9.6 Connector/Python Django Back End

Connector/Python includes a mysql.connector.django module that provides a Django back end for MySQL. This back end supports new features found as of MySQL 5.6 such as fractional seconds support for temporal data types.

Django Configuration

Django uses a configuration file named settings.py that contains a variable called DATABASES (see https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/1.5/ref/settings/#std:setting-DATABASES). To configure Django to use Connector/Python as the MySQL back end, the example found in the Django manual can be used as a basis:

DATABASES = {
    'default': {
        'NAME': 'user_data',
        'ENGINE': 'mysql.connector.django',
        'HOST': '127.0.0.1',
        'PORT': 3306,
        'USER': 'mysql_user',
        'PASSWORD': 'password',
        'OPTIONS': {
          'autocommit': True,
          'use_oure': True,
          'init_command': "SET foo='bar';"
        },
    }
}

It is possible to add more connection arguments using OPTIONS.

Support for MySQL Features

Django can launch the MySQL client application mysql. When the Connector/Python back end does this, it arranges for the sql_mode system variable to be set to TRADITIONAL at startup.

Some MySQL features are enabled depending on the server version. For example, support for fractional seconds precision is enabled when connecting to a server from MySQL 5.6.4 or higher. Django's DateTimeField is stored in a MySQL column defined as DATETIME(6), and TimeField is stored as TIME(6). For more information about fractional seconds support, see Fractional Seconds in Time Values.

Using a custom class for data type conversation is supported as a subclass of mysql.connector.django.base.DjangoMySQLConverter. This support was added in Connector/Python 8.0.29.