django - settings.DATABASES is improperly configured -

total newbie here, sorry

• mac osx 10.8 python 2.7 (installed homebrew)
  • postgresql 9.4(installed homebrew)
  • psycopg2 2.5 (installed macports)
  • django 1.0.4 (installed via python setup.py install)

i'm using this tutorial, , after starting python manage.py shell ran

>>> django.db import connection >>> cursor = connection.cursor() 

and got following:

traceback (most recent call last):   file "<console>", line 1, in <module>   file "/library/frameworks/python.framework/versions/2.7/lib/python2.7/site-packages/django/db/backends/dummy/base.py", line 15, in complain     raise improperlyconfigured("settings.databases improperly configured. " improperlyconfigured: settings.databases improperly configured. please supply engine value. check settings documentation more details. 

the databases section of settings.py file looks this:

database_engine = 'django.db.backends.postgresql_psycopg2'  #postgresql_psycopg2            database_name = 'mydatabase'                      #mydatabase database_user = 'sarahr6'             # not used sqlite3. database_password = ''         # not used sqlite3. database_host = ''             # set empty string localhost. not used sqlite3. database_port = ''             # set empty string default. not used sqlite3. 

so can't figure out why says it's improperly configured?

you need specify databases dictionary in settings.py:

a dictionary containing settings databases used django. nested dictionary contents maps database aliases dictionary containing options individual database.

databases = {     'default': {         'engine': 'django.db.backends.postgresql_psycopg2',         'name': 'mydatabase',         'user': 'sarahr6',         'password': '',         'host': '',         'port': ''     } }