django - ImproperlyConfigured: The included urlconf <project>.urls doesn't have any patterns in it

Question

I have a django (1.6.x) project that runs fine with the dev server, but is failing under Apache2 (2.2.22.1) and mod_wsgi (3.3-4) on Ubuntu 12.04.3 with the error

ImproperlyConfigured: The included urlconf erp.urls doesn't have any patterns in it

I don't understand why it would work with the dev server but not Apache2/mod_wsgi and I'm finding it difficult to track down where the error is coming from.

There are a number of other SO questions similar, but the only place I use reverse (one problem previously found) is in get_absolute_url in my models - this should be fine?

The project is set up a la Two Scoops style, in particular the layout is:

<repository_root>/<django_project_root>/<configuration_root>/

which translates to:

erp_root/erp/erp/

and the settings are

erp_root/erp/erp/settings/*py (including the __init__.py)

erp/urls.py;

from django.conf import settings
from django.conf.urls import patterns, include, url
from django.contrib import admin
admin.autodiscover()

urlpatterns = patterns('',
    url(r'^$', 'django.contrib.auth.views.login', {'template_name': 'login.html'}),
    url(r'^admin/', include(admin.site.urls)),
    url(r'^login/$', 'django.contrib.auth.views.login', {'template_name': 'login.html'}, name='login'),
    url(r'^logout/$', 'django.contrib.auth.views.logout_then_login', {}, name='logout'),
    url(r'^search/', include('haystack.urls')),
    url(r'^inventory/', include('inventory.urls')),
)

if settings.DEBUG:
    import debug_toolbar
    urlpatterns += patterns('',
    url(r'^__debug__/', include(debug_toolbar.urls)),
)

and inventory/urls.py:

from django.conf.urls import url, patterns
from .forms import CarrierWizardForm1, CarrierWizardForm2, MovementWizardForm1,MovementWizardForm2
from . import views

carrier_wizard_forms = [CarrierWizardForm1, CarrierWizardForm2]
movement_wizard_forms = [MovementWizardForm1, MovementWizardForm2]

urlpatterns = patterns('',
    url(r'^$', views.PartNumberListView.as_view(), name='inventory_list_index'),
    url(r'^parttype/$', views.part_type_list, name='index'),
    url(r'^parttype/(?P<parttype>d{2})/$', views.part_type_view, name='part_type_view'),
    url(r'^partnumber/$', views.PartNumberListView.as_view(), name='partnumber_list'),
    url(r'^partnumber/add/$', views.PartNumberCreateView.as_view(), name='partnumber_add'),
    url(r'^partnumber/(?P<slug>[-w]+)/$', views.PartNumberView.as_view(), name='partnumber_view'),
    url(r'^partnumber/(?P<slug>[-w]+)/update/$', views.PartNumberUpdateView.as_view(), name='partnumber_update'),
    url(r'^partnumber/(?P<slug>[-w]+)/delete/$', views.PartNumberDeleteView.as_view(), name='partnumber_delete'),
    ....
       )

and erp/settings/dev.py:

# Django settings for erp project.
# settings.py

from unipath import Path

PROJECT_DIR = Path(__file__).ancestor(3)
MEDIA_ROOT = PROJECT_DIR.child("media")
STATIC_ROOT = PROJECT_DIR.child("static")
STATICFILES_DIRS = (
  PROJECT_DIR.child("assets"),
)
TEMPLATE_DIRS = (
  PROJECT_DIR.child("templates"),
)


DEBUG = True
TEMPLATE_DEBUG = DEBUG

TIME_ZONE = 'Australia/Melbourne'
LANGUAGE_CODE = 'en-au'
SITE_ID = 1
USE_TZ = True

DATE_FORMAT = 'd/m/y'
SHORT_DATE_FORMAT = 'd/m/y'

# URL that handles the media served from MEDIA_ROOT. Make sure to use a
# trailing slash.
# Examples: "http://example.com/media/", "http://media.example.com/"
MEDIA_URL = ''

# Absolute path to the directory static files should be collected to.
# Don't put anything in this directory yourself; store your static files
# in apps' "static/" subdirectories and in STATICFILES_DIRS.
# Example: "/var/www/example.com/static/"
STATIC_ROOT = ''

# URL prefix for static files.
# Example: "http://example.com/static/", "http://static.example.com/"
STATIC_URL = '/static/'

STATICFILES_FINDERS = (
    'django.contrib.staticfiles.finders.FileSystemFinder',
    'django.contrib.staticfiles.finders.AppDirectoriesFinder',
)

# List of callables that know how to import templates from various sources.
TEMPLATE_LOADERS = (
    'django.template.loaders.filesystem.Loader',
    'django.template.loaders.app_directories.Loader',
)

