django doesn't load initial fixtures while syncdb

Question

I've got a django project with following structure:

/djninja # project dir
  /djninja # main app dir
  /bands # app dir
  /fans # app dir
  /lyrics # app dir

I've created a initial_data.yaml file to make syncdb load fixtures (I prefer YAML format). According to the documentation, I shall put it in any app fixtures subdirectory. And so I did, I had:

/djninja
  /djninja
  /bands
    /fixtures
      - initial_data.yaml
  /fans
  /lyrics

But syncdb was omitting the file. Then I moved it into main project directory:

/djninja
  /djninja
    /fixtures
      - initial_data.yaml
  /bands
  /fans
  /lyrics

And still it is being omitted. I'd like to load fixtures within syncdb command What am I doing wrong?

have you installed yaml so that python will recognized that as fixtures? — catherine, Mar 14 '13 at 13:04
I use json syntax (initial_data.json) and it works ok... perhaps .yaml is not the right extension? Have you tried other format? — daveoncode, Mar 14 '13 at 13:05
@catherine: I was missing python-yaml package. I've installed it, but still python doesn't load fixtures. — ducin, Mar 14 '13 at 13:13
@catherine pyyaml is called python-yaml in Debian. So that may well have been it. — ferrix, Mar 14 '13 at 13:37
Try this one for test: `python manage.py loaddata fixtures/initial_data.yaml` — catherine, Mar 14 '13 at 13:38
`$ python manage.py loaddata fixtures/initial_data.yaml` `Installed 0 object(s) from 0 fixture(s)` — ducin, Mar 14 '13 at 13:50

score 7 · Answer 1 · answered Jun 25 '13 at 15:21

7

Apparently Django looks for fixtures in apps specified in INSTALLED_APPS that have a models.py in them.

So if your app is missing one, create an empty models.py and Django won't skip looking for fixtures in that app.

answered Jun 25 '13 at 15:21

Hamid Nazari

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kgr · Answer 2 · 2013-03-14T17:16:36.010

initial_data.yaml should be picked up as long as:

you have pyyaml installed
it's located in fixtures directory of one of your apps listed in INSTALLED_APPS (in settings.py)

So, given you have pyyaml it's probably the latter. Please make sure your fixtures directory is inside one of the apps listed in INSTALLED_APPS and you should be up and running.

In case of this layout:

/djninja
  /djninja
  /bands
    /fixtures
      - initial_data.yaml
  /fans
  /lyrics

adding bands to INSTALLED_APPS should do the trick, given bands is a valid package and is on PYTHONPATH.

If you'd like Django to look for fixtures in some other directory, you can follow the advice given in "Where Django finds fixture files" subsection of the docs and use the FIXTURE_DIRS setting, making it a list of extra directories to look in.

django doesn't load initial fixtures while syncdb

2 Answers2