In Django loaddata it throws errors for json format but work properly for yaml format, why?

Question

In order to learn how to import initial data in database I created models as,

from django.db import models

class Person(models.Model):
    first_name = models.CharField(max_length=30)
    last_name = models.CharField(max_length=30)

after that, I use fixtures in .json format as given below,

[
    {
        "model": "myapp.person",
        "pk": 1,
        "fields": {
            "first_name": "John",
            "last_name": "Lennon"
        }
    },
    {
        "model": "myapp.person",
        "pk": 2,
        "fields": {
            "first_name": "Paul",
            "last_name": "McCartney"
        }
    }
]

It throws error on loaddata

File "C:\Python27\lib\site-packages\django\core\serializers\python.py", line 96, in Deserializer

Model = _get_model(d["model"])

django.core.serializers.base.DeserializationError: Problem installing fixture 'I:\DJANGO\library\myapp\fixtures
\bookdata.json': string indices must be integers

But when I use fixture in YAML format as given below,

- model: myapp.person
  pk: 1
  fields:
    first_name: John
    last_name: Lennon
- model: myapp.person
  pk: 2
  fields:
    first_name: Paul
    last_name: McCartney

It works like a charm.

Now I am confused what was wrong as whole things are just copied from their documentations. I am using windows 32bit, Django 1.9, python 2.7.

Answer 1

I've checked your code in linux mint/django 1.9/python 2.7 and it works fine.

I think the problem may be the codification you have used in your files. Please make sure that the json file uses UTF-8 codification and be careful not to use BOM. Notepad++ editor can determine if the file includes a BOM and remove it.