            'filters': ['require_debug_false'],
            'class': 'django.utils.log.AdminEmailHandler'
        }
    },
    'loggers': {
        'django.request': {
            'handlers': ['mail_admins'],
            'level': 'ERROR',
            'propagate': True,
        },
    }
}


# WAGTAIL SETTINGS

# This is the human-readable name of your Wagtail install
# which welcomes users upon login to the Wagtail admin.
WAGTAIL_SITE_NAME = 'My Project'

# Replace the search backend
#WAGTAILSEARCH_BACKENDS = {
#  'default': {
#    'BACKEND': 'wagtail.search.backends.elasticsearch8',
#    'INDEX': 'myapp'
#  }
#}

# Wagtail email notifications from address
# WAGTAILADMIN_NOTIFICATION_FROM_EMAIL = 'wagtail@myhost.io'

# Wagtail email notification format
# WAGTAILADMIN_NOTIFICATION_USE_HTML = True

# Allowed file extensions for documents in the document library.
# This can be omitted to allow all files, but note that this may present a security risk
# if untrusted users are allowed to upload files -
# see https://docs.wagtail.org/en/stable/advanced_topics/deploying.html#user-uploaded-files
WAGTAILDOCS_EXTENSIONS = ['csv', 'docx', 'key', 'odt', 'pdf', 'pptx', 'rtf', 'txt', 'xlsx', 'zip']

# Reverse the default case-sensitive handling of tags
TAGGIT_CASE_INSENSITIVE = True
```

### `urls.py`

```python
from django.urls import include, path, re_path
from django.conf.urls.static import static
from django.views.generic.base import RedirectView
from django.contrib import admin
from django.conf import settings
import os.path

from wagtail import urls as wagtail_urls
from wagtail.admin import urls as wagtailadmin_urls
from wagtail.documents import urls as wagtaildocs_urls


urlpatterns = [
    path('django-admin/', admin.site.urls),

    path('admin/', include(wagtailadmin_urls)),
    path('documents/', include(wagtaildocs_urls)),

    # For anything not caught by a more specific rule above, hand over to
    # Wagtail's serving mechanism
    re_path(r'', include(wagtail_urls)),
]


if settings.DEBUG:
    from django.contrib.staticfiles.urls import staticfiles_urlpatterns

    urlpatterns += staticfiles_urlpatterns() # tell gunicorn where static files are in dev mode
    urlpatterns += static(settings.MEDIA_URL + 'images/', document_root=os.path.join(settings.MEDIA_ROOT, 'images'))
    urlpatterns += [
        path('favicon.ico', RedirectView.as_view(url=settings.STATIC_URL + 'myapp/images/favicon.ico'))
    ]
```