kux / django-extraconfig

An entry-point based solution to extend the Django configuration.

django-extraconfig

With django-extraconfig it's easy to extend a Django project settings.py file. The only function provided by this module is load_extraconfig(entry_point_name, module_name).

extraconfig.load(entry_point_name, module_name)

Loads all uppercase values from the entry point modules into the module with the name module_name overriding any existing values.

Usage

At the bottom of your settings.py file add:

try:
    import extraconfig
except ImportError:
    pass
else:
    extraconfig.load(<entry_point_name>, __name__)

entry_point_name can be any string value but it's a good practice to include the projectname in order to avoid name collisions. For example to load the extra configuration showed below, entry_point_name should be set to "my_project.extraconfig".

Creating an extra configuration

It's easy to create an extra configuration module. The minimal project layout is composed of two files: setup.py and the module file. The module will be installed using the setup.py file just like any other regular Python module. In order for django-extraconfig to know that this module should be used to override your Django configuration in setup.py you must add it in the entry point config.

A minimal setup.py file can look like this:

from setuptools import setup

setup(
    name='my_extra_config',
    version='0.1',
    py_modules=['my_extra_config'],
    entry_points = {
        'my_project.extraconfig': 'main = my_extra_config'
    }
)

Now you can add a my_extra_config.py file with the settings you want to override:

DEBUG = True

Besides overriding settings you can also extend them by using the _EXTRA prefix in front of the usual setting name. If for example you wish to enable debug_toolbar in your development environment you could add:

_EXTRA_MIDDLEWARE_CLASSES = (
    'debug_toolbar.middleware.DebugToolbarMiddleware',
    )

_EXTRA_INSTALLED_APPS = (
    'debug_toolbar',
    )

INTERNAL_IPS = ('127.0.0.1',)

Installing the extra configuration

Once the extra configuration project is ready you can run:

python setup.py develop

This will install the extra configuration module in development mode, meaning you can edit the extra settings and all the changes will be visible without reinstalling it.