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<div class="section" id="s-integrating-django-with-a-legacy-database">
<span id="integrating-django-with-a-legacy-database"></span><h1>Integrating Django with a legacy database<a class="headerlink" href="#integrating-django-with-a-legacy-database" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h1>
<p>While Django is best suited for developing new applications, it’s quite
possible to integrate it into legacy databases. Django includes a couple of
utilities to automate as much of this process as possible.</p>
<p>This document assumes you know the Django basics, as covered in the
<a class="reference internal" href="../intro/tutorial01.html"><em>tutorial</em></a>.</p>
<p>Once you’ve got Django set up, you’ll follow this general process to integrate
with an existing database.</p>
<div class="section" id="s-give-django-your-database-parameters">
<span id="give-django-your-database-parameters"></span><h2>Give Django your database parameters<a class="headerlink" href="#give-django-your-database-parameters" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h2>
<p>You’ll need to tell Django what your database connection parameters are, and
what the name of the database is. Do that by editing the <a class="reference internal" href="../ref/settings.html#std:setting-DATABASES"><tt class="xref std std-setting docutils literal"><span class="pre">DATABASES</span></tt></a>
setting and assigning values to the following keys for the <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">'default'</span></tt>
connection:</p>
<ul class="simple">
<li><a class="reference internal" href="../ref/settings.html#std:setting-NAME"><tt class="xref std std-setting docutils literal"><span class="pre">NAME</span></tt></a></li>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="../ref/settings.html#std:setting-DATABASE-ENGINE"><tt class="xref std std-setting docutils literal"><span class="pre">ENGINE</span></tt></a></li>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="../ref/settings.html#std:setting-USER"><tt class="xref std std-setting docutils literal"><span class="pre">USER</span></tt></a></li>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="../ref/settings.html#std:setting-PASSWORD"><tt class="xref std std-setting docutils literal"><span class="pre">PASSWORD</span></tt></a></li>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="../ref/settings.html#std:setting-HOST"><tt class="xref std std-setting docutils literal"><span class="pre">HOST</span></tt></a></li>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="../ref/settings.html#std:setting-PORT"><tt class="xref std std-setting docutils literal"><span class="pre">PORT</span></tt></a></li>
</ul>
</div>
<div class="section" id="s-auto-generate-the-models">
<span id="auto-generate-the-models"></span><h2>Auto-generate the models<a class="headerlink" href="#auto-generate-the-models" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h2>
<p>Django comes with a utility called <a class="reference internal" href="../ref/django-admin.html#django-admin-inspectdb"><tt class="xref std std-djadmin docutils literal"><span class="pre">inspectdb</span></tt></a> that can create models
by introspecting an existing database. You can view the output by running this
command:</p>
<div class="highlight-bash"><div class="highlight"><pre><span class="nv">$ </span>python manage.py inspectdb
</pre></div>
</div>
<p>Save this as a file by using standard Unix output redirection:</p>
<div class="highlight-bash"><div class="highlight"><pre><span class="nv">$ </span>python manage.py inspectdb > models.py
</pre></div>
</div>
<p>This feature is meant as a shortcut, not as definitive model generation. See the
<a class="reference internal" href="../ref/django-admin.html#django-admin-inspectdb"><tt class="xref std std-djadmin docutils literal"><span class="pre">documentation</span> <span class="pre">of</span> <span class="pre">inspectdb</span></tt></a> for more information.</p>
<p>Once you’ve cleaned up your models, name the file <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">models.py</span></tt> and put it in
the Python package that holds your app. Then add the app to your
<a class="reference internal" href="../ref/settings.html#std:setting-INSTALLED_APPS"><tt class="xref std std-setting docutils literal"><span class="pre">INSTALLED_APPS</span></tt></a> setting.</p>
<p>By default, <a class="reference internal" href="../ref/django-admin.html#django-admin-inspectdb"><tt class="xref std std-djadmin docutils literal"><span class="pre">inspectdb</span></tt></a> creates unmanaged models. That is,
<tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">managed</span> <span class="pre">=</span> <span class="pre">False</span></tt> in the model’s <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">Meta</span></tt> class tells Django not to manage
each table’s creation and deletion:</p>
<div class="highlight-bash"><div class="highlight"><pre>class Person<span class="o">(</span>models.Model<span class="o">)</span>:
<span class="nv">id</span> <span class="o">=</span> models.IntegerField<span class="o">(</span><span class="nv">primary_key</span><span class="o">=</span>True<span class="o">)</span>
<span class="nv">first_name</span> <span class="o">=</span> models.CharField<span class="o">(</span><span class="nv">max_length</span><span class="o">=</span>70<span class="o">)</span>
class Meta:
<span class="nv">managed</span> <span class="o">=</span> False
<span class="nv">db_table</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="s1">'CENSUS_PERSONS'</span>
</pre></div>
</div>
<p>If you do want to allow Django to manage the table’s lifecycle, you’ll need to
change the <a class="reference internal" href="../ref/models/options.html#django.db.models.Options.managed" title="django.db.models.Options.managed"><tt class="xref py py-attr docutils literal"><span class="pre">managed</span></tt></a> option above to <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">True</span></tt>
(or simply remove it because <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">True</span></tt> is its default value).</p>
<div class="versionchanged">
<span class="title">Changed in Django 1.6:</span> The behavior by which introspected models are created as unmanaged ones is new
in Django 1.6.</div>
</div>
<div class="section" id="s-install-the-core-django-tables">
<span id="install-the-core-django-tables"></span><h2>Install the core Django tables<a class="headerlink" href="#install-the-core-django-tables" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h2>
<p>Next, run the <a class="reference internal" href="../ref/django-admin.html#django-admin-syncdb"><tt class="xref std std-djadmin docutils literal"><span class="pre">syncdb</span></tt></a> command to install any extra needed database
records such as admin permissions and content types:</p>
<div class="highlight-bash"><div class="highlight"><pre><span class="nv">$ </span>python manage.py syncdb
</pre></div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="section" id="s-test-and-tweak">
<span id="test-and-tweak"></span><h2>Test and tweak<a class="headerlink" href="#test-and-tweak" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h2>
<p>Those are the basic steps – from here you’ll want to tweak the models Django
generated until they work the way you’d like. Try accessing your data via the
Django database API, and try editing objects via Django’s admin site, and edit
the models file accordingly.</p>
</div>
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<h3><a href="../contents.html">Table Of Contents</a></h3>
<ul>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#">Integrating Django with a legacy database</a><ul>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#give-django-your-database-parameters">Give Django your database parameters</a></li>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#auto-generate-the-models">Auto-generate the models</a></li>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#install-the-core-django-tables">Install the core Django tables</a></li>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#test-and-tweak">Test and tweak</a></li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
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