How to set up a PostgreSQL database in Django

Question

I'm new to Python and Django.

I'm configuring a Django project using a PostgreSQL database engine backend, But I'm getting errors on each database operation. For example when I run manage.py syncdb, I'm getting:

C:\xampp\htdocs\djangodir>python manage.py syncdb
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "manage.py", line 11, in <module>
    execute_manager(settings)
  File "C:\Python27\lib\site-packages\django\core\management\__init__.py", line
438, in execute_manager
    utility.execute()
  File "C:\Python27\lib\site-packages\django\core\management\__init__.py", line
379, in execute
    self.fetch_command(subcommand).run_from_argv(self.argv)
  File "C:\Python27\lib\site-packages\django\core\management\__init__.py", line
261, in fetch_command
    klass = load_command_class(app_name, subcommand)
  File "C:\Python27\lib\site-packages\django\core\management\__init__.py", line
67, in load_command_class
    module = import_module('%s.management.commands.%s' % (app_name, name))
  File "C:\Python27\lib\site-packages\django\utils\importlib.py", line 35, in im
port_module
    __import__(name)
  File "C:\Python27\lib\site-packages\django\core\management\commands\syncdb.py"
, line 7, in <module>
    from django.core.management.sql import custom_sql_for_model, emit_post_sync_
signal
  File "C:\Python27\lib\site-packages\django\core\management\sql.py", line 6, in
 <module>
    from django.db import models
  File "C:\Python27\lib\site-packages\django\db\__init__.py", line 77, in <modul
e>
    connection = connections[DEFAULT_DB_ALIAS]
  File "C:\Python27\lib\site-packages\django\db\utils.py", line 92, in __getitem
__
    backend = load_backend(db['ENGINE'])
  File "C:\Python27\lib\site-packages\django\db\utils.py", line 33, in load_back
end
    return import_module('.base', backend_name)
  File "C:\Python27\lib\site-packages\django\utils\importlib.py", line 35, in im
port_module
    __import__(name)
  File "C:\Python27\lib\site-packages\django\db\backends\postgresql\base.py", li
ne 23, in <module>
    raise ImproperlyConfigured("Error loading psycopg module: %s" % e)
django.core.exceptions.ImproperlyConfigured: Error loading psycopg module: No mo
dule named psycopg

Can someone give me a clue on what is going on?

Answer 1

Hello @kartik,

Steps that I use:

 - sudo apt-get install python-dev
 - sudo apt-get install postgresql-server-dev-9.1
 - sudo apt-get install python-psycopg2 - Or sudo pip install psycopg2

You may want to install a graphic tool to manage your databases, for that you can do:

sudo apt-get install postgresql pgadmin3 

After, you must change Postgre user password, then do:

 - sudo su
 - su postgres -c psql postgres
 - ALTER USER postgres WITH PASSWORD 'YourPassWordHere';
 - \q

On your settings.py file you do:

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

Hope this helps!!

Thank you!!