Django Web Framework Tutorials

Connect and Configure MongoDB in Django Project

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Django, a high-level Python web framework, is well-known for its robustness and versatility. While Django natively supports popular databases like PostgreSQL and MySQL, you may want to integrate a NoSQL database like MongoDB for specific use cases. MongoDB’s flexibility and scalability make it an excellent choice for handling unstructured data. In this blog, we will walk you through the process of connecting MongoDB to a Django project, enabling you to harness the power of NoSQL in your web applications.

Prerequisites:

Before we begin, ensure you have the following prerequisites in place:

  1. Django installed on your system.
  2. MongoDB database server installed and running.
  3. Basic familiarity with Django project structure and database concepts.
  4. Virtual Environment, this is optional but recommended. You check our blog here.

Note: For this tutorial, we are using our basic skeleton project for Django. You can also download the project from here.

Step 1: Install Required Packages – Djongo

Start by installing the necessary pkg to connect Django to MongoDB. We will use the “djongo” package, which acts as a bridge between Django and MongoDB:

pip install djongo

Step 2: Configure Mongo Database Settings

Open your Django project’s settings.py file (located inside the main project folder) and navgate to the DATABASES setting. Replace the default database configuration with the following code to use MongoDB:

DATABASES = {
    'default': {
        'ENGINE': 'djongo',
        'CLIENT': {
            'host': 'localhost', # Replace with your MongoDB server address
            'port': 27017,               # Replace with your MongoDB port if different
            'username': 'your_username', # Replace with your MongoDB username (optional)
            'password': 'your_password', # Replace with your MongoDB password (optional)
            'authSource': 'your_auth_database', # Replace with your MongoDB authentication database (optional)
        },
        'NAME': 'your_database_name',
    }
}

Ensure you replace 'your_mongodb_host', 'your_username', 'your_password', 'your_auth_database', and 'your_database_name' with the appropriate values for your MongoDB setup.

Step 3: Test the Connection

With the MongoDB configuration in place, it’s time to test the connection between Django and MongoDB. Start the Django development server:

python manage.py runserver

Visit http://127.0.0.1:8000/ in your web browser. If everything is correctly set up, you should see the Django default landing page.

As like in MySQL and PostgreSQL, you dont need migrate database while using mongo db in python.

Conclusion:

Congratulations! You have successfully connected MongoDB to your Django project, enabling you to harness the power of NoSQL in your web applications. MongoDB’s flexibility makes it an excellent choice for scenarios where unstructured data handling is required. With Django and MongoDB working together, you can build scalable and dynamic web applications tailored to your specific needs.

Always ensure the security of your database credentials, especially when deploying your application to production. For that read our Blog on How to Protect Sensitive Data in Python Projects like Django and Flask.

Find this Project on Github.

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