Question

I have 2 models for 2 different databases:
Databases were created manually but it should change nothing.

class LinkModel(models.Model): # in 'urls' database
    id = models.AutoField(primary_key=True)
    host_id = models.IntegerField()
    path = models.CharField(max_length=255)

    class Meta:
        db_table = 'links'
        app_label = 'testapp'

    def __unicode__(self):
        return self.path

class NewsModel(models.Model):  # in default database
    id = models.AutoField(primary_key=True)
    title = models.CharField(max_length=50)
    link = models.ForeignKey(LinkModel)

    class Meta:
        db_table = 'news'
        app_label = 'test'

    def __unicode__(self):
        return self.title

After the following code an error raises

newsItem, created = NewsModel.objects.get_or_create( title="test" )
link = LinkModel.objects.using('urls').get( id=1 )
newsItem.link = link  # error!

 Cannot assign "<LinkModel: />": instance is on database "default", value is on database "urls"

Why can’t I use foreign key and a model for different database?

Answer 1

Cross-database limitations

Django doesn’t currently provide any support for foreign key or many-to-many relationships spanning multiple databases. If you have used a router to partition models to different databases, any foreign key and many-to-many relationships defined by those models must be internal to a single database.

Django – limitations-of-multiple-databases

Trouble

Same trouble. Bug in ForeignKey() class.

In validate() method.

See ticket

Bug exists in v1.2, v1.3, v1.4rc1

Solution

Try this patch to solve it.