Loading fixtures in django unit tests

I've specified path relative to project root in the TestCase like so:

from django.test import TestCase

class MyTestCase(TestCase):
    fixtures = ['/myapp/fixtures/dump.json',]
    ...

and it worked without using FIXTURE_DIRS

Good practice is using PROJECT_ROOT variable in your settings.py:

import os.path
PROJECT_ROOT = os.path.dirname(os.path.realpath(__file__))
FIXTURE_DIRS = (os.path.join(PROJECT_ROOT, 'fixtures'),)