Allow for less configuration. Thanks to jeromer & cyberdelia for the reports!

Author: toastdriven

haystack/__init__.py

@@ -34,9 +34,6 @@
     raise ImproperlyConfigured('The HAYSTACK_CONNECTIONS setting is required.')
 if DEFAULT_ALIAS not in settings.HAYSTACK_CONNECTIONS:
     raise ImproperlyConfigured("The default alias '%s' must be included in the HAYSTACK_CONNECTIONS setting." % DEFAULT_ALIAS)
-for alias, connection in settings.HAYSTACK_CONNECTIONS.items():
-    if 'ENGINE' not in connection:
-        raise ImproperlyConfigured("You must specify a 'ENGINE' for connection '%s'" % alias)
 
 # Load the connections.
 connections = loading.ConnectionHandler(settings.HAYSTACK_CONNECTIONS)

haystack/utils/loading.py

@@ -82,13 +82,20 @@ def __init__(self, connections_info):
         self._connections = {}
         self._index = None
 
+    def ensure_defaults(self, alias):
+        try:
+            conn = self.connections_info[alias]
+        except KeyError:
+            raise ImproperlyConfigured("The key '%s' isn't an available connection." % alias)
+
+        if not conn.get('ENGINE'):
+            conn['ENGINE'] = 'haystack.backends.simple_backend.SimpleEngine'
+
     def __getitem__(self, key):
         if key in self._connections:
             return self._connections[key]
 
-        if not key in self.connections_info:
-            raise ImproperlyConfigured("The key '%s' isn't an available connection." % key)
-        
+        self.ensure_defaults(key)
         self._connections[key] = load_backend(self.connections_info[key]['ENGINE'])(using=key)
         return self._connections[key]