MIDDLEWARE_CLASSES = (
    'debug_toolbar.middleware.DebugToolbarMiddleware',
    'django.middleware.common.CommonMiddleware',
    'django.contrib.sessions.middleware.SessionMiddleware',
    'django.middleware.csrf.CsrfViewMiddleware',
    'django.contrib.auth.middleware.AuthenticationMiddleware',
    'django.contrib.messages.middleware.MessageMiddleware',
    'stronghold.middleware.LoginRequiredMiddleware',
    'django.middleware.clickjacking.XFrameOptionsMiddleware',
)

ROOT_URLCONF = 'erp.urls'

# Python dotted path to the WSGI application used by Django's runserver.
WSGI_APPLICATION = 'erp.wsgi.application'


INSTALLED_APPS = (
    'django.contrib.auth',
    'django.contrib.contenttypes',
    'django.contrib.sessions',
    'django.contrib.sites',
    'django.contrib.messages',
    'django.contrib.staticfiles',
    'django.contrib.admin',
    'django.contrib.formtools',
    'django.contrib.humanize',
    'inventory',
    'django_extensions',
    'extra_views',
    'debug_toolbar',
    'django_tables2',
    'stronghold',
    'bootstrap3',
    'haystack',
)

LOGIN_URL = '/login'
LOGOUT_URL = '/logout'

# For Stronghold
STRONGHOLD_PUBLIC_NAMED_URLS = (
    'login',
    'logout',
)

# This is required by the debug toolbar middleware
INTERNAL_IPS = ('192.168.0.16','0.0.0.0','127.0.0.1','::1', '192.168.0.115')

# This is reqquired by django_tables2
TEMPLATE_CONTEXT_PROCESSORS = ("django.contrib.auth.context_processors.auth",
                           "django.core.context_processors.debug",
                           "django.core.context_processors.i18n",
                           "django.core.context_processors.media",
                           "django.core.context_processors.static",
                           "django.core.context_processors.tz",
                           "django.contrib.messages.context_processors.messages",
                           "django.core.context_processors.request"
                          )
}

LOGIN_REDIRECT_URL = '/inventory/'

DEBUG_TOOLBAR_PANELS = [
'debug_toolbar.panels.versions.VersionsPanel',
'debug_toolbar.panels.timer.TimerPanel',
'debug_toolbar.panels.settings.SettingsPanel',
'debug_toolbar.panels.headers.HeadersPanel',
'debug_toolbar.panels.request.RequestPanel',
'debug_toolbar.panels.sql.SQLPanel',
'debug_toolbar.panels.staticfiles.StaticFilesPanel',
'debug_toolbar.panels.templates.TemplatesPanel',
'debug_toolbar.panels.cache.CachePanel',
'debug_toolbar.panels.signals.SignalsPanel',
'debug_toolbar.panels.logging.LoggingPanel',
]

def show_toolbar(request):
    return True  # Always show toolbar, for example purposes only.

DEBUG_TOOLBAR_CONFIG = {
'INTERCEPT_REDIRECTS': False,
'INSERT_BEFORE': '</body>',
'ENABLE_STACKTRACES': True,
}

# This is required for Haystack - the search engine
HAYSTACK_CONNECTIONS = {
      'default': {
    'ENGINE': 'haystack.backends.solr_backend.SolrEngine',
    'URL': 'http://127.0.0.1:8085/solr/erp',
  },
}

My wsgi is the standard with minor settings mod:

import os
os.environ.setdefault("DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE", "erp.settings.settings")
from django.core.wsgi import get_wsgi_application
application = get_wsgi_application()

My apache2/sites-avail/erp.conf is:

<VirtualHost *:80>
   ServerName deverp
   ServerAdmin administrator
   DocumentRoot /path/www/dev/erp/erp/
   ErrorLog /var/log/apache2/dev/error.log
   CustomLog /var/log/apache2/dev/access.log combined
   WSGIDaemonProcess deverp python-path=/path/www/dev/erp/erp:/path/.virtualenvs/erp-dev/lib/python2.7/site-packages
   WSGIProcessGroup deverp
   WSGIScriptAlias / /path/www/dev/erp/erp/erp/wsgi.py
  <Directory /path/www/dev/erp/erp/erp>
  <Files wsgi.py>
    Order deny,allow
    Allow from all
  </Files>
  </Directory>
</VirtualHost>

Answer 1

So, I actually ran into a similar problem. Coincidentally after you posted in the issues for django-stronghold. The issue is in fact due to a missing setting in django-debug-toolbar.

The setting you are missing is:

DEBUG_TOOLBAR_PATCH_SETTINGS = False 

It will work with runserver, but if you try to run it with honcho, or gunicorn, or anything else that uses the WSGI interface it blows up.

Hope this helps!

EDIT: as mentioned below by @japhyr, its useful to check out the explicit setup instructions: http://django-debug-toolbar.readthedocs.org/en/1.0/installation.html#explicit-setup