ImproperlyConfigured: settings.DATABASES is improperly configured. Please supply the ENGINE value

Question

I'm in the midst of setting up my Django project on Heroku. I have been following the documentation, but when I foreman start I receive an error that I can't quite figure out. I have set up my engine files, but it doesn't seem to want to work.

Full traceback:

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "manage.py", line 10, in <module>
    execute_from_command_line(sys.argv)
  File "/Users/nir/nirla/venv/lib/python2.7/site-packages/django/core/management/__init__.py", line 399, in execute_from_command_line
    utility.execute()
  File "/Users/nir/nirla/venv/lib/python2.7/site-packages/django/core/management/__init__.py", line 392, in execute
    self.fetch_command(subcommand).run_from_argv(self.argv)
  File "/Users/nir/nirla/venv/lib/python2.7/site-packages/django/core/management/base.py", line 242, in run_from_argv
    self.execute(*args, **options.__dict__)
  File "/Users/nir/nirla/venv/lib/python2.7/site-packages/django/core/management/base.py", line 285, in execute
    output = self.handle(*args, **options)
  File "/Users/nir/nirla/venv/lib/python2.7/site-packages/django/core/management/base.py", line 415, in handle
    return self.handle_noargs(**options)
  File "/Users/nir/nirla/venv/lib/python2.7/site-packages/django/core/management/commands/syncdb.py", line 57, in handle_noargs
    cursor = connection.cursor()
  File "/Users/nir/nirla/venv/lib/python2.7/site-packages/django/db/backends/__init__.py", line 160, in cursor
    cursor = self.make_debug_cursor(self._cursor())
  File "/Users/nir/nirla/venv/lib/python2.7/site-packages/django/db/backends/dummy/base.py", line 15, in complain
    raise ImproperlyConfigured("settings.DATABASES is improperly configured. "
django.core.exceptions.ImproperlyConfigured: settings.DATABASES is improperly configured. Please supply the ENGINE value. Check settings documentation for more details.

Someone suggested using ./manage.py diffsettings and showing the DATABASES part:

DATABASES = {'default': {'AUTOCOMMIT': True, 'ENGINE': 'django.db.backends.dummy', 'ATOMIC_REQUESTS': False, 'NAME': '', 'TEST_MIRROR': None, 'CONN_MAX_AGE': 0, 'TEST_NAME': None, 'TIME_ZONE': 'UTC', 'TEST_COLLATION': None, 'PORT': '', 'HOST': '', 'USER': '', 'TEST_CHARSET': None, 'PASSWORD': '', 'OPTIONS': {}}}

I can't seem to figure out what it means, but it doesn't look right on the surface.

Here is part of my settings.py that I think could be relevant to this problem:

import os
import dj_database_url

ON_HEROKU = os.environ.get('ON_HEROKU')
HEROKU_SERVER = os.environ.get('HEROKU_SERVER')

if ON_HEROKU:
    
    DATABASES = {
        'default': {
            'ENGINE': 'django.db.backends.postgresql_psycopg2',
            'NAME': 'postgresql',
        }
    }
else:
    DATABASES = {
        'default': {
            'ENGINE': 'django.db.backends.sqlite3',
            'NAME': os.path.join(BASE_DIR, 'db.sqlite3'),
            'USER': '',
            'PASSWORD': '',
            'HOST': '',                      # Empty for localhost through domain sockets or '127.0.0.1' for localhost through TCP.
            'PORT': '',  
        }
    }


DATABASES['default'] =  dj_database_url.config()

SECURE_PROXY_SSL_HEADER = ('HTTP_X_FORWARDED_PROTO', 'https')

ALLOWED_HOSTS = ['*']

STATIC_URL = '/static/'

# only refers to the location where your static files should end up after running manage.py collectstatic. you shouldn't really need collectstatic) when developing locally
STATIC_ROOT = 'staticfiles'


STATICFILES_DIRS = (    
    os.path.join(BASE_DIR, '../static'),
)

Tiannatiara

Answer 1

You are using the dj-database-url module to set DATABASES['default']. Whatever comes before the line:

DATABASES['default'] =  dj_database_url.config()

is meaningless as you replace your database configuration in its entirety. The dj_database_url.config() loads your database configuration from the DATABASE_URL environment variable, or returns {} if the variable is not set.

Judging by your error, you didn't set the DATABASE_URL at all. Judging by the code preceding the dj_database_url.config() line, you should not be using the dj_database_url.config() function at all.

If you did want to use it, at least build a default URL:

if ON_HEROKU:
    DATABASE_URL = 'postgresql://<postgresql>'
else:
    DATABASE_URL = 'sqlite:///' + os.path.join(BASE_DIR, 'db.sqlite3')

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

Riven

Answer 2

You can use following setting for localhost

DATABASES = {
    'default': {
        'ENGINE': 'django.db.backends.postgresql_psycopg2',
        'NAME': 'DatabaseName',
        'USER': 'DatabaseUserName',
        'PASSWORD': 'DatabaseUserpassword',
        'HOST': 'localhost',
        'PORT': '5432',
    }
}

Bahamas

But can you use it for production? – Brahmana

Answer 3

Encountered this issue when running my github workflows with github actions. So I found the following work around:

POSTGRES_DB = os.environ.get("POSTGRES_DB") #database name
POSTGRES_PASSWORD = os.environ.get("POSTGRES_PASSWORD") # database user password
POSTGRES_USER = os.environ.get("POSTGRES_USER") # database username
POSTGRES_HOST = os.environ.get("POSTGRES_HOST") # database host
POSTGRES_PORT = os.environ.get("POSTGRES_PORT") # database port


POSTGRES_READY = (
    POSTGRES_DB is not None
    and POSTGRES_PASSWORD is not None
    and POSTGRES_USER is not None
    and POSTGRES_HOST is not None
    and POSTGRES_PORT is not None
)

print(POSTGRES_READY)

if POSTGRES_READY:
    DATABASES = {
        "default": {
            "ENGINE": "django.db.backends.postgresql",
            "NAME": POSTGRES_DB,
            "USER": POSTGRES_USER,
            "PASSWORD": POSTGRES_PASSWORD,
            "HOST": POSTGRES_HOST,
            "PORT": POSTGRES_PORT,
        }
    }

Then your .env file:

export DEBUG=True
export DJANGO_SECRET_KEY=CI_CD_TEST_KEY
export POSTGRES_USER=taxi
export POSTGRES_PASSWORD=taxi
export POSTGRES_DB=pdm
export POSTGRES_PORT=5432
export POSTGRES_HOST=localhost

Then run source .env

Pompea

Answer 4

I had the same issue using django-tenant-users when running the command:

python manage.py setup_dtu_tenants

It was because I had a folder named "settings" inside my project folder at the same level as my settings.py. After removing this folder, the issue is gone.

Carrageen

Your answer does not seem to match the error message that appears in the code shared by @ApathyBear. Please, do read the question again. – Trilbie

This does not seem to answer this question, but it helped my with my problem. The problem was in having myprojectname/settings/ folder for my settings and apps/settings app – Gebhart

Answer 5

With "Django==3.1.7", I got the same error when using the code below in "settings.py":

# "settings.py"

from django.db import connection 

print(connection.queries) # Causes error

So, I removed "print(connection.queries)" as shown below, then the error was solved:

# "settings.py"

from django.db import connection 

# print(connection.queries) # Causes error

Wove