Django AUTHENTICATION_BACKENDS import error

Question

What is the proper way to import a custom backend in settings.py? I currently have the following in settings.py:

AUTHENTICATION_BACKENDS = ('apps.apployment_site.auth.CustomAuth')

where apployment_site is the app, auth is file name, and CustomAuth is the class name.

In my view, I get: ImportError: a doesn't look like a module path after I run the following code:

from django.contrib.auth import authenticate
from apployment_site import *
authenticate(username="username", password="password")

Here's my full settings.py:

"""Django settings for apployment project.

For more information on this file, see
https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/dev/topics/settings/

For the full list of settings and their values, see
https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/dev/ref/settings/
"""

# Build paths inside the project like this: os.path.join(BASE_DIR, ...)
import os
BASE_DIR = os.path.dirname(os.path.dirname(__file__))


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

# SECURITY WARNING: keep the secret key used in production secret!
SECRET_KEY = '3(a=jr=tfedkqzv3f=495%0$ygxjt332(=n0&h=e2bzh(i#r*j'

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

TEMPLATE_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',
    'apployment_site'
)

MIDDLEWARE_CLASSES = (
    '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',
)

AUTHENTICATION_BACKENDS = ('apps.apployment_site.auth.CustomAuth')

ROOT_URLCONF = 'apployment.urls'

WSGI_APPLICATION = 'apployment.wsgi.application'


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

DATABASES = {
    'default': {
        'ENGINE': 'django.db.backends.sqlite3',
        'NAME': os.path.join(BASE_DIR, 'db.sqlite3'),
    }
}

# Internationalization
# https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/dev/topics/i18n/

LANGUAGE_CODE = 'en-us'

TIME_ZONE = 'UTC'

USE_I18N = True

USE_L10N = True

USE_TZ = True


# Static files (CSS, JavaScript, Images)
# https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/dev/howto/static-files/

STATIC_URL = '/static/'

Answer 1

make sure it's a tuple:

AUTHENTICATION_BACKENDS = ('apps.apployment_site.auth.CustomAuth',)

note the comma at the end