Why does django complain that I have not set my ENGINE yet?

Question

DATABASES = {
    'default': {
        'ENGINE': 'django.db.backends.mysql', # Add 'postgresql_psycopg2', 'postgresql', 'mysql', 'sqlite3' or 'oracle'.
        'NAME': 'djangobb',                      # 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.
    }
}

Any ideas? I cannot run the syncdb command with manage.py:

    Environment:

Request Method: GET
Request URL: http://localhost:8000/admin/
Django Version: 1.2.1
Python Version: 2.5.4
Installed Applications:
['django.contrib.auth',
 'django.contrib.contenttypes',
 'django.contrib.sessions',
 'django.contrib.sites',
 'django.contrib.sitemaps',
 'django.contrib.admin',
 'django.contrib.admindocs',
 'registration',
 'django_authopenid',
 'djangobb_forum',
 'djapian',
 'messages']
Installed Middleware:
('django.middleware.cache.UpdateCacheMiddleware',
 'django.middleware.common.CommonMiddleware',
 'django.contrib.sessions.middleware.SessionMiddleware',
 'django.middleware.locale.LocaleMiddleware',
 'django.contrib.auth.middleware.AuthenticationMiddleware',
 'django.contrib.csrf.middleware.CsrfMiddleware',
 'django_authopenid.middleware.OpenIDMiddleware',
 'django.middleware.cache.FetchFromCacheMiddleware',
 'django.middleware.transaction.TransactionMiddleware',
 'djangobb_forum.middleware.LastLoginMiddleware',
 'djangobb_forum.middleware.UsersOnline')


Traceback:
File "C:\Python25\Lib\site-packages\django\core\handlers\base.py" in get_response
  80.                     response = middleware_method(request)
File "C:\Python25\Lib\site-packages\django\middleware\locale.py" in process_request
  16.         language = translation.get_language_from_request(request)
File "C:\Python25\Lib\site-packages\django\utils\translation\__init__.py" in get_language_from_request
  90.     return real_get_language_from_request(request)
File "C:\PYTHON25\lib\site-packages\django\utils\functional.py" in _curried
  55.         return _curried_func(*(args+moreargs), **dict(kwargs, **morekwargs))
File "C:\Python25\Lib\site-packages\django\utils\translation\__init__.py" in delayed_loader
  36.     return getattr(trans, real_name)(*args, **kwargs)
File "C:\Python25\Lib\site-packages\django\utils\translation\trans_real.py" in get_language_from_request
  339.         lang_code = request.session.get('django_language', None)
File "C:\Python25\Lib\site-packages\django\contrib\sessions\backends\base.py" in get
  63.         return self._session.get(key, default)
File "C:\Python25\Lib\site-packages\django\contrib\sessions\backends\base.py" in _get_session
  172.                 self._session_cache = self.load()
File "C:\Python25\Lib\site-packages\django\contrib\sessions\backends\db.py" in load
  20.                 expire_date__gt=datetime.datetime.now()
File "C:\Python25\lib\site-packages\django\db\models\manager.py" in get
  132.         return self.get_query_set().get(*args, **kwargs)
File "C:\Python25\Lib\site-packages\django\db\models\query.py" in get
  336.         num = len(clone)
File "C:\Python25\Lib\site-packages\django\db\models\query.py" in __len__
  81.                 self._result_cache = list(self.iterator())
File "C:\Python25\Lib\site-packages\django\db\models\query.py" in iterator
  269.         for row in compiler.results_iter():
File "C:\Python25\Lib\site-packages\django\db\models\sql\compiler.py" in results_iter
  672.         for rows in self.execute_sql(MULTI):
File "C:\Python25\Lib\site-packages\django\db\models\sql\compiler.py" in execute_sql
  717.             sql, params = self.as_sql()
File "C:\Python25\Lib\site-packages\django\db\models\sql\compiler.py" in as_sql
  56.         out_cols = self.get_columns(with_col_aliases)
File "C:\Python25\Lib\site-packages\django\db\models\sql\compiler.py" in get_columns
  185.                     col_aliases)
File "C:\Python25\Lib\site-packages\django\db\models\sql\compiler.py" in get_default_columns
  273.                 r = '%s.%s' % (qn(alias), qn2(field.column))
File "C:\Python25\Lib\site-packages\django\db\models\sql\compiler.py" in quote_name_unless_alias
  43.         r = self.connection.ops.quote_name(name)
File "C:\Python25\lib\site-packages\django\db\backends\dummy\base.py" in complain
  15.     raise ImproperlyConfigured("You haven't set the database ENGINE setting yet.")

Exception Type: ImproperlyConfigured at /admin/
Exception Value: You haven't set the database ENGINE setting yet.

Answer 1

I set mine the old way and the new way, so that it's not django-version-specific:

DATABASE_ENGINE   = 'django.db.backends.sqlite3'
DATABASE_NAME     = '/path/to/db/foo.sqlite3'
DATABASE_USER     = ''
DATABASE_PASSWORD = ''
DATABASE_HOST     = ''
DATABASE_PORT     = ''

DATABASES = {
  'default': {
    'ENGINE':   DATABASE_ENGINE,
    'NAME':     DATABASE_NAME,
    'USER':     DATABASE_USER,
    'PASSWORD': DATABASE_PASSWORD,
    'HOST':     DATABASE_HOST,
    'PORT':     DATABASE_PORT,
  }
}

But yeah, I'd double check that your installation is the version you think.

UPDATE:

You may be trying to import something from settings in an admin module, and importing the admin module in settings. Sometimes circular-imports result in the above.

In particular, using reverse("url-name") within settings can cause this, because it ends up forcing it to look at the "site" table at some deep-dark level...

UPDATE2:

Sorry, to explain the above:

• A circular import is when a module A imports from module B, and at some level, module B also needs stuff from module A. At some point during that second level of depth, it generally fails in some inscrutable way.
• Reverse() is the function to turn a url's name (the name="foo" in urls.py) back into the url itself. This makes calls that are not always possible in settings or admin modules.

UPDATE3:

Looking at the ticket djangobb.org/ticket/81 you pointed to, to break some of the terms down, the csrf token is a template tag used to add Cross Site Request Forgery protection:

http://docs.djangoproject.com/en/dev/ref/contrib/csrf/

It generally looks like this, to grep from a project of mine:

# grep -ri csrf .
  ./registration/login.html:  <form method="post" action="{% url django.contrib.auth.views.login %}">{% csrf_token %}

The bit about the trunk of djapian, though I don't know what djapian is myself, generally means a direct install of the (typically svn) trunk -- or "most up to date, checked in version, which is newer than any release, and possibly tested, official version". Typically, this involves doing something like an svn checkout http://wherever.com/someproject/trunk/ ./someproject and then going to that directory to install.