Django Local HTTPS Setup (Development Only)

This guide explains how to enable HTTPS for your Django project locally using a self-signed SSL certificate and django-extensions.

Note: This setup is for development and testing only.
Do not use self-signed certificates in production.

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Install Required Packages

Run the following command inside your virtual environment:

pip install django django-extensions Werkzeug pyOpenSSL

Add django-extensions to Installed Apps

INSTALLED_APPS = [
    # Django default apps
    'django.contrib.admin',
       ---
    # Add this for local HTTPS
    'django_extensions',
]

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Now generate self-signed certificate for HTTPS.

openssl req -x509 -nodes -days 365 -newkey rsa:2048 -keyout key.pem -out cert.pem

When prompted: For Common Name (CN) enter: 127.0.0.1 Other fields (Country, State, etc.) can be skipped or filled with any value. This will generate two files: cert.pem → SSL certificate key.pem → Private key

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python manage.py runserver_plus --cert-file cert.pem --key-file key.pem

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Do you want me to also add a short "Troubleshooting" section to this README so if the site doesn’t open, users know what to check? That would make it more complete.