Django tutorial on pythonanywhere: trouble running the django-admin shell

Question

(Django version 1.9, Python version 3.4.3, using virtual env made with mkvirtualenv --python=/usr/bin/python3.4 django19)

I've been following the Django tutorial very closely, without any problems up til part 5:

https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/1.9/intro/tutorial05/

although, strictly speaking, the problem isn't to do with part 5, but bear with me. I'm following the tutorial in the pythonanywhere framework, because eventually I would like to host a website there. Therefore, I am also following the 'Following the Django tutorial' offered by pythonanywhere:

https://help.pythonanywhere.com/pages/FollowingTheDjangoTutorial

although my problem isn't anticipated in the advice for part 5 in the tutorial. Now the problem- at the point in the Django tutorial which reads:

To check if the bug really exists, using the Admin create a question whose date lies in the future and check the method using the shell

Following the link to the shell, I try (as instructed in the link) to run:

django-admin shell --plain

However I get the following error message

(django19)19:11 ~/mysite $ django-admin shell --plain
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "/home/me/.virtualenvs/django19/lib/python3.4/site-packages/django/core/management/base.py", line 348, in run_from_argv
self.execute(*args, **cmd_options)
File "/home/me/.virtualenvs/django19/lib/python3.4/site-packages/django/core/management/base.py", line 391, in execute saved_locale = translation.get_language()
File "/home/me/.virtualenvs/django19/lib/python3.4/site-packages/django/utils/translation/__init__.py", line 176, in get_language
return _trans.get_language()
File "/home/me/.virtualenvs/django19/lib/python3.4/site-packages/django/utils/translation/__init__.py", line 57, in __getattr__
if settings.USE_I18N:
File "/home/me/.virtualenvs/django19/lib/python3.4/site-packages/django/conf/__init__.py", line 55, in __getattr__
self._setup(name)
File "/home/me/.virtualenvs/django19/lib/python3.4/site-packages/django/conf/__init__.py", line 41, in _setup
 % (desc, ENVIRONMENT_VARIABLE))
django.core.exceptions.ImproperlyConfigured: Requested setting USE_I18N, but settings are not configured. You must either define the environment variable DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE or call settings.configure() before accessing settings.

During handling of the above exception, another exception occurred:

File "/home/me/.virtualenvs/django19/lib/python3.4/site-packages/django/core/management/__init__.py", line 353, in execute_from_command_line
utility.execute()
File "/home/me/.virtualenvs/django19/lib/python3.4/site-packages/django/core/management/__init__.py", line 345, in execute
self.fetch_command(subcommand).run_from_argv(self.argv)
File "/home/me/.virtualenvs/django19/lib/python3.4/site-packages/django/core/management/base.py", line 360, in run_from_argv
connections.close_all()
File "/home/me/.virtualenvs/django19/lib/python3.4/site-packages/django/db/utils.py", line 230, in close_all
for alias in self:
File "/home/me/.virtualenvs/django19/lib/python3.4/site-packages/django/db/utils.py", line 224, in __iter__
return iter(self.databases)
File "/home/me/.virtualenvs/django19/lib/python3.4/site-packages/django/utils/functional.py", line 33, in __get__
res = instance.__dict__[self.name] = self.func(instance)
File "/home/me/.virtualenvs/django19/lib/python3.4/site-packages/django/db/utils.py", line 157, in databases
self._databases = settings.DATABASES
File "/home/me/.virtualenvs/django19/lib/python3.4/site-packages/django/conf/__init__.py", line 55, in __getattr__
self._setup(name)
File "/home/me/.virtualenvs/django19/lib/python3.4/site-packages/django/conf/__init__.py", line 41, in _setup
% (desc, ENVIRONMENT_VARIABLE))
django.core.exceptions.ImproperlyConfigured: Requested setting DATABASES, but settings are not configured. You must either define the environment variable DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE or call settings.configure() before accessing settings.

This error messages recommends setting DATABASES (which is set in mysite/settings.py), by defining the variable DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE. So, that's what I did:

export DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE="${PWD}/mysite/settings.py"

There are also the required __init__.py files in the mysite and mysite/mysite directories. However now when I run the django-admin command I get:

ImportError: No module named 'mysite/settings'

I can't find anymore documentation or help hereafter. What am I missing? Do I need to set something special somewhere else? Am I setting DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE correctly? The ImportError makes it sound like I should set DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE to mysite.settings or something similar, but this doesn't work either.

Alasdair · Accepted Answer · 2016-01-21 21:11:17Z

6

Once you have created your project, use manage.py instead of django-admin to run commands:

python manage.py shell

The manage.py command takes care of the settings for you. If you use django-admin, you have to set DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE manually. The DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE should be the Python module, e.g. mysite.settings, not a file like /path/to/mysite/settings.py.

answered Jan 21, 2016 at 21:11

Alasdair

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Moses Koledoye · Accepted Answer · 2016-01-21 21:34:51Z

1

Be sure to have your project in the python import search path. Try this

>>import sys
>>sys.path

if the path/directory for your project is not listed, then you need to do

>>sys.path.append('/path/to/my/django/project')

Then assign DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE like so:

$export DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE=mysite.settings

See Designating Django settings

answered Jan 21, 2016 at 21:34

Moses Koledoye

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