Django + Mongoengine - DATABASES is improperly configured

[Giacomo_Carloni]

New to MongoDB, love it but I need some support with MongoEngine.

I am trying to connect my app to MongoDB as I want to implement a Mongo database. The application works fine with SQL3Lite and I was also able to use Djongo. Yet, I am planning to use MongoEngine models and therefore I am trying to use it as DB Engine.

However, for whatever reason I receive an error settings.

DATABASES is improperly configured. Please supply the ENGINE value. Check settings documentation for more details."

Here is what I did:

django-admin startproject projectname
python manage.py startapp appname

Models.py:

from django.db import models
from django.db.models.fields.related import ForeignKey
from django.db.models.query import EmptyQuerySet
from django.contrib.auth.models import User,AbstractUser, UserManager

import datetime

import mongoengine

# Create your models here.

class Project(mongoengine.Document):

projectName = mongoengine.StringField()

Settings.py

import os
from pathlib import Path


import mongoengine
mongoengine.connect(db="testdatabase", host="mongodb+srv://<Username>:<Password>@cluster0.qspqt0a.mongodb.net/?retryWrites=true&w=majority")

# Build paths inside the project like this: BASE_DIR / 'subdir'.
BASE_DIR = Path(__file__).resolve().parent.parent


# Quick-start development settings - unsuitable for production
# See https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/4.1/howto/deployment/checklist/

# SECURITY WARNING: keep the secret key used in production secret!
SECRET_KEY = secretKey

# SECURITY WARNING: don't run with debug turned on in production!
DEBUG = True

ALLOWED_HOSTS = []


# Application definition

INSTALLED_APPS = [
    'django.contrib.admin',
    'django.contrib.auth',
    'django.contrib.contenttypes',
    'django.contrib.sessions',
    'django.contrib.messages',
    'django.contrib.staticfiles',
    'rest_framework',
    'api'
]

MIDDLEWARE = [
    'django.middleware.security.SecurityMiddleware',
    'django.contrib.sessions.middleware.SessionMiddleware',
    'django.middleware.common.CommonMiddleware',
    'django.middleware.csrf.CsrfViewMiddleware',
    'django.contrib.auth.middleware.AuthenticationMiddleware',
    'django.contrib.messages.middleware.MessageMiddleware',
    'django.middleware.clickjacking.XFrameOptionsMiddleware',
]

ROOT_URLCONF = 'prodash.urls'

TEMPLATES = [
    {
        'BACKEND': 'django.template.backends.django.DjangoTemplates',
        'DIRS': [BASE_DIR / 'templates'],
        'APP_DIRS': True,
        'OPTIONS': {
            'context_processors': [
                'django.template.context_processors.debug',
                'django.template.context_processors.request',
                'django.contrib.auth.context_processors.auth',
                'django.contrib.messages.context_processors.messages',
            ],
        },
    },
]


   
    WSGI_APPLICATION = 'prodash.wsgi.application'


# Database
# https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/4.1/ref/settings/#databases

DATABASES = {
    'default': {
        'ENGINE': 'django.db.backends.dummy'
    }
}

At this point I receive always the same error if:

1. I create a superuser
2. I migrate data
3. I login into the app (All of the above work with SQL3Lite)

My pip list is:

asgiref             3.5.2
certifi             2022.6.15
charset-normalizer  2.1.1
Django              4.1
djangorestframework 3.13.1
dnspython           2.2.1
idna                3.3
mongoengine         0.24.2
pip                 22.2.2
pymongo             4.2.0
pytz                2022.2.1
requests            2.28.1
setuptools          63.4.3
sqlparse            0.4.2
urllib3             1.26.12

It might be a typo, but I can’t figure out what I am doing wrong. Please, help.