Two Scoops of Django Project Layout

Question

I received Two Scoops of Django over the holidays and have been trying to implement Danny and Audrey's ideas into a new project. One of those ideas is restructuring the file tree. Unfortunately they don't go into the nitty gritty details of accomplishing this. They suggest a file tree like this:

repo_folder 
|
- project_folder 
 |
-- config_folder  
  |
--- settings.py
--- urls.py
--- wsgi.py

I really like this idea because it helps create a separation of the project and the apps.

I knew by changing the name of the folder that there would be some file path errors. (This is the part I wish they went into greater depth) I updated manage.py to reflect the renamed folder, but when I run 'python manage.py runserver' I get a ModuleNotFound error. 'No module named {{ project_name }}

So it seems more than manage.py needs to be updated to reflect this change. Has anyone else tried this before?

Kenneth Love I've seen a copy of Two Scoops on your desk in your videos?

Answer 1 · 2017-01-03T02:36:31Z

January 3, 2017 2:36am

Hi Jonathan Huppi

Are you referring to this type of setup? Where settings becomes a module?

NOTE: I would not recommend modifying manage.py, as you shouldn't need to.

Example 1

example_project (root)
|   manage.py
|
|---- example_project (project core)
|    |  __init__.py
|    |  urls.py
|    |  wsgi.py
|    |---- settings
|        |   __init__.py
|        | settings.py
|
|----- app1
|    | __init__.py
|    | models.py
|    | tests.py
|    | urls.py
|    | views.py
____________________

and then its become popular to split settings.py into multiple settings files.

Example 2

example_project (root)
|   manage.py
|
|---- example_project 
|    |  __init__.py
|    |  urls.py
|    |  wsgi.py
|    |---- settings
|        |   __init__.py
|        | base.py
|        | dev.py
|        | local.py
|        | production.py
|
|----- app1
|    | __init__.py
|    | models.py
|    | tests.py
|    | urls.py
|    | views.py
____________________

The only places you should have to make modifications should be settings.py and possibly wsgi.py (if you renamed your "project core" directory noted below).

Then you ask, "well how do they get the settings to load?". Well once you have your config folder (settings.py or whatever you name it) as a module. You have an __init__.py that is auto-loaded when django is setting up.

Using Example 2

manage.py

#!/usr/bin/env python
import os
import sys

if __name__ == "__main__":
    # loads setting module in example_project (project core)
    os.environ.setdefault("DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE", "example_project.settings") # <--- at the end there

    from django.core.management import execute_from_command_line

    execute_from_command_line(sys.argv)

inside the settings modules init.py lives this hidden piece.

init.py

from .dev import *

Which basically says to import all settings from dev.py

dev.py

from .base import * # import all base stuff first

# so we can overwrite below for dev

DEBUG = True

# other Dev only settings

try:
    from .local import * # Import all the local settings, local database? ...
except ImportError:  # or dont if you cant python
    pass

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Jonathan Huppi

Jonathan Huppi

Two Scoops of Django Project Layout

1 Answer

Chris Howell

Chris Howell

Jonathan Huppi

Jonathan Huppi

Chris Howell

Chris Howell