Developing with multiple versions of Django on windows

At work, we have sites that use various versions of Django, so there is a need to switch packages.  On my mac I use virtualenv to handle this, but I’ve never quite gotten it to play nice with windows, and just switching Django versions has sufficed so far. If you can set up virtualenv, that’s a much better solution

1. Download junction (think symbolic links for windows). Put the executable somewhere in your path. I put it in my Python scripts folder (C:\Python26\Scripts)
2. Plan out your directory structure: Make sure you don’t have any stock django eggs or folders in your site-packages folder
3. Create a django_veresions folder in site-packages (C:\Python26\Lib\site-packages\django_versions)
4. In this folder I put my different django installs

    C:\Python26\Lib\site-packages\django_versions\1.1\django
    C:\Python26\Lib\site-packages\django_versions\1.3\django
    C:\Python26\Lib\site-packages\django_versions\1.4\django
   

5. I also put a txt file inside the django folder to easily see what version is there (this will be helpful later to double check)

   C:\Python26\Lib\site-packages\django_versions\1.4\django\1.4.txt

6. Create a file called djangoversion.cmd and drop it in C:\Python26\Scripts

   junction -d C:\Python26\Lib\site-packages\django
   junction C:\Python26\Lib\site-packages\django C:\Python26\Lib\site-packages\django_versions\%1\django

7. The first line removes any links that may have been there. The second line creates a new link to the version you’ll pass in.
8. Now, to switch versions, just run this from the command line:

   djangoversion 1.4

   PS C:\Users\tbroder> djangoversion 1.4
   
   C:\Users\tbroder>junction -d C:\Python26\Lib\site-packages\django
   
   Junction v1.06 - Windows junction creator and reparse point viewer
   Copyright (C) 2000-2010 Mark Russinovich
   Sysinternals - www.sysinternals.com
   
   Deleted C:\Python26\Lib\site-packages\django.
   
   C:\Users\tbroder>junction C:\Python26\Lib\site-packages\django C:\Python26\Lib\site-packages\django_versions\1.4\django
   
   
   Junction v1.06 - Windows junction creator and reparse point viewer
   Copyright (C) 2000-2010 Mark Russinovich
   Sysinternals - www.sysinternals.com
   
   Created: C:\Python26\Lib\site-packages\django
   Targetted at: C:\Python26\Lib\site-packages\django_versions\1.4\django
   PS C:\Users\tbroder>
   

9. Switch as needed