Django ORM on Standalone Applications

Question

I followed this link to use Django's ORM on my stand alone application in python. manage.py sql 'application_name' and manage.py syncdb is working well and tables were created when I performed syncdb. The problem I am encountering is when I am running the actual script (for this case, it's dparser.py) that will handle DB transactions, I am encountering a "TypeError: relative imports require the 'package' argument". Below is the stacktrace:

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "dparser.py", line 23, in <module>
    from dmodel.models import *
  File "/home/<user>/d/dapp/dmodel/models.py", line 1, in <module>
    from django.db import models
  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/django/db/__init__.py", line 11, in <module>
    if DEFAULT_DB_ALIAS not in settings.DATABASES:
  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/django/utils/functional.py", line 184, in inner
    self._setup()
  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/django/conf/__init__.py", line 42, in _setup
    self._wrapped = Settings(settings_module)
  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/django/conf/__init__.py", line 93, in __init__
    mod = importlib.import_module(self.SETTINGS_MODULE)
  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/django/utils/importlib.py", line 28, in import_module
    raise TypeError("relative imports require the 'package' argument")
TypeError: relative imports require the 'package' argument

Below are the contents of my settings.py, models.py and dparser.py:

settings.py:

DATABASES = {
    'default': {
        'ENGINE': 'django.db.backends.mysql',   
        'NAME': 'd',
        'USER': 'root',
        'PASSWORD': '<password>',
        'HOST': 'localhost',
        'PORT': '3306',
    }
}
INSTALLED_APPS = ("dapp.dmodel",)

models.py:

from django.db import models
from django.db.models import Max


class Topics(models.Model):
     topic_id = models.AutoField(primary_key=True)
     topic = models.CharField(max_length=1000)

class Links(models.Model):
     link_id = models.AutoField(primary_key=True)
     topic = models.ForeignKey(Topics)
     link = models.CharField(max_length=1000)

def getLastId(tag):
     ...
     return lastid

dparser.py (partial):

from django.conf import settings
os.environ['DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE'] = ".settings.py"
DATABASES = {
    'default': {
        'ENGINE': 'django.db.backends.mysql',   
        'NAME': 'd',
        'USER': 'root',
        'PASSWORD': '<password>',
        'HOST': 'localhost',
        'PORT': '3306',
    }
}
INSTALLED_APPS = ("dapp.dmodel",)

from dmodel.models import * # --> This is were the exception occurs

Hope somebody can help me out here. Thanks in advance!

I don't think you need the line "from django.db.models import Max" — aglassman, May 31 '12 at 17:35
I need that because I am using it on the getLastId function of models.py — jaysonpryde, May 31 '12 at 17:46
I would recommend using SQLAlchemy for standalone apps, instead. It's web framework agnostic. — Keith, May 31 '12 at 20:43

score 9 · Accepted Answer · answered Jun 01 '12 at 14:25

9

Looking at the code of django.utils.importlib.py where the execption is raised you see that your settings file name is causing the problem:

if name.startswith('.'):
    if not package:
        raise TypeError("relative imports require the 'package' argument")

Don't use .settings.py as the name for your settings file, use something that does not start with a '.' and it will solve this particular error.

answered Jun 01 '12 at 14:25

Bernhard

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This can also happen from the `ROOT_URLCONF` setting. If you are using something like `ROOT_URLCONF = os.path.basename(PATH) + '.urls'` you may end up with something like `'..urls'`, which raises the error. Took stepping through the Django source to figure that one out! – pyrospade Feb 19 '14 at 15:42

Bernhard · Answer 2 · 2012-06-01T08:00:24.327

0

I'd guess you'd need to do

from dapp.dmodel.models import *

or set the PYTHONPATH or sys.path to include the dapp folder.

edited Jun 01 '12 at 08:00

answered May 31 '12 at 19:33

Bernhard

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hm, too bad - was just a guess. i've take a close look now, see my other answer, hope that finally helps! – Bernhard Jun 01 '12 at 14:27

Django ORM on Standalone Applications

2 Answers2