How to use South to migrate models in a multiple databases Django project

Django 1.2 brings multiple databases handling through the use of database routers. The actual version of South (0.7.3) is not able to handle correctly multiple databases projects out of the box.

Here is a workaround: the idea is to create a new fake django project. And then to use South migration within this project.

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cd head_directory 
django-admin.py startproject my_south_db_project 
cd my_south_db_project 

Next,edit my_south_db_project/settings.py

we have to set the path correctly to south, to your app and to the corresponding database
The only installed apps should be South and your app

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import sys 
import os.path 

current_path = os.path.abspath(os.path.dirname(_ _file_ _)) 
head, tail = os.path.split(current_path) 
sys.path.append(os.path.join(head, "my_db_app_dir")) 
sys.path.append(os.path.join(head, "south_sdir")) 
dbpath = os.path.join(head, "my_initial_project_dir") 

DATABASES = { 
   'default': { 
       'ENGINE': 'django.db.backends.sqlite3', 
       'NAME' : os.path.join(dbpath,'my_db_app.sqlite'), 
       'USER': '', 
       'PASSWORD': '', 
       'HOST': '', 
       'PORT': '', 
   }, 
} 

INSTALLED_APPS = ( 'south', 'my_db_app',) 

Create south table in the new db

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./manage.py syncdb

Now you can work in this project to manage your apps related to this new db

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  manage.py convert_to_south my_db_app on other computers

  manage.py migrate my_db_app 0001 --fake modify models.py

  manage.py schemamigration my_db_app --auto manage.py migrate my_db_app 

As you can see, this way you keep the standard South workflow !

Edit: I use this line in the main project’s settings.py in order to be able to launch tests:

SOUTH_TESTS_MIGRATE = False