make sure that the front page loads with an empty db

Lots of other things will probably break but at least you don't get
immediately presented with a 500 error

crowdsourcer/middleware.py

@@ -13,30 +13,36 @@ def __call__(self, request):
 
     def process_view(self, request, view_func, view_args, view_kwargs):
         session_name = view_kwargs.get("marking_session", None)
+
+        request.current_session = None
+        request.current_stage = None
+
         if session_name is not None:
             current_session = MarkingSession.objects.filter(
                 label=session_name, active=True
             ).first()
         else:
             current_session = MarkingSession.objects.filter(active=True).first()
 
-        current_stage = current_session.stage
-        if current_stage is None:
-            current_stage = ResponseType.objects.filter(type="First Mark").first()
+        if current_session is not None:
+            current_stage = current_session.stage
+            if current_stage is None:
+                current_stage = ResponseType.objects.filter(type="First Mark").first()
 
-        request.current_stage = current_stage
-        request.current_session = current_session
+            request.current_stage = current_stage
+            request.current_session = current_session
 
     def process_template_response(self, request, response):
         context = response.context_data
 
-        context["marking_session"] = request.current_session
-        context["sessions"] = MarkingSession.objects.filter(active=True)
-        context["brand"] = settings.BRAND
-        context[
-            "brand_include"
-        ] = f"crowdsourcer/cobrand/navbar_{context['brand']}.html"
+        if request.current_session is not None:
+            context["marking_session"] = request.current_session
+            context["sessions"] = MarkingSession.objects.filter(active=True)
+            context["brand"] = settings.BRAND
+            context[
+                "brand_include"
+            ] = f"crowdsourcer/cobrand/navbar_{context['brand']}.html"
 
-        response.context_data = context
+            response.context_data = context
 
         return response

crowdsourcer/tests/test_views.py

@@ -13,6 +13,12 @@
 )
 
 
+class TestEmptyDB(TestCase):
+    def test_home_page(self):
+        response = self.client.get("/")
+        self.assertEqual(response.status_code, 200)
+
+
 class TestHomePage(TestCase):
     fixtures = [
         "basics.json",