django-cms中settings.py文件位置及数据库连接方式咨询

Hey there! Let's start by clearing up a key confusion: django-cms isn't a standalone Django project—it's a reusable Django application that integrates into your existing Django project. That’s why you won’t find a settings.py file inside the django-cms package itself.

Where to Find settings.py #

The settings.py file belongs to your own Django project, not the django-cms library. Here’s how it works depending on your setup:

• If you used the official djangocms-installer tool to create a project with django-cms pre-configured, your settings.py lives in the root directory of the generated project (just like a standard Django project).
• If you added django-cms to an existing Django project manually, you’ll use the settings.py that’s already part of your project. You’ll just need to add django-cms and its dependencies to the INSTALLED_APPS list in this file.

How Database Connection Works #

Django-CMS doesn’t have its own separate database configuration—it fully reuses the database settings from your project’s settings.py. Here’s the breakdown:

1. Your project’s settings.py defines the database connection via the DATABASES dictionary (e.g., for PostgreSQL, MySQL, SQLite, etc.).
2. When you install django-cms and run python manage.py migrate, django-cms applies its own database migrations to your project’s database. This creates all necessary tables (like cms_page, cms_title, cms_plugin) that django-cms needs to store its content.
3. All django-cms data (pages, plugins, configurations) lives right alongside your project’s other data in the same database.

Quick Tip #

If you used djangocms-installer, it automatically populates your settings.py with all required django-cms configurations:

• Adds django-cms core apps (cms, treebeard, menus, etc.) to INSTALLED_APPS
• Updates MIDDLEWARE and TEMPLATES to include django-cms components
• Sets up required context processors and other CMS-specific settings

内容的提问来源于stack exchange，提问作者Siraj Alam