Encoding With 'idna' Codec Failed In RethinkDB

I have a flask app that runs and connects to a remote rethinkdb database on compose.io. The app is also deployed to pythonanywhere.com, but this deployment keeps throwing the follo

Solution 1:

The idna codec is attempting to convert your rethinkdb URL into an ascii-compatible equivalent string.

This worked for me:

"rethinkdb://user:password@aws-us-east-1-portal.1.dblayer.com:23232".encode("idna")

So my guess is that some character/sequence of characters in your username or password is causing the issue. Try the connection with a (possibly bogus) very simple password and see if you get the same issue.

Alternatively, you could do the encode in a Python shell with the connection string and gradually simplify it until you identify the problematic piece(s).