Unhelpful error message in case of unresolved string relation ('str' object has no attribute '_meta')

[alex@…]

imagine the following model:

class Test(models.model):
   rel = models.ForeignKey("bleh")

if the relation is not resolvable, in case of a typo or if it's in a different file, the user gets a rather unhelpful exception:

Unhandled exception in thread started by <function inner_run at 0x2af9aa4e9668>
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/home/alex/source/svn/django/django/core/management.py", line 1108, in inner_run
    validate()
  File "/home/alex/source/svn/django/django/core/management.py", line 1070, in validate
    num_errors = get_validation_errors(outfile)
  File "/home/alex/source/svn/django/django/core/management.py", line 936, in get_validation_errors
    for r in rel_opts.get_all_related_objects():
  File "/home/alex/source/svn/django/django/db/models/options.py", line 127, in get_all_related_objects
    if f.rel and self == f.rel.to._meta:
AttributeError: 'str' object has no attribute '_meta'

a quick hacky fix is attached, but i guess it should be done in django.core.management.validate

[alex@…]

quick hack

[Chris Beaven]

Thanks Alex for reporting the issue and providing a starting patch.

[anonymous]

This might be related if not a duplicate of #1662.

[Adam Vollrath]

similar hackish fix for ManyToManyField

[Adam Vollrath]

I've also encountered this, but with ManyToManyField, and I think that this may describe the root problem of #5311 (see my discussion there)
I've attached a hackish fix that helped my problem.

[Gregor_Kopka]

Added a patch wich fixes this without (hopefully) being hackish.
Validation error will be given now as intended - crash with traceback is gone now.

[Gregor_Kopka]

Patch updated: fixed the error message to display the correct name of missing model

[shaleh]

update to the recent patch, adds tests keeps the behavior consistent

[shaleh]

my patch adds tests

[Malcolm Tredinnick]

Fixed in [6835].