DATABASES is improperly configured, NAME value, Heroku issue

Question

Maybe I have familiar problem for some developers, so I'm asking you for help.

I configured mine settings.py for staging and deployment to Heroku, and for local deployment, you can see mine two settings.py and local_settings.py, posted below. local_settings.py is in .gitignore because I do not want it in mine repository.

Everything working locally like it should, but when I push it to Heroku and run heroku run python manage.py migrate I'm getting this error log:

Running python poets_blog/manage.py migrate on peroskobo... up, run.1376
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "poets_blog/manage.py", line 10, in <module>
    execute_from_command_line(sys.argv)
  File "/app/.heroku/python/lib/python2.7/site-packages/django/core/management/__init__.py", line 338, in execute_from_command_line
    utility.execute()
  File "/app/.heroku/python/lib/python2.7/site-packages/django/core/management/__init__.py", line 330, in execute
    self.fetch_command(subcommand).run_from_argv(self.argv)
  File "/app/.heroku/python/lib/python2.7/site-packages/django/core/management/base.py", line 393, in run_from_argv
    self.execute(*args, **cmd_options)
  File "/app/.heroku/python/lib/python2.7/site-packages/django/core/management/base.py", line 444, in execute
    output = self.handle(*args, **options)
  File "/app/.heroku/python/lib/python2.7/site-packages/django/core/management/commands/migrate.py", line 93, in handle
    executor = MigrationExecutor(connection, self.migration_progress_callback)
  File "/app/.heroku/python/lib/python2.7/site-packages/django/db/migrations/executor.py", line 19, in __init__
    self.loader = MigrationLoader(self.connection)
  File "/app/.heroku/python/lib/python2.7/site-packages/django/db/migrations/loader.py", line 47, in __init__
    self.build_graph()
  File "/app/.heroku/python/lib/python2.7/site-packages/django/db/migrations/loader.py", line 182, in build_graph
    self.applied_migrations = recorder.applied_migrations()
  File "/app/.heroku/python/lib/python2.7/site-packages/django/db/migrations/recorder.py", line 59, in applied_migrations
    self.ensure_schema()
  File "/app/.heroku/python/lib/python2.7/site-packages/django/db/migrations/recorder.py", line 49, in ensure_schema
    if self.Migration._meta.db_table in self.connection.introspection.table_names(self.connection.cursor()):
  File "/app/.heroku/python/lib/python2.7/site-packages/django/db/backends/base/base.py", line 164, in cursor
    cursor = self.make_cursor(self._cursor())
  File "/app/.heroku/python/lib/python2.7/site-packages/django/db/backends/base/base.py", line 135, in _cursor
    self.ensure_connection()
  File "/app/.heroku/python/lib/python2.7/site-packages/django/db/backends/base/base.py", line 130, in ensure_connection
    self.connect()
  File "/app/.heroku/python/lib/python2.7/site-packages/django/db/backends/base/base.py", line 118, in connect
    conn_params = self.get_connection_params()
  File "/app/.heroku/python/lib/python2.7/site-packages/django/db/backends/postgresql_psycopg2/base.py", line 158, in get_connection_params
    "settings.DATABASES is improperly configured. "
django.core.exceptions.ImproperlyConfigured: settings.DATABASES is improperly configured. Please supply the NAME value.

I have found similar question here on stackoverflow but that did not work for me and this just confused me further, can any one help me and explain:

1. This NAME value error?.
2. Why is mine local_settings not loading properly?
3. How can I fix this?

settings.py:

"""
Django settings for poets_blog project.

Generated by 'django-admin startproject' using Django 1.8.4.

For more information on this file, see
https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/1.8/topics/settings/

For the full list of settings and their values, see
https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/1.8/ref/settings/
"""

# Build paths inside the project like this: os.path.join(BASE_DIR, ...)
import os

BASE_DIR = os.path.dirname(os.path.dirname(os.path.abspath(__file__)))


# Quick-start development settings - unsuitable for production
# See https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/1.8/howto/deployment/checklist/

# SECURITY WARNING: keep the secret key used in production secret!
SECRET_KEY = 'k(krj+hfj^ws(atft(f74lmjyggdw@*gl1)ltio=pwik%r8+0#'

# SECURITY WARNING: don't run with debug turned on in production!
DEBUG = False

ALLOWED_HOSTS = []


# Application definition

INSTALLED_APPS = (
    'django.contrib.admin',
    'django.contrib.auth',
    'django.contrib.contenttypes',
    'django.contrib.sessions',
    'django.contrib.messages',
    'django.contrib.staticfiles',

    # Local app
    'blog',
)

MIDDLEWARE_CLASSES = (
    'django.contrib.sessions.middleware.SessionMiddleware',
    'django.middleware.common.CommonMiddleware',
    'django.middleware.csrf.CsrfViewMiddleware',
    'django.contrib.auth.middleware.AuthenticationMiddleware',
    'django.contrib.auth.middleware.SessionAuthenticationMiddleware',
    'django.contrib.messages.middleware.MessageMiddleware',
    'django.middleware.clickjacking.XFrameOptionsMiddleware',
    'django.middleware.security.SecurityMiddleware',
)

ROOT_URLCONF = 'poets_blog.urls'

TEMPLATES = [
    {
        'BACKEND': 'django.template.backends.django.DjangoTemplates',
        'DIRS': [os.path.join(BASE_DIR, 'templates')],
        'APP_DIRS': True,
        'OPTIONS': {
            'context_processors': [
                'django.template.context_processors.debug',
                'django.template.context_processors.request',
                'django.contrib.auth.context_processors.auth',
                'django.contrib.messages.context_processors.messages',
                'poets_blog.context_processors.mytag',
            ],
        },
    },
]

WSGI_APPLICATION = 'poets_blog.wsgi.application'


# Database
# https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/1.8/ref/settings/#databases

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


# Internationalization
# https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/1.8/topics/i18n/

LANGUAGE_CODE = 'en-us'

TIME_ZONE = 'Europe/Belgrade'

USE_I18N = True

USE_L10N = True

USE_TZ = True


# Static files (CSS, JavaScript, Images)
# https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/1.8/howto/static-files/
# Exstending setting.py to local_settings.py
# Allow all hosts/domain names for this site
ALLOWED_HOSTS = ["*"]

# Parse database configuration from $DATABASE_URL
import dj_database_url

DATABASE = {'default': dj_database_url.config()}

# Honor the 'X-Forwarded-Proto' header for request.is_secure()
SECURE_PROXY_SSL_HEADER = ('HTTP_X_FORWARDED_PROTO', 'https')

# try to load local_settings.py if it exists
try:
    from .local_settings import *
except Exception, e:
    pass

MEDIA_ROOT = os.path.join(BASE_DIR, 'media')
MEDIA_URL = '/media/'
STATIC_ROOT = os.path.join(BASE_DIR, 'static')
STATIC_URL = '/static/'

# STATICFILES_DIRS = (
#    os.path.join(BASE_DIR, "static"),
#  )

and local_settings.py:

from .settings import *
import os

DEBUG = True
# TEMPLATE_DEBUG = True


DATABASES = {
    'default': {
        'ENGINE': 'django.db.backends.postgresql_psycopg2',
        'NAME': 'pero_db',
        'USER': 'petarp',
        'PASSWORD': 'gnomeregan',
        'HOST': 'localhost',
        'PORT': '5432',
    }
}

Answer 1

You define DATABASES twice

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

...

DATABASE = {'default': dj_database_url.config()}

Second time (for Heroku) has typo. Correct is:

DATABASES = {'default': dj_database_url.config()}