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<h1><a href="../index.html">Django 1.4.5 documentation</a></h1>
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<div class="section" id="s-faq-using-django">
<span id="faq-using-django"></span><h1>FAQ: Using Django<a class="headerlink" href="#faq-using-django" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h1>
<div class="section" id="s-why-do-i-get-an-error-about-importing-django-settings-module">
<span id="why-do-i-get-an-error-about-importing-django-settings-module"></span><h2>Why do I get an error about importing DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE?<a class="headerlink" href="#why-do-i-get-an-error-about-importing-django-settings-module" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h2>
<p>Make sure that:</p>
<ul>
<li><p class="first">The environment variable DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE is set to a
fully-qualified Python module (i.e. “mysite.settings”).</p>
</li>
<li><p class="first">Said module is on <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">sys.path</span></tt> (<tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">import</span> <span class="pre">mysite.settings</span></tt> should work).</p>
</li>
<li><p class="first">The module doesn’t contain syntax errors (of course).</p>
</li>
<li><p class="first">If you’re using mod_python but <em>not</em> using Django’s request handler,
you’ll need to work around a mod_python bug related to the use of
<tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">SetEnv</span></tt>; before you import anything from Django you’ll need to do
the following:</p>
<div class="highlight-python"><div class="highlight"><pre><span class="n">os</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">environ</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">update</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">req</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">subprocess_env</span><span class="p">)</span>
</pre></div>
</div>
<p>(where <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">req</span></tt> is the mod_python request object).</p>
</li>
</ul>
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<div class="section" id="s-i-can-t-stand-your-template-language-do-i-have-to-use-it">
<span id="i-can-t-stand-your-template-language-do-i-have-to-use-it"></span><h2>I can’t stand your template language. Do I have to use it?<a class="headerlink" href="#i-can-t-stand-your-template-language-do-i-have-to-use-it" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h2>
<p>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, so
if you’re attached to ZPT, Cheetah, or whatever, feel free to use those.</p>
</div>
<div class="section" id="s-do-i-have-to-use-your-model-database-layer">
<span id="do-i-have-to-use-your-model-database-layer"></span><h2>Do I have to use your model/database layer?<a class="headerlink" href="#do-i-have-to-use-your-model-database-layer" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h2>
<p>Nope. Just like the template system, the model/database layer is decoupled from
the rest of the framework.</p>
<p>The one exception is: If you use a different database library, you won’t get to
use Django’s automatically-generated admin site. That app is coupled to the
Django database layer.</p>
</div>
<div class="section" id="s-how-do-i-use-image-and-file-fields">
<span id="how-do-i-use-image-and-file-fields"></span><h2>How do I use image and file fields?<a class="headerlink" href="#how-do-i-use-image-and-file-fields" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h2>
<p>Using a <a class="reference internal" href="../ref/models/fields.html#django.db.models.FileField" title="django.db.models.FileField"><tt class="xref py py-class docutils literal"><span class="pre">FileField</span></tt></a> or an
<a class="reference internal" href="../ref/models/fields.html#django.db.models.ImageField" title="django.db.models.ImageField"><tt class="xref py py-class docutils literal"><span class="pre">ImageField</span></tt></a> in a model takes a few steps:</p>
<ol class="arabic simple">
<li>In your settings file, you’ll need to define <a class="reference internal" href="../ref/settings.html#std:setting-MEDIA_ROOT"><tt class="xref std std-setting docutils literal"><span class="pre">MEDIA_ROOT</span></tt></a> as
the full path to a directory where you’d like Django to store uploaded
files. (For performance, these files are not stored in the database.)
Define <a class="reference internal" href="../ref/settings.html#std:setting-MEDIA_URL"><tt class="xref std std-setting docutils literal"><span class="pre">MEDIA_URL</span></tt></a> as the base public URL of that directory.
Make sure that this directory is writable by the Web server’s user
account.</li>
<li>Add the <a class="reference internal" href="../ref/models/fields.html#django.db.models.FileField" title="django.db.models.FileField"><tt class="xref py py-class docutils literal"><span class="pre">FileField</span></tt></a> or
<a class="reference internal" href="../ref/models/fields.html#django.db.models.ImageField" title="django.db.models.ImageField"><tt class="xref py py-class docutils literal"><span class="pre">ImageField</span></tt></a> to your model, making sure to
define the <a class="reference internal" href="../ref/models/fields.html#django.db.models.FileField.upload_to" title="django.db.models.FileField.upload_to"><tt class="xref py py-attr docutils literal"><span class="pre">upload_to</span></tt></a> option to tell
Django to which subdirectory of <a class="reference internal" href="../ref/settings.html#std:setting-MEDIA_ROOT"><tt class="xref std std-setting docutils literal"><span class="pre">MEDIA_ROOT</span></tt></a> it should upload
files.</li>
<li>All that will be stored in your database is a path to the file
(relative to <a class="reference internal" href="../ref/settings.html#std:setting-MEDIA_ROOT"><tt class="xref std std-setting docutils literal"><span class="pre">MEDIA_ROOT</span></tt></a>). You’ll most likely want to use the
convenience <tt class="xref py py-attr docutils literal"><span class="pre">url</span></tt> attribute provided by
Django. For example, if your <a class="reference internal" href="../ref/models/fields.html#django.db.models.ImageField" title="django.db.models.ImageField"><tt class="xref py py-class docutils literal"><span class="pre">ImageField</span></tt></a> is
called <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">mug_shot</span></tt>, you can get the absolute path to your image in a
template with <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">{{</span> <span class="pre">object.mug_shot.url</span> <span class="pre">}}</span></tt>.</li>
</ol>
</div>
<div class="section" id="s-how-do-i-make-a-variable-available-to-all-my-templates">
<span id="how-do-i-make-a-variable-available-to-all-my-templates"></span><h2>How do I make a variable available to all my templates?<a class="headerlink" href="#how-do-i-make-a-variable-available-to-all-my-templates" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h2>
<p>Sometimes your templates just all need the same thing. A common example would
be dynamically-generated menus. At first glance, it seems logical to simply
add a common dictionary to the template context.</p>
<p>The correct solution is to use a <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">RequestContext</span></tt>. Details on how to do this
are here: <a class="reference internal" href="../ref/templates/api.html#subclassing-context-requestcontext"><em>Subclassing Context: RequestContext</em></a>.</p>
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<h3><a href="../contents.html">Table Of Contents</a></h3>
<ul>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#">FAQ: Using Django</a><ul>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#why-do-i-get-an-error-about-importing-django-settings-module">Why do I get an error about importing DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE?</a></li>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#i-can-t-stand-your-template-language-do-i-have-to-use-it">I can’t stand your template language. Do I have to use it?</a></li>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#do-i-have-to-use-your-model-database-layer">Do I have to use your model/database layer?</a></li>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#how-do-i-use-image-and-file-fields">How do I use image and file fields?</a></li>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#how-do-i-make-a-variable-available-to-all-my-templates">How do I make a variable available to all my templates?</a></li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
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<p class="topless">Feb 21, 2013</p>
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