Tutorial: Deployment in PyCharm
In this section:
- What this tutorial is about
- Before you start
- Preparing an example
- Configuring a deployment server
- Browsing remote hosts
- Deployment tools
- Synchronizing changes
- Automatic upload to the default server
- Uploading external changes
- Summary
What this tutorial is about
This tutorial aims to take you step-by-step through configuring an managing deployment of your code to remote hosts, using PyCharm.
Before you start
Make sure that:
- You are working with PyCharm version 5.0 or higher. This tutorial is prepared with PyCharm 2016.1.
- You have access right to a remote host you want your code to be deployed on.
Also note that this tutorial is created on Windows 10 and makes use of the default keyboard shortcuts scheme. If you are working on a different platform, or use another keyboard scheme, the keyboard shortcuts will be different.
Preparing an example
You can use the everlasting sample project.
Thus the preliminary steps are done, and we are ready to take off.
Configuring a deployment server
On the main toolbar, click 
to open the Settings/Preferences dialog, and choose the page
Deployment (actually, you can access the same page by choosing
on the main menu).
Click 
, then in the Add Server dialog box, type your server name
(MyRemoteServer) and select its type (in our case, this is Local or mounted folder):
OK, the new server is added, but it is still void... It only shows the Web server root URL
http://localhost, where you will actually browse your uploaded files.
What is specified in the Connection tab?
Select the directory where the project files will be uploaded. In our case, this is the local folder
C:\xampp\htdocs (You can either type this path manually, or press
Shift+Enter to open the Select Path dialog.)
What is specified in the Mapping tab?
Next, choose the Mappings tab. By default, the Local path field contains the project root. However, you can select any other directory within your project tree. Let's assume the default value.
In the Deployment path field (which is by default empty), you have to specify the
folder on your server, where PyCharm will upload data from the folder, specified in the
Local path( in this example, it's py\Solver
).
This path is specified relative to the folder C:\xampp\htdocs!
And, finally, let's accept the default value for Web path on server 'MyRemoteServer':
OK, apply changes, and the server is ready to use.
Browsing remote hosts
You can easily make sure your server is up and running. Just choose the command on the main menu, and the Remote Hosts tool window appears at the right edge of the PyCharm's frame:
Deployment tools
Next, let's perform some actions, and see what happens.
Uploading
First, let's upload one of the files to the remote server. This how it's done...
In the Project tool window, right-click a file you want to upload. In our case,
let it be the file Solver.py
.
On the context menu, choose , and see the upload results!
You can also upload contents of each directory within your project. For example, right-click the
parent
directory of the Solver.py
, namely, src
, choose on the context
menu. Wow! We have the entire directory uploaded to the server:
Comparing remote and local versions
There is a local and a remote copy of the file Solver.py
, and they are identical.
Let's change the local version.
To do that, place the caret at the method declaration, and press Ctrl+Shift+Alt+T (or choose on the main menu). The popup menu shows all refactorings, available in the current context. Let's choose Rename refactoring, and rename a method:
Perform refactoring and see the method name and its usage changed.
OK, now we've changed the local version. Let's make sure PyCharm knows about these changes. To do that,
again go to the Remote Host Tool Window tool window, and right-click
Solver.py. On the context
menu, choose . PyCharm opens the differences viewer,
where you can accept changes or reject them, using the
buttons 
, 
, 
,
, 
:
Downloading
In the Remote Host Tool Window tool window, right-click the file
Solver.py, and choose
on the main menu. PyCharm immediately
shows a warning:
Do not be afraid, and click Continue:
You can also download an entire directory, if it has been previously uploaded to the server. For example,
if you click the parent directory src and choose the same command, all nested files will be
downloaded from the server.
Synchronizing changes
Make a preliminary step - roll the changes to the Solver.py
file back
(Ctrl+Z). You again see the class Solver.py
with the
renamed method.
Next, click Solver.py
, and on
the main menu choose
:
PyCharm shows differences viewer, where you can accept individual changes or reject them, using the buttons
, , ,
, .
Automatic upload to the default server
When a user needs to have the exact same files on the server as in a PyCharm project, automatic upload can be of help. Automatic upload means that whenever a change is saved in the IDE, it will be deployed to the default deployment server.
Defining a server as default
A deployment server is considered default, if its settings apply by default during automatic upload of changed files. To define a deployment server as the default one, follow these steps:
- Choose the desired server in the Deployment page (in our case,
MyRemoteServer). You can open this page it two possible ways: either Settings/Preferences | Build, Execution, Deployment | Deployment, or on the main menu. - Click
.
Enabling automatic upload
As soon as the default server is set, you can make upload to this server automatic. This can be done in the following two ways:
- First, open the deployment Options (Settings/Preferences | Deployment | Options or on the main menu), and in the field Upload files automatically to the default server choose Always, or On explicit save action. The difference between these two choices is explained in the field description.
- Second, on the main menu, select the check command . Note that automatic upload in this case is performed in the Always mode.
It is worth mentioning that the option Always is not recommended for deployment to production: incomplete code can be uploaded while developing, potentially breaking the production application.
Uploading external changes
By default, PyCharm uploads only the files changed by itself. If the files are changed by some other process, such as a VCS branch change, transpilation of SASS or LESS or a File Watcher, they are not automatically uploaded. To change this behavior and autoupload these changes as well, enable the Upload external changes option:
Summary
Congrats! You've passed this very basic tutorial. What you've done?
- Created and configured a server of your own.
- Uploaded and downloaded files and folders.
- Compared local and remote versions.
- Configured the server as default.
- Enabled automatic upload of external changes.