Django Database Improperly Configured when function called outside of Django

Question

I'm trying to call a python function that makes some queries into my django database from GNU mailman.

When mailman tries to deliver a message, it imports my python script. It later calls a function in my script to modify the message object. The error I'm getting is:

ImproperlyConfigured: settings.DATABASES is improperly configured. Please supply the ENGINE value. Check settings documentation \
for more details.

Here's how I'm configuring the settings, at the very top of my file:

from django.core.management import setup_environ
from mysite import settings
setup_environ(settings)

When I run python manage.py syncdb, it seems to create the database fine. Here's my database configuration:

DATABASES = {
    'default': {
        'ENGINE': 'django.db.backends.mysql',  # Add 'postgresql_psycopg2', 'mysql', 'sqlite3' or 'oracle'.   
        'NAME': 'django_db',                      # Or path to database file if using sqlite3.            
        'USER': 'root',                      # Not used with sqlite3.                                         
        'PASSWORD': 'root',                  # Not used with sqlite3.                                         
        'HOST': '',                      # Set to empty string for localhost. Not used with sqlite3.          
        'PORT': '',                      # Set to empty string for default. Not used with sqlite3.            
    }
}

Further, I've commented out the entirety of my function such that it now looks like:

def f():
    return

So I don't think this has to do with the function call.

Further, I've tested the setup_environ lines in the python console and everything works as expected.

Further, when I restart GNU mailman, I believe it has to load all its scripts, which means it necessarily has to import my file. This means that these "setup_environ" lines run when I restart mailman. And it's fine -- I get no errors.

It's only when GNU mailman tries to deliver a message that I have problems.

So I'm pretty stumped. I do run the mailman restart command as sudo with additional PYTHONPATH and DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE environmental variables, but I've manually added to the relevant parts to my sys.path and os.environ dict, which doesn't fix the problem either. Besides, the error doesn't suggest it's a problem with the path or being unable to find the settings module.

The full stack trace is:

Jun 04 12:06:11 2012 (5249) Uncaught runner exception: settings.DATABASES is improperly configured. Please supply the ENGINE val\
ue. Check settings documentation for more details.
Jun 04 12:06:11 2012 (5249) Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/var/lib/mailman/Mailman/Queue/Runner.py", line 100, in _oneloop
    msg, msgdata = self._switchboard.dequeue(filebase)
  File "/var/lib/mailman/Mailman/Queue/Switchboard.py", line 173, in dequeue
    redirect_list(msg, data)
  File "/home/ubuntu/djcode/mysite/mysite/apps/mailman/redirect.py", line 32, in redirect_list

  File "/home/ubuntu/djcode/mysite/mysite/apps/mailman/redirect.py", line 45, in _get_real_listname
    from mysite.apps.common.models import CustomUser
  File "/home/ubuntu/djcode/mysite/mysite/apps/common/custom_user_manager.py", line 54, in get
    email_object = Email.objects.get(email=kwargs['email'])
  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.6/dist-packages/django/db/models/manager.py", line 131, in get
    return self.get_query_set().get(*args, **kwargs)
  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.6/dist-packages/django/db/models/query.py", line 361, in get
    num = len(clone)
  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.6/dist-packages/django/db/models/query.py", line 85, in __len__
    self._result_cache = list(self.iterator())
  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.6/dist-packages/django/db/models/query.py", line 291, in iterator
    for row in compiler.results_iter():
  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.6/dist-packages/django/db/models/sql/compiler.py", line 763, in results_iter
    for rows in self.execute_sql(MULTI):
  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.6/dist-packages/django/db/models/sql/compiler.py", line 808, in execute_sql
    sql, params = self.as_sql()
  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.6/dist-packages/django/db/models/sql/compiler.py", line 71, in as_sql
    out_cols = self.get_columns(with_col_aliases)
  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.6/dist-packages/django/db/models/sql/compiler.py", line 218, in get_columns
    col_aliases)
  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.6/dist-packages/django/db/models/sql/compiler.py", line 306, in get_default_columns
    r = '%s.%s' % (qn(alias), qn2(field.column))
  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.6/dist-packages/django/db/models/sql/compiler.py", line 49, in quote_name_unless_alias
    r = self.connection.ops.quote_name(name)
  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.6/dist-packages/django/db/backends/dummy/base.py", line 15, in complain
    raise ImproperlyConfigured("settings.DATABASES is improperly configured. "
ImproperlyConfigured: settings.DATABASES is improperly configured. Please supply the ENGINE value. Check settings documentation \
for more details.

Answer 1

Seems you have not specified anything in your setting.py file's DATABASES dictionary.Specify the following to connect to databse successfully(as per docs),

1) ENGINE -- Either 'django.db.backends.postgresql_psycopg2', 'django.db.backends.mysql', 'django.db.backends.sqlite3' or 'django.db.backends.oracle'. Other backends are also available.

2) NAME -- The name of your database. If you're using SQLite, the database will be a file on your computer; in that case, NAME should be the full absolute path, including filename, of that file. If the file doesn't exist, it will automatically be created when you synchronize the database for the first time (see below).

3) USER -- Your database username (not used for SQLite).

4) PASSWORD -- Your database password (not used for SQLite).

5) HOST -- The host your database is on. Leave this as an empty string if your database server is on the same physical machine (not used for SQLite).

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