'str' object has no attribute 'resolve' when access admin site

Question

I keep getting this error: 'str' object has no attribute 'resolve'

when trying to accessing the django admin site and I can't figure out why. I have apps within my project that have their own admin.py files. Could this cause it? here is my urls.py:

from django.conf.urls.defaults import *
import settings
from django.contrib.auth.views import login, logout
from views import index, simple, complex
from django.views.generic.simple import direct_to_template

# Uncomment the next two lines to enable the admin:
from django.contrib import admin
admin.autodiscover()
urlpatterns = patterns('',
    # Example:
    # (r'^django_jchat/', include('django_jchat.foo.urls')),
    # Uncomment the admin/doc line below and add 'django.contrib.admindocs'
    # to INSTALLED_APPS to enable admin documentation:
     (r'^admin/doc/', include('django.contrib.admindocs.urls')),
    # Uncomment the next line to enable the admin:
    (r'^admin/', include(admin.site.urls)), 

...

Heres the trace back:

'str' object has no attribute 'resolve'
Request Method:         GET
Django Version:         1.3
Exception Type:         AttributeError
Exception Value:
'str' object has no attribute 'resolve'
Exception Location:     /home/dockedin/webapps/peebletalk/lib/python2.7/
django/core/urlresolvers.py in resolve, line 252
Python Executable:      /usr/local/bin/python
Python Version:         2.7.1
Python Path:
['/home/dockedin/webapps/peebletalk',
 '/home/dockedin/webapps/peebletalk/lib/python2.7',
 '/home/dockedin/lib/python2.7',
 '/usr/local/lib/python27.zip',
 '/usr/local/lib/python2.7',
 '/usr/local/lib/python2.7/plat-linux2',
 '/usr/local/lib/python2.7/lib-tk',
 '/usr/local/lib/python2.7/lib-old',
 '/usr/local/lib/python2.7/lib-dynload',
 '/usr/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages',
 '/usr/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/PIL']
Server time:    Wed, 10 Aug 2011 15:24:55 -0400
Traceback Switch to copy-and-paste view
    /home/dockedin/webapps/peebletalk/lib/python2.7/django/core/
handlers/base.py in get_response
                            response = middleware_method(request)
        ...
    ▶ Local vars
    /home/dockedin/webapps/peebletalk/lib/python2.7/django/middleware/
common.py in process_request
                    if (not _is_valid_path(request.path_info, urlconf)
and
          ...
    ▶ Local vars
    /home/dockedin/webapps/peebletalk/lib/python2.7/django/middleware/
common.py in _is_valid_path
                urlresolvers.resolve(path, urlconf)

        ...
    ▶ Local vars
    /home/dockedin/webapps/peebletalk/lib/python2.7/django/core/
urlresolvers.py in resolve
            return get_resolver(urlconf).resolve(path)
            ...
    ▶ Local vars
    /home/dockedin/webapps/peebletalk/lib/python2.7/django/core/
urlresolvers.py in resolve
            def resolve(self, path):
                tried = []
                match = self.regex.search(path)
                if match:
                    new_path = path[match.end():]
                    for pattern in self.url_patterns:
                        try:
                            sub_match = pattern.resolve(new_path)
        ...
                        except Resolver404, e:
                            sub_tried = e.args[0].get('tried')
                            if sub_tried is not None:
                                tried.extend([[pattern] + t for t in
sub_tried])
                            else:
                                tried.append([pattern]) 

Answer 1

According to excellent answer posted here: http://redsymbol.net/articles/django-attributeerror-str-object-no-attribute-resolve/

There are generally several sources of this error:

1. You missed 'pattern keyword':

   urlpatterns = ('',
   (r'^$', direct_to_template, {'template' : 'a.html'}),
   # ...
   

   this should be changed to:

   urlpatterns = patterns('',
   (r'^$', direct_to_template, {'template' : 'a.html'}),
   # ...
   

   Note that in Django 1.8+, it's better to use a list of regexes instead of patterns.

   urlpatterns = [
       (r'^$', direct_to_template, {'template' : 'a.html'}),
       ...
   ]
   

2. You missed a comma in some tuple, like:

   (r'^hello/$' 'views.whatever') 
   

3. You commented out some url()s using triple-quotes

4. You carelessly leave a closing bracket in the wrong place:

   (r'^(?P\d{4})/$', 'archive_year', entry_info_dict), 'coltrane_entry_archive_year',
   

   instead of:

   (r'^(?P\d{4})/$', 'archive_year', entry_info_dict, 'coltrane_entry_archive_year'),
   

5. You set ROOT_URLCONF to be a list

6. When migrating from the pattern tuples to a regular list you forgot to remove the empty '' argument of the pattern.

Please check carefully if you don't have one of this cases in your code.

Answer 2

For me, this caused the problem:

urlpatterns = patterns('',
    url(r'^all/$', 'album.views.albums'),
    """
    url(r'^create/$', 'album.views.create'),
    url(r'^get/(?P<album_id>\d+)/$', 'album.views.album'),
    url(r'^like/(?P<album_id>\d+)/$', 'album.views.like_album'),
"""
)

and this solved it:

urlpatterns = patterns('',
    url(r'^all/$', 'album.views.albums'),
)
"""
    url(r'^create/$', 'album.views.create'),
    url(r'^get/(?P<album_id>\d+)/$', 'album.views.album'),
    url(r'^like/(?P<album_id>\d+)/$', 'album.views.like_album'),
"""

I saw this possibility in a comment on http://redsymbol.net/articles/django-attributeerror-str-object-no-attribute-resolve/