Django settings.AUTH_USER_MODEL defined in separate module

Question

What is the proper way to say what is my AUTH_USER_MODEL?

I have the following set:

Folder structure:

--- backend
----- api
-------- models
----------- user.py

user.py lies within models folder

in settings.py:

AUTH_USER_MODEL = 'myapp.User'

INSTALLED_APPS = [
    'django.contrib.admin',
    'django.contrib.auth',
    'api',
]

The model:

class User:

    class Meta:
        app_label = "myapp"

And when I run any manage.py command, for example

python manage.py showmigrations

I get this error:

LookupError: No installed app with label 'myapp'.

The problem solution would be renaming api folder to myapp, which I cannot do due to some restrictions on model names.

Or setting AUTH_USER_MODEL to api.User, but this will incur changing all data table names and those must remain the same

Data table names starting with 'myapp_' should not change

I don't understand why you have put "myapp.User" rather than "api.User", if the model is in the api app. — Daniel Roseman, May 04 '18 at 16:28
@DanielRoseman I have reasons: If I change to "api.User" then I will need to update all migrations and change hence all the table names, which is not desirable on production. The problem is in migrations — Dmitry Dyachkov, May 04 '18 at 16:30
Also where is your `manage.py` or where is the root of your project? Is that `backend`? — trixn, May 04 '18 at 16:44
@trixn yes, backend is the root and `manage.py` is located in `backend` folder — Dmitry Dyachkov, May 04 '18 at 16:46

trixn · Answer 1 · 2018-05-04T17:06:33.810

3

Given your folder structure looks like that:

backend
└── api
|   ├── __init__.py
|   ├── apps.py
|   └── models
|       ├── __init__.py
|       └── user.py
├── manage.py
└── settings.py

then you can create an app config in backend/api/ by creating a file called apps.py inside it. There you can rename your app:

backend/api/apps.py:

from django.apps import AppConfig


class MyAppConfig(AppConfig):
    name = 'myapp'
    verbose_name = _('My App')

Also you need to add this to the __init__.py inside that folder:

backend/api/__init__.py:

default_app_config = 'api.apps.MyAppConfig'

Also if you want to use myapp.User as your user model you also have to import in in the models module:

backend/api/models/__init__.py:

from .user import User
# or use "from .user import *" to import everything but then make sure you have __all__ defined in user.py

edited May 04 '18 at 17:06

answered May 04 '18 at 16:36

trixn

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Yes, exactly the same folder structure – Dmitry Dyachkov May 04 '18 at 17:05
ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'myapp': apps.populate(settings.INSTALLED_APPS) -> app_config = AppConfig.create(entry) -> File "/Users/dmitri/Envs/chat3/lib/python3.6/site-packages/django/apps/config.py", line 142, in create app_module = import_module(app_name) – Dmitry Dyachkov May 04 '18 at 17:07
1

The solution was to change AppConfig.label in class MyAppConfig(AppConfig), so if you update your answer, I will accept it. Changing name ends in nothing, it must be the real name of the module the code sits in, but adding label = 'arbitrary_name' is actually the solution – Dmitry Dyachkov May 06 '18 at 07:44
I have anoter question related to `AUTH_USER_MODEL` but wasn't that big of a question to open a new question for it. Why don't we say `myApp.models.CustomUser` and say `myApp.CustomUser` instead? – Vahid Jan 14 '23 at 08:19

score 1 · Accepted Answer · answered Jul 19 '18 at 13:20

The solution was to change AppConfig.label in class MyAppConfig(AppConfig), so if you update your answer, I will accept it. Changing name ends in nothing, it must be the real name of the module the code sits in, but adding label = 'arbitrary_name' is actually the solution

Django settings.AUTH_USER_MODEL defined in separate module

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