Change startproject template to use DJ_DATABASE_URL

[jfmatth]

Code of Conduct

• I agree to follow Django's Code of Conduct

Feature Description

I'd like to see if we can change the conf/project_template/settings.py-tpl file to utilize the DJ_DATABASE_URL module.

Currently, the DATABASES= definition looks like:

DATABASES = {
    'default': {
        'ENGINE': 'django.db.backends.sqlite3',
        'NAME': BASE_DIR / 'db.sqlite3',
    }
}

I'd like to see it changed to:

DATABASES = {
    'default': dj_database_url.config(
        default='sqlite:///' + (BASE_DIR / 'db.sqlite3').as_posix(),
        conn_max_age=600,
        conn_health_checks=True,
    )
}

This would default to SQLite3 like it does today, but if the DATABASE_URL is defined, use the DJ_DATABASE_URL module to connect to the desired database.

Problem

Reduces the complexity of different databases in different environments (dev, qa, prod)

Request or proposal

request

Additional Details

My first new-feature suggestion, happy to help where I can.

Implementation Suggestions

Not sure the process to change a startproject template, but seems pretty easy 😄

[github-actions]

Thank you jfmatth for sharing your idea! We have a lot of them so please be patient. You can see the current queue here.

Community instructions

For commenters, please use the emoji reactions on the issue to express support, and/or concern easily. Please use the comments to ask questions or contribute knowledge about the idea. It is unhelpful to post comments of "I'd love this" or "What's the state of this?"

Reaction Guide

• 👍 This is something I would use
• 👎 This is something that would cause problems for me or Django
• 😕 I’m indifferent to this
• 🎉 This is an easy win

[LilyFirefly]

I like database urls and often use them in my own Django projects, but adding them to the startproject template would also require adding support for database urls directly into Django or adding a new dependency, which makes this a fairly big change.

We have an accepted DEP (https://github.com/django/deps/blob/main/accepted/0015-extended-startproject.rst) for improvements around start-project. In the discussion of that DEP (django/deps#98 (comment)) we suggested making this pluggable with pluggy (see also #88). Once the new start project has landed in Django, I think a plugin that makes this change might make sense.

[jfmatth]

@LilyFirefly thank you for the (ultra) quick response to my request.

Both of those DEP's seem way more complicated than changing the template 🫤 but clearly you have a much better understanding of this whole process (seriously).

I think I'll just wait until the extended startproject comes out in some version of Django. I'm not a major user for now and can modify the template easily myself.

Thanks again for the quick response.