How to create a new Django app for a cookiecutter-django based project

[CurtMRosenbladWheeler]

Django 4.2.1 with django-cookiecutter 2023.05.09: makemigrations doesn't create migration file for new model

I'm using Django 4.2.1 with the latest version of django-cookiecutter (2023.05.09) on MacOS Ventura 13.3.1, and I'm having trouble getting the makemigrations command to create a migration file for a new model I've added to my Django project.

Here's what I've done thus far:

I added the new model to my models.py file in my app directory:

from django.db import models

class TestModel(models.Model):
    name = models.CharField(max_length=50)

I created an empty migration file for the app with the makemigrations command:

python manage.py makemigrations myapp --empty

I ran the makemigrations command again to create a migration for the new model, but it didn't create a new migration file:

python manage.py makemigrations

I've double-checked that the TestModel app is included in my INSTALLED_APPS list in my settings.py file, and I've checked that there are no syntax errors in my models.py file.

I've also tried running the check command to see if there are any issues with my code, but it doesn't show any problems:

python manage.py check

I've also tried running the makemigrations command with the --verbosity 3 option to get more detailed output, but it doesn't show any errors or warnings related to the TestModel app.

I've also checked that the migration file has the correct name and is located in the correct directory. The migration file is named 0001_initial.py and is located in the myapp/migrations/ directory.

This is what my directory tree looks like:

└─ base
   ├─ .dockerignore
   ├─ .editorconfig
   ├─ .envs
   │  ├─ .local
   │  │  ├─ .django
   │  │  └─ .postgres
   │  └─ .production
   │     ├─ .django
   │     └─ .postgres
   ├─ .pre-commit-config.yaml
   ├─ .readthedocs.yml
   ├─ CONTRIBUTORS.txt
   ├─ LICENSE
   ├─ MailHog
   ├─ README.md
   ├─ SECURITY.md
   ├─ base
   │  ├─ __init__.py
   │  ├─ conftest.py
   │  ├─ contrib
   │  │  ├─ __init__.py
   │  │  └─ sites
   │  │     ├─ __init__.py
   │  │     └─ migrations
   │  │        ├─ 0001_initial.py
   │  │        ├─ 0002_alter_domain_unique.py
   │  │        ├─ 0003_set_site_domain_and_name.py
   │  │        ├─ 0004_alter_options_ordering_domain.py
   │  │        ├─ __init__.py
   │  ├─ media
   │  ├─ static
   │  │  ├─ css
   │  │  ├─ fonts
   │  │  ├─ images
   │  │  ├─ js
   │  │  ├─ sass
   │  │  └─ webpack_bundles
   │  ├─ templates
   │  │  ├─ 403.html
   │  │  ├─ 404.html
   │  │  ├─ 500.html
   │  │  ├─ account
   │  │  │  ├─ account_inactive.html
   │  │  │  ├─ base.html
   │  │  │  ├─ email.html
   │  │  │  ├─ email_confirm.html
   │  │  │  ├─ login.html
   │  │  │  ├─ logout.html
   │  │  │  ├─ password_change.html
   │  │  │  ├─ password_reset.html
   │  │  │  ├─ password_reset_done.html
   │  │  │  ├─ password_reset_from_key.html
   │  │  │  ├─ password_reset_from_key_done.html
   │  │  │  ├─ password_set.html
   │  │  │  ├─ signup.html
   │  │  │  ├─ signup_closed.html
   │  │  │  ├─ verification_sent.html
   │  │  │  └─ verified_email_required.html
   │  │  ├─ base.html
   │  │  ├─ pages
   │  │  │  ├─ about.html
   │  │  │  └─ home.html
   │  │  └─ users
   │  │     ├─ user_detail.html
   │  │     └─ user_form.html
   │  ├─ users
   │  │  ├─ __init__.py
   │  │  ├─ adapters.py
   │  │  ├─ admin.py
   │  │  ├─ api
   │  │  ├─ apps.py
   │  │  ├─ context_processors.py
   │  │  ├─ forms.py
   │  │  ├─ managers.py
   │  │  ├─ migrations
   │  │  │  ├─ 0001_initial.py
   │  │  │  ├─ __init__.py
   │  │  ├─ models.py
   │  │  ├─ tasks.py
   │  │  ├─ urls.py
   │  │  └─ views.py
   │  ├─ utils
   │  │  ├─ __init__.py
   │  │  └─ storages.py
   │  └─ website
   │     ├─ __init__.py
   │     ├─ __pycache__
   │     ├─ admin.py
   │     ├─ apps.py
   │     ├─ migrations
   │     │  ├─ 0001_initial.py
   │     │  ├─ __init__.py
   │     ├─ models
   │     │  ├─ __init__.py
   │     ├─ models.py
   │     ├─ tests.py
   │     ├─ urls.py
   │     └─ views.py
   ├─ config
   │  ├─ __init__.py
   │  ├─ api_router.py
   │  ├─ asgi.py
   │  ├─ celery_app.py
   │  ├─ settings
   │  │  ├─ __init__.py
   │  │  ├─ base.py
   │  │  ├─ local.py
   │  │  ├─ production.py
   │  │  └─ test.py
   │  ├─ urls.py
   │  ├─ websocket.py
   │  └─ wsgi.py
   ├─ docs
   ├─ dump.rdb
   ├─ local.yml
   ├─ locale
   │  └─ README.rst
   ├─ manage.py
   ├─ merge_production_dotenvs_in_dotenv.py
   ├─ package-lock.json
   ├─ package.json
   ├─ production.yml
   ├─ pyproject.toml
   ├─ requirements
   ├─ setup.cfg
   ├─ staticfiles
   ├─ tests
   ├─ webpack
   └─ webpack-stats.json

What could be causing makemigrations to not create a migration file for my new model? Are there any additional steps I can take to diagnose the problem? Any help would be appreciated!

[luzfcb]

Hello @CurtMRosenblad , this is the step by step of creating a new app in a project that was created using cookiecutter-django.
Try to use this way and let me know if the step-by-step solves the problem or not.

How to create a new django app for a cookiecutter-django based project:

1 - create the <name-of-the-app> app with python manage.py startapp <name-of-the-app>

2 - move <name-of-the-app> directory to <project_slug> directory

3 - edit <project_slug>/<name-of-the-app>/apps.py and
change name = "<name-of-the-app>" to name = "<project_slug>.<name-of-the-app>"

4 - add "<project_slug>.<name-of-the-app>, on your LOCAL_APPS on config/settings/base.py

[abe-101]

May I suggest this be added to the projects documentation?

[abe-101]

#4944