Incompatible with custom user model with migrations

[mboldt]

Symptom: after upgrading from Django 1.7 to Django 1.8, when I run python manage.py test, it fails with:

  Creating tables...
    Creating table referrals_referral
    Creating table referrals_referralresponse
    Running deferred SQL...
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "manage.py", line 10, in <module>
    execute_from_command_line(sys.argv)
  File "/home/mboldt/projects/myphotographer/env/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/django/core/management/__init__.py", line 354, in execute_from_command_line
    utility.execute()
  File "/home/mboldt/projects/myphotographer/env/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/django/core/management/__init__.py", line 346, in execute
    self.fetch_command(subcommand).run_from_argv(self.argv)
  File "/home/mboldt/projects/myphotographer/env/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/django/core/management/commands/test.py", line 30, in run_from_argv
    super(Command, self).run_from_argv(argv)
  File "/home/mboldt/projects/myphotographer/env/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/django/core/management/base.py", line 394, in run_from_argv
    self.execute(*args, **cmd_options)
  File "/home/mboldt/projects/myphotographer/env/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/django/core/management/commands/test.py", line 74, in execute
    super(Command, self).execute(*args, **options)
  File "/home/mboldt/projects/myphotographer/env/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/django/core/management/base.py", line 445, in execute
    output = self.handle(*args, **options)
  File "/home/mboldt/projects/myphotographer/env/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/django/core/management/commands/test.py", line 90, in handle
    failures = test_runner.run_tests(test_labels)
  File "/home/mboldt/projects/myphotographer/env/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/django/test/runner.py", line 210, in run_tests
    old_config = self.setup_databases()
  File "/home/mboldt/projects/myphotographer/env/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/django/test/runner.py", line 166, in setup_databases
    **kwargs
  File "/home/mboldt/projects/myphotographer/env/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/django/test/runner.py", line 370, in setup_databases
    serialize=connection.settings_dict.get("TEST", {}).get("SERIALIZE", True),
  File "/home/mboldt/projects/myphotographer/env/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/django/db/backends/base/creation.py", line 368, in create_test_db
    test_flush=not keepdb,
  File "/home/mboldt/projects/myphotographer/env/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/django/core/management/__init__.py", line 120, in call_command
    return command.execute(*args, **defaults)
  File "/home/mboldt/projects/myphotographer/env/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/django/core/management/base.py", line 445, in execute
    output = self.handle(*args, **options)
  File "/home/mboldt/projects/myphotographer/env/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/django/core/management/commands/migrate.py", line 179, in handle
    created_models = self.sync_apps(connection, executor.loader.unmigrated_apps)
  File "/home/mboldt/projects/myphotographer/env/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/django/core/management/commands/migrate.py", line 318, in sync_apps
    cursor.execute(statement)
  File "/home/mboldt/projects/myphotographer/env/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/django/db/backends/utils.py", line 64, in execute
    return self.cursor.execute(sql, params)
  File "/home/mboldt/projects/myphotographer/env/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/django/db/utils.py", line 98, in __exit__
    six.reraise(dj_exc_type, dj_exc_value, traceback)
  File "/home/mboldt/projects/myphotographer/env/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/django/db/backends/utils.py", line 62, in execute
    return self.cursor.execute(sql)
django.db.utils.ProgrammingError: relation "email_username_customuser" does not exist

I believe this to be because pinax-referrals is an unmigrated app with a dependency on a migrated app (the custom user model). Do you agree this is an issue? Are there plans to add migrations to pinax-referrals to support this use case? If not, do you know a workaround?

[mboldt]

For what it's worth, I made the migrations with manage.py makemigrations referrals (which is not entirely obvious with the pinax parent package; Django seems inconsistent, sometimes requiring pinax.referrals, and in this case requiring just referrals).

[ossanna16]

@mboldt Awesome, I'm glad you figured out a solution! Would you mind sending a patch for this for our pinax-referrals docs? I think it would be really useful to others who might run into the same problem. It would be greatly appreciated! :)

[mboldt]

I hope to send a doc patch within the next week. (Sorry so slow to respond; I was on vacation.)

[ossanna16]

@mboldt No worries! Thank you so much 😊 Hope you had a great vacation!