Using Django database layer outside of Django?

For using Django ORM from other applications you need:

1) export DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE=dproj.settings

2) Add your Django app folder to the path (you can do it in the code of your non-django-app):

sys.path = sys.path + ['/path/to/your/app/']

3) If using SQLite, use the full path to the db file in settings.py:

DATABASE_NAME = '/path/to/your/app/base.db'

Update setup_environ is to be removed in django 1.6

If you’re able to import your settings.py file, then take a look at handy setup_environ command.

from django.core.management import setup_environ
from mysite import settings

setup_environ(settings)

#here you can do everything you could in your project

A final option no-one’s mentioned: a custom ./manage.py subcommand.

For django 1.5 on (multiple databases are supported) the DATABASE settings also changed.
You need to adapt the previous answer to …

settings.configure(
    DATABASES = { 'default': {
        'ENGINE': 'django.db.backends.postgresql_psycopg2',
        'NAME': 'db_name',
        'USER': 'db_usr',
        'PASSWORD': 'db_pass',
        'HOST': '',
        'PORT': '',
        }, },
    TIME_ZONE = 'Europe/Luxembourg'
)

For django 1.7, I used the following to get up and running.

settings.py:

from django.conf import settings
settings.configure(
    DATABASES={
        'default': {
            'ENGINE': 'django.db.backends.postgresql_psycopg2',
            'NAME': 'name',
            'USER': 'usr',
            'PASSWORD': 'secret',
            'HOST': '127.0.0.1',
            'PORT': '5432',
        },
    },
    TIME_ZONE='America/Montreal',
)

In the file containing the startup routine

import os
import django

import v10consolidator.settings
from myapp.models import *

os.environ.setdefault(
    "DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE",
    "myapp.settings"
)
django.setup()

import os, sys

BASE_DIR = os.path.dirname(os.path.dirname(os.path.abspath(__file__)))
os.environ.setdefault("DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE", "project_name.settings")
sys.path.append(os.path.abspath(os.path.join(BASE_DIR, os.pardir)))

from django.core.wsgi import get_wsgi_application
application = get_wsgi_application()

from app.models import MyModel

Based on the answer by Hai Hu, here is a working script, tested on Django 1.10 and 1.11.
I first import Django’s base apps because they are needed in many other apps.

import os
from django.conf import settings
from django.apps import apps

conf = {
    'INSTALLED_APPS': [
        'django.contrib.admin',
        'django.contrib.auth',
        'django.contrib.contenttypes',
        'django.contrib.messages',
        'django.contrib.sessions',
        'django.contrib.sitemaps',
        'django.contrib.sites',
        'django.contrib.staticfiles',
        '<your_app>',
    ],
    'DATABASES': {
        'default': {
            'ENGINE': os.environ.get('DB_ENGINE'),
            'NAME': os.environ.get('DB_NAME'),
            'USER': os.environ.get('DB_USER'),
            'PASSWORD': os.environ.get('DB_PASSWORD'),
            'HOST': os.environ.get('DB_HOST'),
            'PORT': os.environ.get('DB_PORT'),
        }
    },
    'TIME_ZONE': 'UTC'
}

settings.configure(**conf)
apps.populate(settings.INSTALLED_APPS)

<import your app models here>

Here is the code I use. Just replace your_project with your Django project name, yourApp with your Django app name, any_model with the model you want to use in models file and any_fild with the field you want to get from the database:

from django.conf import settings
import django

from your_project.settings import DATABASES, INSTALLED_APPS
settings.configure(DATABASES=DATABASES, INSTALLED_APPS=INSTALLED_APPS)
django.setup()

from yourApp.models import *
print(any_model.objects.all()[0].any_fild)

I was looking for answers for django 3.0 and none of the above method exactly worked for me.

I read the official docs at https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/3.0/topics/settings/ and this scripts worked for me.

Project Structure

mysite
    mysite
        ...
        settings.py
    db.sqlite3
    db_tasks.py
    manage.py
    polls

db_tasks.py:

import os
import django

os.environ['DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE'] = 'mysite.settings'
django.setup()

from polls.models import Question

print(Question.objects.all())
out: <QuerySet [<Question: WTU?]>

In Django >= V.3.2.3
Put the following before you model import

import os
import django

os.environ.setdefault(
    'DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE', 'mymodule.settings'
)
django.setup()
from app.models import MyModel

Then use your model as usual.

myitem = MyModel()
myitem.data = 'some data'
myitem.save()

Regards

for django 3+ :

#########################

directory and files structure:

–my_project

—-my_project > settings.py

—-myapps

##########################

import sys
sys.path.append("C:/Users/khder/Desktop/test/my_project") #append your main project directory path

import os
import django

#define your setting file as the following.
os.environ.setdefault(
    'DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE', 'my_project.settings'
)
django.setup()

from my_app.models import MyModel
qs = MyModel.objects.all()
print(qs)

note: for path always use slash ‘/’ not backslash ” even if you are using windows.

this is just example and change it based on your case/requirement.

i hope this helpful .
done.