Django 1.7 where to put the code to add Groups programmatically?

I was recommended this way to do it:

Create a fake migration in the appropriate module:

python manage.py makemigrations --empty yourappname

Open up the file that was created, which should look like this:

# -*- coding: utf-8 -*-
from django.db import models, migrations

class Migration(migrations.Migration):

    dependencies = [
        ('yourappname', '0001_initial'),
    ]

    operations = [
    ]

And add your code:

# -*- coding: utf-8 -*-
from django.db import models, migrations

def add_group_permissions():
    #read_only
    group, created = Group.objects.get_or_create(name='read_only')   
    if created:
        group.permissions.add(can_read_campaign)
        logger.info('read_only_user Group created')

    #standard
    group, created = Group.objects.get_or_create(name='standard_user') 
    if created:
        group.permissions.add(can_edit_users)
        logger.info('standard_user Group created')

    #admin
    group, created = Group.objects.get_or_create(name='admin_user') 
    if created:
        group.permissions.add(can_edit_campaign, can_edit_users)
        logger.info('admin_user Group created')

class Migration(migrations.Migration):

    dependencies = [
        ('yourappname', '0001_initial'),
    ]

    operations = [
        migrations.RunPython(add_group_permissions),
    ]

Finally, run the migration:

python manage.py migrate

This is nice because you can deploy to Heroku or wherever and be sure it'll be applied, as it's just another migration.

Combining @Robert Grant and this I was able to do it like:

python manage.py makemigrations --empty yourappname

And then:

from django.contrib.auth.models import Group, Permission
from django.db import models, migrations
import logging


logger = logging.getLogger(__name__)

campaign_group_permissions = {
  "Campaign Manager": [
    "add_campaign",
    "change_campaign",
    "delete_campaign",
    "view_campaign",
    "add_campaignsms",
    "add_sending",
    "change_sending",
    "view_sending"
  ]
}


def add_group_permissions():
    # See https://code.djangoproject.com/ticket/23422
    db_alias = schema_editor.connection.alias
    try:
        emit_post_migrate_signal(2, False, 'default')
    except TypeError:  # Django < 1.8
        emit_post_migrate_signal([], 2, False, 'default', db_alias)

    for group in campaign_group_permissions:
        role, created = Group.objects.get_or_create(name=group)
        logger.info(f'{group} Group created')
        for perm in campaign_group_permissions[group]:
            role.permissions.add(Permission.objects.get(codename=perm))
            logger.info(f'Permitting {group} to {perm}')
        role.save()


class Migration(migrations.Migration):

    dependencies = [
        ('yourappname', '0001_initial'),
    ]

    operations = [
        migrations.RunPython(add_group_permissions),
    ]

Note: this works on Django 3.x, but I'm pretty sure it will work for Django 1.7 as well.

@Ruloweb's fantastic response almost worked for me, but I had to make a couple tweaks to get it to work in Django 3.1 with multiple apps.

First, I needed to add arguments to the add_group_permissions() function. I also needed to import the emit_post_migration_signal:

from django.contrib.auth.models import Group, Permission
from django.core.management.sql import emit_post_migrate_signal # <-- Added this
from django.db import models, migrations
import logging

logger = logging.getLogger(__name__)

public_group_permissions = {
  "Your permission group name here": ['your permissions here']
}

def add_group_permissions(apps, schema_editor): # <-- updated this

    # See https://code.djangoproject.com/ticket/23422
    db_alias = schema_editor.connection.alias

    try:
        emit_post_migrate_signal(2, False, 'default')
    except TypeError:  # Django < 1.8
        emit_post_migrate_signal([], 2, False, 'default', db_alias)

    for group in public_group_permissions:
        role, created = Group.objects.get_or_create(name=group)
        logger.info(f'{group} Group created')
        for perm in public_group_permissions[group]:
            role.permissions.add(Permission.objects.get(codename=perm))
            logger.info(f'Permitting {group} to {perm}')
        role.save()


class Migration(migrations.Migration):

    dependencies = [
        ('your_app_name', '0001_initial'),
    ]

    operations = [
        migrations.RunPython(add_group_permissions),
    ]