How to set up a PostgreSQL database in Django

Question

I'm new to Python and Django.

I'm configuring a Django project using a PostgreSQL database engine backend, But I'm getting errors on each database operation. For example when I run manage.py syncdb, I'm getting:

C:\xampp\htdocs\djangodir>python manage.py syncdb
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "manage.py", line 11, in <module>
    execute_manager(settings)
  File "C:\Python27\lib\site-packages\django\core\management\__init__.py", line
438, in execute_manager
    utility.execute()
  File "C:\Python27\lib\site-packages\django\core\management\__init__.py", line
379, in execute
    self.fetch_command(subcommand).run_from_argv(self.argv)
  File "C:\Python27\lib\site-packages\django\core\management\__init__.py", line
261, in fetch_command
    klass = load_command_class(app_name, subcommand)
  File "C:\Python27\lib\site-packages\django\core\management\__init__.py", line
67, in load_command_class
    module = import_module('%s.management.commands.%s' % (app_name, name))
  File "C:\Python27\lib\site-packages\django\utils\importlib.py", line 35, in im
port_module
    __import__(name)
  File "C:\Python27\lib\site-packages\django\core\management\commands\syncdb.py"
, line 7, in <module>
    from django.core.management.sql import custom_sql_for_model, emit_post_sync_
signal
  File "C:\Python27\lib\site-packages\django\core\management\sql.py", line 6, in
 <module>
    from django.db import models
  File "C:\Python27\lib\site-packages\django\db\__init__.py", line 77, in <modul
e>
    connection = connections[DEFAULT_DB_ALIAS]
  File "C:\Python27\lib\site-packages\django\db\utils.py", line 92, in __getitem
__
    backend = load_backend(db['ENGINE'])
  File "C:\Python27\lib\site-packages\django\db\utils.py", line 33, in load_back
end
    return import_module('.base', backend_name)
  File "C:\Python27\lib\site-packages\django\utils\importlib.py", line 35, in im
port_module
    __import__(name)
  File "C:\Python27\lib\site-packages\django\db\backends\postgresql\base.py", li
ne 23, in <module>
    raise ImproperlyConfigured("Error loading psycopg module: %s" % e)
django.core.exceptions.ImproperlyConfigured: Error loading psycopg module: No mo
dule named psycopg

Can someone give me a clue on what is going on?

Answer 1

The immediate problem seems to be that you're missing the psycopg module.

Answer 2

If you are using Fedora 20, Django 1.6.5, postgresql 9.3.* and you need the psycopg2 module, do this:

yum install postgresql-devel
easy_install psycopg2

If you are like me, you may have trouble finding the well documented libpq-dev rpm... The above worked for me just now.

Answer 3

I was having the same Issue on Mac.

The solution was to use only PIP to install everything, and touch some things.

First install PIP from: https://pip.pypa.io/en/latest/

Then you want to make sure if path to pg_config is in your PATH (echo $PATH), if not you can edit your bash_profile:

vi /Users/<user>/.bash_profile

and add this line:

export PATH=$PATH:/path/to/pg_config/bin

If you don't know where pg_config is you can use the "locate" tool, but be sure your locate.db is up to date (i was using an old locate.db and using paths that does not exists).

sudo /usr/libexec/locate.updatedb
locate pg_config

Then install Django (if needed) and psycopg2.

sudo pip install Django
sudo pip install psycopg2

And then in settings.py (localhost:defaultport)

DATABASES = {
    'default': {
        'ENGINE': 'django.db.backends.postgresql_psycopg2',
        'NAME': 'dbname',
        'USER': 'postgres',
        'PASSWORD': 'postgres',
        'HOST': '',
        'PORT': '',
    }
}

Greets!

Answer 4

$ sudo apt-get install libpq-dev

Year, this solve my problem. After execute this, do: pip install psycopg2

Answer 5

Step by step that I use:

 - sudo apt-get install python-dev
 - sudo apt-get install postgresql-server-dev-9.1
 - sudo apt-get install python-psycopg2 - Or sudo pip install psycopg2

You may want to install a graphic tool to manage your databases, for that you can do:

sudo apt-get install postgresql pgadmin3 

After, you must change Postgre user password, then do:

 - sudo su
 - su postgres -c psql postgres
 - ALTER USER postgres WITH PASSWORD 'YourPassWordHere';
 - \q

On your settings.py file you do:

DATABASES = {
    'default': {
        'ENGINE': 'django.db.backends.postgresql_psycopg2',
        'NAME': 'dbname',
        'USER': 'postgres',
        'PASSWORD': 'postgres',
        'HOST': '',
        'PORT': '',
    }
}

Extra:

If you want to create the db using the command line you can just do:

- sudo su
- su postgres -c psql postgres
- CREATE DATABASE dbname;
- CREATE USER djangouser WITH ENCRYPTED PASSWORD 'myPasswordHere';
- GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON DATABASE dbname TO djangouser;

On your settings.py file you do:

DATABASES = {
    'default': {
        'ENGINE': 'django.db.backends.postgresql_psycopg2',
        'NAME': 'dbname',
        'USER': 'djangouser',
        'PASSWORD': 'myPasswordHere',
        'HOST': '',
        'PORT': '',
    }
}

Answer 6

Please note that installation of psycopg2 via pip or setup.py requires to have Visual Studio 2008 (more precisely executable file vcvarsall.bat). If you don't have admin rights to install it or set the appropriate PATH variable on Windows, you can download already compiled library from here.