Why do I get an error about importingDJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE?¶

Make sure that:

• The environment variableDJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE is set to afully-qualified Python module (i.e.mysite.settings).
• Said module is onsys.path (importmysite.settings should work).
• The module doesn’t contain syntax errors.

I can’t stand your template language. Do I have to use it?¶

We happen to think our template engine is the best thing since chunky bacon,but we recognize that choosing a template language runs close to religion.There’s nothing about Django that requires using the template language, soif you’re attached to Jinja2, Mako, or whatever, feel free to use those.

Do I have to use your model/database layer?¶

Nope. Just like the template system, the model/database layer is decoupled fromthe rest of the framework.

The one exception is: If you use a different database library, you won’t get touse Django’s automatically-generated admin site. That app is coupled to theDjango database layer.

How do I use image and file fields?¶

Using aFileField or anImageField in a model takes a few steps:

1. In your settings file, you’ll need to defineMEDIA_ROOT asthe full path to a directory where you’d like Django to store uploadedfiles. (For performance, these files are not stored in the database.)DefineMEDIA_URL as the base public URL of that directory.Make sure that this directory is writable by the web server’s useraccount.
2. Add theFileField orImageField to your model, defining theupload_to option to specify asubdirectory ofMEDIA_ROOT to use for uploaded files.
3. All that will be stored in your database is a path to the file(relative toMEDIA_ROOT). You’ll most likely want to use theconvenienceurl attributeprovided by Django. For example, if yourImageField is calledmug_shot, you can getthe absolute path to your image in a template with{{object.mug_shot.url}}.

How do I make a variable available to all my templates?¶

Sometimes your templates all need the same thing. A common example would bedynamically generated menus. At first glance, it seems logical to add a commondictionary to the template context.

The best way to do this in Django is to use aRequestContext. Details onhow to do this are here:Using RequestContext.