Question

In my Django project I have a dependency for a third party application that produces SQLite cache files in various directories with a known schema.

I’d like to use Django models to access those databases, but obviously I cannot use a static DATABASES setup.

How can I dynamically open a SQLite database on an arbitrary path?

EDIT

As Byron Ruth pointed out, the solution is to use the django.db.connections in conjunction with the using function in the QuerySet.

Answer 1

The django.db.connections is a simple wrapper around DATABASES defined in your settings. The wrapper class is here:
django.db.utils#L137-L227

from django.db import connections

# Add connection information dynamically..
connections.databases['new-alias'] = { ... }
# Ensure the remaining default connection information is defined.
# EDIT: this is actually performed for you in the wrapper class __getitem__
# method.. although it may be good to do it when being initially setup to
# prevent runtime errors later.
# connections.databases.ensure_defaults('new-alias')

# Use the new connection
conn = connections['new-alias']