Django settings not working correctly

Question

I am able to execute

python manage.py migrate - it executes perfectly

But when I run

django-admin shell

it fails giving the following errors

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/home/cj/.vtenv/officingx/lib/python3.5/site-packages/django/core/management/base.py", line 294, in run_from_argv
    self.execute(*args, **cmd_options)
  File "/home/cj/.vtenv/officingx/lib/python3.5/site-packages/django/core/management/base.py", line 337, in execute
    saved_locale = translation.get_language()
  File "/home/cj/.vtenv/officingx/lib/python3.5/site-packages/django/utils/translation/__init__.py", line 190, in get_language
    return _trans.get_language()
  File "/home/cj/.vtenv/officingx/lib/python3.5/site-packages/django/utils/translation/__init__.py", line 57, in __getattr__
    if settings.USE_I18N:
  File "/home/cj/.vtenv/officingx/lib/python3.5/site-packages/django/conf/__init__.py", line 53, in __getattr__
    self._setup(name)
  File "/home/cj/.vtenv/officingx/lib/python3.5/site-packages/django/conf/__init__.py", line 39, in _setup
    % (desc, ENVIRONMENT_VARIABLE))
django.core.exceptions.ImproperlyConfigured: Requested setting USE_I18N, but settings are not configured. You must either define the environment variable DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE or call settings.configure() before accessing settings.

During handling of the above exception, another exception occurred:

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/home/cj/.vtenv/officingx/bin/django-admin", line 11, in <module>
    sys.exit(execute_from_command_line())
  File "/home/cj/.vtenv/officingx/lib/python3.5/site-packages/django/core/management/__init__.py", line 367, in execute_from_command_line
    utility.execute()
  File "/home/cj/.vtenv/officingx/lib/python3.5/site-packages/django/core/management/__init__.py", line 359, in execute
    self.fetch_command(subcommand).run_from_argv(self.argv)
  File "/home/cj/.vtenv/officingx/lib/python3.5/site-packages/django/core/management/base.py", line 306, in run_from_argv
    connections.close_all()
  File "/home/cj/.vtenv/officingx/lib/python3.5/site-packages/django/db/utils.py", line 229, in close_all
    for alias in self:
  File "/home/cj/.vtenv/officingx/lib/python3.5/site-packages/django/db/utils.py", line 223, in __iter__
    return iter(self.databases)
  File "/home/cj/.vtenv/officingx/lib/python3.5/site-packages/django/utils/functional.py", line 35, in __get__
    res = instance.__dict__[self.name] = self.func(instance)
  File "/home/cj/.vtenv/officingx/lib/python3.5/site-packages/django/db/utils.py", line 156, in databases
    self._databases = settings.DATABASES
  File "/home/cj/.vtenv/officingx/lib/python3.5/site-packages/django/conf/__init__.py", line 53, in __getattr__
    self._setup(name)
  File "/home/cj/.vtenv/officingx/lib/python3.5/site-packages/django/conf/__init__.py", line 39, in _setup
    % (desc, ENVIRONMENT_VARIABLE))
django.core.exceptions.ImproperlyConfigured: Requested setting DATABASES, but settings are not configured. You must either define the environment variable DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE or call settings.configure() before accessing settings.

My settings.py

"""
Django settings for officingx project.

Generated by 'django-admin startproject' using Django 1.10.5.

For more information on this file, see
https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/1.10/topics/settings/

For the full list of settings and their values, see
https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/1.10/ref/settings/
"""

import os

import dj_database_url

# Build paths inside the project like this: os.path.join(BASE_DIR, ...)
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/1.10/howto/deployment/checklist/

# SECURITY WARNING: keep the secret key used in production secret!
SECRET_KEY = os.environ['OFFICINGX_SECRET_KEY']

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

ALLOWED_HOSTS = []


# Application definition

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

    'amenity.apps.AmenityConfig',
    'booking.apps.BookingConfig',
    'location.apps.LocationConfig',
    'organization.apps.OrganizationConfig',
    'photo.apps.PhotoConfig',
    'product.apps.ProductConfig',
    'property.apps.PropertyConfig',
]

MIDDLEWARE = [
    'django.middleware.security.SecurityMiddleware',
    'django.contrib.sessions.middleware.SessionMiddleware',
    'django.middleware.common.CommonMiddleware',
    'django.middleware.csrf.CsrfViewMiddleware',
    'django.contrib.auth.middleware.AuthenticationMiddleware',
    'django.contrib.messages.middleware.MessageMiddleware',
    'django.middleware.clickjacking.XFrameOptionsMiddleware',
]

ROOT_URLCONF = 'officingx.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',
            ],
        },
    },
]

WSGI_APPLICATION = 'officingx.wsgi.application'


# Database
# https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/1.10/ref/settings/#databases

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


# Password validation
# https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/1.10/ref/settings/#auth-password-validators

AUTH_PASSWORD_VALIDATORS = [
    {
        'NAME': 'django.contrib.auth.password_validation.UserAttributeSimilarityValidator',
    },
    {
        'NAME': 'django.contrib.auth.password_validation.MinimumLengthValidator',
    },
    {
        'NAME': 'django.contrib.auth.password_validation.CommonPasswordValidator',
    },
    {
        'NAME': 'django.contrib.auth.password_validation.NumericPasswordValidator',
    },
]


# Internationalization
# https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/1.10/topics/i18n/

LANGUAGE_CODE = 'en-us'

TIME_ZONE = 'UTC'

USE_I18N = True

USE_L10N = True

USE_TZ = True


# Static files (CSS, JavaScript, Images)
# https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/1.10/howto/static-files/

STATIC_URL = '/static/'

Please help I can't understand why its not able read the settings even when migrate command is working perfectly fine

Answer 1

Taken from the docs :

Generally, when working on a single Django project, it's easier to use manage.py than django-admin. If you need to switch between multiple Django settings files, use django-admin with DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE or the --settings command line option.

You didn't specify a --settings module (as an argument) in the django-admin , that's why Django complains. Do it like this: django-admin shell --settings=myproject.settings .

Also, from the docs :

The settings module should be in Python package syntax, eg mysite.settings. If this isn't provided, django-admin will use the DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE environment variable.

You can also do ./manage.py shell