Error in django unittest while loading a fixture

Question

I am making unittests for a django app. I need some data in the database for my tests so I am using a json fixture.

I have two fixtures:

1. for users and it works ok.
2. for some webpages

The fixture 2 cause the following error:

Problem installing fixture 'C:\Users\luc\Dev\Hg\mnl-adminpub\website\fixtures\website-unittest.json': Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "C:\Python26\lib\site-packages\django\core\management\commands\loaddata.py", line 169, in handle
    obj.save(using=using)
  File "C:\Python26\lib\site-packages\django\core\serializers\base.py", line 165, in save
    models.Model.save_base(self.object, using=using, raw=True)
  File "C:\Python26\lib\site-packages\django\db\models\base.py", line 528, in save_base
    result = manager._insert(values, return_id=update_pk, using=using)
  File "C:\Python26\lib\site-packages\django\db\models\manager.py", line 195, in _insert
    return insert_query(self.model, values, **kwargs)
  File "C:\Python26\lib\site-packages\django\db\models\query.py", line 1479, in insert_query
    return query.get_compiler(using=using).execute_sql(return_id)
  File "C:\Python26\lib\site-packages\django\db\models\sql\compiler.py", line 783, in execute_sql
    cursor = super(SQLInsertCompiler, self).execute_sql(None)
  File "C:\Python26\lib\site-packages\django\db\models\sql\compiler.py", line 727, in execute_sql
    cursor.execute(sql, params)
  File "C:\Python26\lib\site-packages\django\db\backends\mysql\base.py", line 86, in execute
    return self.cursor.execute(query, args)
  File "C:\Python26\lib\site-packages\MySQLdb\cursors.py", line 173, in execute
    self.errorhandler(self, exc, value)
  File "C:\Python26\lib\site-packages\MySQLdb\connections.py", line 36, in defaulterrorhandler
    raise errorclass, errorvalue
OperationalError: (1366, "Incorrect string value: '\\xE2\\x80\\xA8<br...' for column 'html' at row 1")

I've created the fixture with dumpdata. I've tested it with loaddata and it works fine. I am using mysql.

Any idea of the possible cause of the problem?

Thanks for your help

Answer 1

You should use TEST_CHARSET, but inside DATABASE config. Like that:

DATABASES = {
      'default': {
        'ENGINE': 'django.db.backends.mysql',
        'NAME': 'test_sbet',                      
        'USER': 'test_sbet',                      
        'TEST_CHARSET': 'UTF8',
    }
}