Organizing Django settings

http://unfoldthat.com/2011/04/29/django-settings.html

by superchink • 15 years ago

25 16 15 years ago

oinksoft2• 15 years ago

This should not be innovative to anybody who knows Python, and how __init__.py works. The post may as well be a link to http://docs.python.org/tutorial/modules.html#packages

jsdalton• 15 years ago

> No, it’s not possible. And don’t try from settings import INSTALLED_APPS, it won’t work.

Dang, I wish someone had told me that. I use it all the time, and it works for me just fine. No circular reference errors or anything else of the sort.

oinksoft2• 15 years ago

Yea, the error author was seeing is a beginner one, because he was importing local_settings in settings, and settings in local_settings. Most circular import issues are a little more interesting.

va1en0k• 15 years ago

Simple but common: http://google.com/codesearch?q=%22from+local_settings+import...

dgallagher• 15 years ago

I like this technique to organize Django's settings: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/88259/how-do-you-configur...

Example: https://github.com/JimDabell/lojban-website/tree/master/lojb...

famousactress2• 15 years ago

I'm a big fan of extending the settings_local pattern to make it possible to add to lists.. for that I use this snippet to be able to define things like 'EXTRA_INSTALLED_APPS' in my local settings.. Super handy.

https://gist.github.com/948855

tswicegood• 15 years ago

This is a bad idea on so many levels. You should always talk to the most specific version of your settings rather than have the super generic one try to add extra stuff from another module that it loaded.

famousactress2• 15 years ago

Sorry, I'm not getting it... but I'd love some elaboration on where this causes problems. It's also worth mentioning (you'll note the if DEBUG bit) that this is only something we use locally to make it easy to toss stuff like the debug toolbar in, etc.

timc3• 15 years ago

Still keep wondering how to fix settings.py so that its more usable and so that we could keep more settings in the database, guess it will never happen to everyones agreement..

EAMiller• 15 years ago

We just do the inverse. In a local_settings.py we import settings - then set DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE=path.to.local_settings

timfletcher• 15 years ago

This is by far the simplest and best way I've found. This also allows me to remove manage.py and use django-admin.py. I just set DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE in the virtualenv's postactivate hook file.

tvon• 15 years ago

I like Django quite a bit, but the mind boggles at how many developer hours have been spent trying to organize settings, or deal with migrations, or setting up deployment scripts, or coming up with a sensible project layout.

I mean, doesn't everyone have to solve these problems for almost every project? Django seems to try too hard not to make decisions for you, when it would make more sense to make easily ignored decisions.

baddox• 15 years ago

Are there still issues with migrations, or are you referring to Django's past? South migrations work smoothly for me.

dandelany• 15 years ago

The fact that you have to install South to begin with is an issue, IMHO.

jkbr• 15 years ago

> how many developer hours have been spent trying to organize settings, or deal with migrations, or setting up deployment scripts, or coming up with a sensible project layout

Countless. Django prefers configuration over convention. I think it's because there is too much focus on the reusable apps concept. It would be great if it was a little bit the other way around.

Organizing Django settings

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