Django custom management commands: AttributeError: 'module' object has no attribute 'Command' - django

Question

I am trying to make a custom management command as show in the docs here: https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/dev/howto/custom-management-commands/
When I try to run the command from my project directory I am experiencing the following error:
AttributeError: 'module' object has no attribute 'Command'
Here is the file:
#event_expiration.py
from django.core.management.base import BaseCommand, CommandError
from app.models import Event
import datetime
class Command(BaseCommand):
help = 'deletes expired events'
def handle(self, *args, **options):
today = datetime.datetime.now()
events = Event.objects.filter(date=datetime.date(2011,11,11))
for e in events:
e.delete()
self.stdout.write('Expired events successfully deleted.')
The command I am running is :
$ python manage.py event_expiration
I've made sure I am adding the event_expiration.py file within management and commands folders and that those folders have init files. those are in one of my app folders.
Am I overlooking something here? Any help is appreciated, thanks!
EDIT:
Fellow SO user Yuji helped me attempt to debug this a bit but we are still stumped. heres what we did:
First, the full traceback and command:
(venv)matt#inspirion14z:~/Dropbox/PROD/ersvp.it$ python manage.py event_expiration
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "manage.py", line 10, in <module>
execute_from_command_line(sys.argv)
File "/home/matt/Dropbox/PROD/ersvp.it/venv/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/django/core/management/__init__.py", line 443, in execute_from_command_line
utility.execute()
File "/home/matt/Dropbox/PROD/ersvp.it/venv/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/django/core/management/__init__.py", line 382, in execute
self.fetch_command(subcommand).run_from_argv(self.argv)
File "/home/matt/Dropbox/PROD/ersvp.it/venv/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/django/core/management/__init__.py", line 261, in fetch_command
klass = load_command_class(app_name, subcommand)
File "/home/matt/Dropbox/PROD/ersvp.it/venv/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/django/core/management/__init__.py", line 70, in load_command_class
return module.Command()
AttributeError: 'module' object has no attribute 'Command'
To see what was going on at django/core/management/init.py", line 70 I placed import pdb; pdb.set_trace() within the file.
While in debug mode we tried:
module.__file__
to check if the module was where expected, and it indeed was, with an output of:
'/home/matt/Dropbox/PROD/ersvp.it/app/management/commands/event_expiration.pyc'
Next, we tried manually importing Command in the shell:
>>> from app.management.commands.event_expiration import Command
Traceback (most recent call last): File "<console>", line 1, in <module> ImportError: cannot import name Command
Still scratching my head!

Answer 1

I ran into the same issue and the problem was that my command class wasn't called exactly Command, as the docs says. Example:
class Command(NoArgsCommand):
# Do something here

Answer 2

What is your file structure like? It should be like so:
app/
__init__.py
management/
__init__.py
commands/
__init__.py
event_expiration.py
If the structure is as above, try the following:
python manage.py shell
>>> from app.management.commands import event_expiration
>>> dir(event_expiration)
['Account', 'BaseCommand', 'Callback', 'Command', 'CommandError', 'Comment', 'Status', 'User', '__builtins__', '__doc__', '__file__', '__name__', '__package__', 'clean_phone_number', 'csv', 'models', 'os', 're']
I've listed the pure output of running dir on a management command of my own. Give that a try, and report back what is available to the module. You might find yourself getting an error at this point, which may help diagnose. I'm suspecting a problem with importing django itself. I'm guessing the python manage.py shell will fail, which will mean it's not a problem with your command, but a problem with the project.
Edit 2:
The fact that check_expiration was visible in your dir output supports my theory that the folder structure is amiss in someway. Unless there's specifically a function named that within your module.
Please do the following and show the output:
cd /path/to/app/
find .
Also, show the entire contents of your event_expiration.py file, and the contents of your management/commands/__init__.py file. Be wary of spaces mixed with tabs as whitespace also.

Answer 3

Printing a queryset directly will also cause this error. For instance, I was trying to do something like this (just testing, not a real use case):
def handle(self, *args, **options):
ppl = People.objects.all()
print(ppl)
Resolution:
def handle(self, *args, **options):
ppl = People.objects.all()
print(str(ppl)) # Convert queryset to string
Conclusion: What works in shell doesn't necessarily work in a management command. Would be nice if someone can point out why.

Answer 4

I got this error by importing the regular click module instead of djclick
my_module/management/commands/run_thing.py
# import click # causes the error because not setup like djclick is
import djclick as click
#click.command()
#click.option("--thing", required=True, prompt=True)
def command(thing):
print(f"hi: {thing}"
Example run:
./manage.py run_thing --thing 123
...
hi: 123