Always import your django settings this way!
from django.conf import settings
If you don’t, the settings won’t contain the default values.
Django settings documentation
Here’s the algorithm Django uses in compiling settings:
- Load settings from global_settings.py.
- Load settings from the specified settings file, overriding the global settings as necessary.
Links
http://docs.djangoproject.com/en/dev/topics/settings/#default-settings
http://code.djangoproject.com/browser/django/trunk/django/conf/__init__.py
