Connector/Python 1.1.1 and up includes a mysql.connector.django module that provides a Django backend for MySQL. This backend supports new features found in 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 backend, the example found in the Django manual can be used as a basis:

DATABASES = {
    'default': {
        'NAME': 'user_data',
        'ENGINE': 'mysql.connector.django',
        'USER': 'mysql_user',
        'PASSWORD': 'priv4te',
        'OPTIONS': {
          'autocommit': True,
        },
    }
}

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 backend 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.

Django Unit Testing

Django comes with an extensive set of unit tests. To run these, use the run_django_tests.py script located in the Connector/Python distribution support/django directory. For example, to run the basic tests using Django 1.5, run the following commands:

shell> cd support/django
shell> python run_django_tests.py --django 1.5 --tests basic

The script can be run using Python 2 or Python 3. It downloads Django, unpacks it and starts the tests. To avoid the download and use an already-fetched version, use the --offline option.

To see the script requirements, run it with the --help option, or examine the script itself. Here is an overview:

To alter the settings of the MySQL servers, modify the file test_mysqlconnector_settings.py, also located in the support/django directory.