MySQL: Using MySQL with Django

This documentation is part of the Getting started guide. View the full guide here: How to get started with MySQL.

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If you have not installed the mysqlclient module yet, you can do so with:

pip install mysqlclient

If you run into the Exception: Can not find valid pkg-config name error during installation, you might need to add the libmysqlclient package. On Ubuntu/Debian, this can be done with: apt-get update && apt-get install --no-install-recommends -y libmysqlclient-dev

Initially, you may want to test your connection by storing the password directly in your settings.py file. For long-term security, however, it is best to use environment variables (see below).

Edit your settings.py like this:

DATABASES = {
  'default': {
    'ENGINE': 'django.db.backends.mysql',
    'HOST': '<XXXXXX>.stackhero-network.com',
    'PORT': '<PORT>',
    'OPTIONS': {
      'ssl_mode': 'REQUIRED',
    },
    'NAME': 'root',
    'USER': 'root',
    'PASSWORD': '<ROOT_PASSWORD>'
  }
}

Please note: This example is for testing only and not recommended for production environments!

After confirming your connection works, you can switch to a more secure approach using django-environ to manage environment variables.

First, install the package:

pip install django-environ

Then, update your settings.py:

import environ
env = environ.Env()
environ.Env.read_env()

DATABASES = {
  'default': {
    'ENGINE': 'django.db.backends.mysql',
    'HOST': env('STACKHERO_MYSQL_HOST'),
    'PORT': env('STACKHERO_MYSQL_PORT'),
    'OPTIONS': {
      'ssl_mode': 'REQUIRED',
    },
    'NAME': 'root',
    'USER': 'root',
    'PASSWORD': env('STACKHERO_MYSQL_ROOT_PASSWORD')
  }
}

Create or edit the .env file in the same directory as settings.py and add:

STACKHERO_MYSQL_HOST=<XXXXXX>.stackhero-network.com
STACKHERO_MYSQL_PORT=<PORT>
STACKHERO_MYSQL_ROOT_PASSWORD=<ROOT_PASSWORD>

Finally, to keep your credentials safe, you can add .env to your .gitignore file:

echo ".env" >> .gitignore