dj-config-url is no longer maintained. I strongly recommend https://github.com/joke2k/django-environ.

This simple Django utility allows you to utilize 12factor inspired environment variables to configure your Django application.

This project has been forked from kennethreitz' dj-database-url and is fully compatible with it, so you can use this utility as a drop-in replacement.

Support currently exists for the following database engines: PostgreSQL, PostGIS, MySQL, MySQL (GIS) and SQLite.

You can also configure your CACHES configuration for the backends supported by the Django core: Database, dummy, file based, local memory as well as both Memcached backends.

Installation is simple:

$ pip install dj-config-url

Configure your database in settings.py from DATABASE_URL:

DATABASES = {'default': dj_config_url.config()}

Parse an arbitrary Database URL:

DATABASES = {'default': dj_config_url.parse('postgres://...')}

Configure your cache backend:

CACHES = {'default': dj_config_url.parse('memcache://...')}

Use a custom cache backend class:

CACHES = {'default': dj_config_url.parse('memcache://127.0.0.1:123?password=s3cr3t', 'redis_cache.cache.RedisCache')}

You may specify options for the cache backends as query parameters in the url, e.g.:

CACHES = {
    'default': dj_config_url.parse('filecache:///var/tmp/django_cache?timeout=60&max_entries=1000&cull_frequency=2'),
}

This will be equivalent of writing this in your settings.py:

CACHES = {
    'default': {
        'BACKEND': 'django.core.cache.backends.filebased.FileBasedCache',
        'LOCATION': '/var/tmp/django_cache',
        'TIMEOUT': 60,
        'OPTIONS': {
            'MAX_ENTRIES': 1000,
            'CULL_FREQUENCY': 2,
        }
    }
}