1. DNS level approach
In simple terms, a domain is just a human-readable version of an IP address. An IP address, in turn, points to a server on the network. Generally, different domains lead to different servers, and this also applies to subdomains. Here's an example:
stackoverflow.com → 10.1.1.1
meta.stackoverflow.com → 20.1.1.1
But from what I understand, it looks like all subdomains are required to point to a single server(=your django/react server)
user1.yourservice.com → 30.1.1.1
user2.yourservice.com → 30.1.1.1
This is technically possible, but it may not be appropriate.
The reason is that most DNS services like AWS Route53 impose limits on the number of subdomains you can create.
So if you have a large number of users who each require a subdomain, it would be difficult to assign one to every user.
Also, whenever a new user signs up, you would need to register a new subdomain with your DNS provider — a task that cannot be handled at the Django level.
2. Web server level approach
However, if needed, the web server(like Nginx) should handle mapping subdomains to specific subdirectories. The specific Nginx configuration may vary, so please take this only as a conceptual idea.
# main service
server {
listen 80;
server_name localhost;
location / {
root /path/to/your/django/project/;
proxy_pass http://yourservice.com:8000;
}
}
# for each user
server {
listen 80;
server_name ~^(.*)\.yourservice\.com; # if user enter user1.yourservice.com in browser
location / {
proxy_pass http://yourservice.com/$1; # then redirect to yourservice.com/user1
}
}
3. Web application level approach
I don't know your specific scenario — whether only certain pages for each user (like profile pages) need to be redirected to a subdomain, or whether every user should access the service entirely through their own subdomain.
However, since you're using subdomains, there will be some configuration options you need to set. For example, you may need to add the subdomains to ALLOWED_HOSTS or CSRF_TRUSTED_ORIGINS in settings.py. You might also need to update links in your templates accordingly. These details will depend on your specific scenario.
4. Subdomain setup for local development
By configuring the hosts file, you can access your localhost using (sub)domains. On Windows, the hosts file is located at C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc\hosts, and on macOS, it's at /private/etc/hosts. It should work if you modify it like this.
127.0.0.1 yourservice.com
127.0.0.1 user1.userservie.com
127.0.0.1 user2.userservie.com
...
The concept of mapping a subdomain to an IP address in your local hosts file is essentially the same as doing it through DNS. However, for various reasons, automating this process in Django—such that it happens every time a user is created—would likely be difficult.
I hope this answer helps you revise or clarify your scenario.
