disable observer if it fails to import
diff --git a/planetstack/core/models/plcorebase.py b/planetstack/core/models/plcorebase.py
index 8c5bddc..7251a81 100644
--- a/planetstack/core/models/plcorebase.py
+++ b/planetstack/core/models/plcorebase.py
@@ -3,8 +3,18 @@
from django.forms.models import model_to_dict
from django.core.urlresolvers import reverse
from django.forms.models import model_to_dict
-# This is a no-op if observer_disabled is set to 1 in the config file
-from observer import *
+
+try:
+ # This is a no-op if observer_disabled is set to 1 in the config file
+ from observer import *
+except:
+ print "import of observer failed! printing traceback and disabling observer:"
+ import traceback
+ traceback.print_exc()
+
+ # guard against something failing
+ def notify_observer():
+ pass
class PlCoreBase(models.Model):