ImportError After Moving App to Nested Folder

Question

My application was working fine when I wanted to see whether I could organize my project in a better way. I read through this tutorial on structuring a django project.

Before my project structure was as follows:

• camucamu
  • books
    • admin.py
    • models.py
    • views.py
    • __init__.py
  • static
  • templates
  • urls.py
  • views.py
  • settings.py
  • wsgi.py
  • __init__.py

What I wanted to do was move the books app into an apps folder. Thus I did that and changed the project structure to the following:

• camucamu
  • apps
    • books
      • admin.py
      • models.py
      • views.py
      • __init__.py
  • static
  • templates
  • urls.py
  • views.py
  • settings.py
  • wsgi.py
  • __init__.py

I then changed the imports in views.py and admin.py from books.models to apps.books.models. I also changed INSTALLED_APPS in settings.py from books to apps.books.

When I then tried to run syncdb, I get the following error:

raise ImproperlyConfigured('ImportError %s: %s' % (app, e.args[0]))
django.core.exceptions.ImproperlyConfigured: ImportError apps.books: No module named apps.books

What am I messing up here so it can't find my app anymore?

Answer 1

Your apps folder does not have an __init__.py file so it cannot be recognized as a python module

Answer 2

I got the same error, following the same guide, as the last point of the following list was not cited. Make sure you performed the following changes:

• Create a blank __init__.py file inside the apps folder (needed for python to recognize it as a package)

• Update the import statements wherever you refer to an external app:

  from projectname.apps.appname.models import YourModel, YourOtherModel
  

• Inside settings.py edit INSTALLED_APPS such that it looks like this:

  INSTALLED_APPS = (
  
      ...
  
      # apps
      'projectname.apps.appname1',
      'projectname.apps.appname2',
  )
  

• This one is not specified in the guide: In all your urls.py files, update the urlpatterns!

  BEFORE:

  # client views
  urlpatterns += patterns('appname',
      ...
  )
  

  AFTER:

  # client views
  urlpatterns += patterns('projectname.apps.appname',
      ...
  )
  

• Finally remember to update your changes by calling python manage.py syncdb

Hope that helped.