Django is a high-level Python web development framework that enables rapid development of secure and maintainable websites. It comes with a built-in database abstraction API that allows you to interact with your database, much like you would with SQL. Let’s look at how to configure database settings in Django.
Your Django database settings are all stored in one module, `settings.py`. Here lies all the configuration needed to establish a connection to your database. Django supports various databases like PostgreSQL, MySQL, SQLite, and Oracle. However, you can also use third-party drivers for other databases. Django defaults to using a SQLite database.
You configure your database in Django by modifying the `DATABASES` setting in your `settings.py` file. The `DATABASES` setting is configured as a dictionary where the ‘default’ item is required and sets default database that Django will use.
For example, for a PostgreSQL database, your configuration could look like this:
```
DATABASES = {
‘default’: {
‘ENGINE’: ‘django.db.backends.postgresql’,
‘NAME’: ‘mydatabase’,
‘USER’: ‘mydatabaseuser’,
‘PASSWORD’: ‘mypassword’,
‘HOST’: ‘localhost’,
‘PORT’: ‘5432’,
}
}
```
Here’s what each setting means:
- `ENGINE`: This is where you specify the database engine. For PostgreSQL, the setting is `django.db.backends.postgresql`.
- `NAME`: The name of your database.
- `USER`: The username of your database user.
- `PASSWORD`: The password of your database user.
- `HOST`: The host of your database. If your database is local, this is usually `localhost`.
- `PORT`: The port your database listens on. For PostgreSQL, it’s typically `5432`.
It’s a similar process for other databases. For SQLite, which doesn’t require a username or password, and the `HOST` and `PORT` are optional, it could look like this:
```
DATABASES = {
‘default’: {
‘ENGINE’: ‘django.db.backends.sqlite3’,
‘NAME’: os.path.join(BASE_DIR, ‘db.sqlite3’),
}
}
```
Once you’ve set up your database, Django provides a powerful ORM to interact with your database. You can create models, and Django will take care of creating the correct database tables without you having to write a single SQL line, unless you want to.
Your changes won’t take effect until you’ve run `python manage.py migrate` to create any necessary database tables according to your models.
For more details on how to configure your database, check out the Django documentation’s section on databases, which is a reliable and widely recognized source for Django-related information.
Sources:
- Django documentation (https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/3.1/ref/settings/#databases)
- Django for Professionals by William S. Vincent
