A Django buildout recipe
Project description
This recipe allows you to setup a Django project through zc.buildout.
Usage
The main scope of the recipe is to abstract out the settings.py file, allowing settings to reside inside the buildout instead of having them reside into code (leading to an awkard handling of the same in respect to versioning, for example). The settings.py file is generated by a template, either the default one, the default one and a user extension, or a totally new one.
The template uses the Tempita templating system.
The most basic usage of this recipe is as follows:
[buildout] parts = django [django] recipe = djc.recipe project = my.project
Where my.project is an importable package containing a urls module and a templates directory.
As you see, very few options are specified here: the defaults are used to build up the settings.py file.
Of course, real examples tend to be slightly more complex: for example here is a buildout used for Satchmo:
[buildout]
parts =
omelette
find-links =
http://dist.plone.org/thirdparty/
versions = versions
eggs =
PIL
pysqlite
Django
pycrypto
PyYAML
django-registration
django-livesettings
django-keyedcache
django-signals-ahoy
django-caching-app-plugins
django-threaded-multihost
sorl-thumbnail
trml2pdf
ReportLab
Satchmo
example.site
[django]
recipe = djc.recipe.django
project = example.site
settings-template-extension = templates/settings-extension.py.in
media-origin = satchmo_store:../static
media-url = static
admin-media = media
template-loaders =
django.template.loaders.filesystem.load_template_source
django.template.loaders.app_directories.load_template_source
middleware =
django.middleware.common.CommonMiddleware
django.contrib.sessions.middleware.SessionMiddleware
django.middleware.locale.LocaleMiddleware
django.contrib.auth.middleware.AuthenticationMiddleware
django.middleware.doc.XViewMiddleware
threaded_multihost.middleware.ThreadLocalMiddleware
satchmo_store.shop.SSLMiddleware.SSLRedirect
template-context-processors =
satchmo_store.shop.context_processors.settings
django.core.context_processors.auth
apps=
django.contrib.sites
satchmo_store.shop
django.contrib.admin
django.contrib.auth
django.contrib.contenttypes
django.contrib.comments
django.contrib.sessions
django.contrib.sitemaps
registration
sorl.thumbnail
keyedcache
livesettings
l10n
satchmo_utils.thumbnail
satchmo_store.contact
tax
tax.modules.no
tax.modules.area
tax.modules.percent
shipping
product
payment
payment.modules.dummy
satchmo_ext.satchmo_toolbar
satchmo_utils
app_plugins
product.modules.configurable
authentication-backends =
satchmo_store.accounts.email-auth.EmailBackend
django.contrib.auth.backends.ModelBackend
languages =
en English
it Italiano
language-code = en-us
timezone = Europe/Rome
site-name = Satchmo Sample Site
site-domain = localhost
site-id = 1
debug = true
[versions]
PIL = 1.1.7
trml2pdf = 0.1
Satchmo = 0.9-1
As you can see, a lot more options are used, including an extension template (the default template with appended the given template).
See Options, Default template options and Example usage for more details.
Links
Code repository: http://gitorious.org/djc-recipe/djc-recipe
Report bugs at http://open.abstract.it/it/progetti/rilasci-abstract/djc.recipe/issues
Comments and questions at info@abstract.it
Detailed Documentation
Options
The options of this recipe are not fixed, as many of those are used exclusively within the settings template file (see Templating).
Here we present the options that have an impact on the recipe aswell:
- project
This identifies a python module (in dotted notation) that can serve as project package. The bare minimum for a project package is to contain a urls.py file and a templates directory. It is mandatory unless both the urlconf and templates option are defined.
- urlconf
Identifies the module that contains the url definition: if omitted the file urls.py inside the module given as project is used.
- templates
Identifies the templates directory. If omitted, the directory named templates located in the module given as project is used.
- media-directory
Identifies the folder into which static content (images, CSS and Javascripts) will go. Relatives path are considered relative to the buildout directory. The directory will be created if not present, and nothing will be done if it already exists. If omitted, defaults to static.
- settings-template
If specified, the given template is used to generate the settings.py file, if not provided, the default template will be used. See Templating for more details.
- settings-template-extension
If specified, the given template is appended to the template specified by settings template or to the default one.
- media-origin
If specified, defines directories from which to copy the static files that have to go in media-directory: see Media origin for more details.
- base-settings
A settings module (only absolute imports) that is extended by the current settings. If specified, the defaults for apps, middleware and template-loaders becomes an empty string (resulting into them not being written at all).
- wsgi
Defaults to false. If set to true (or on or 1) creates a script in parts/$partname named $partname.wsgi.py that can be used as WSGI script in Apache or other WSGI enabled webserver.
Advanced options
The following advanced options are supported:
- extra-paths
A number of non-standard paths where additional python modules are located.
- pth-files
A number of pth-files from which to load additional python modulesthat should be present in the buildout.
Templating
The settings.py file is generated by interpolating the options of the buildout section with a template, be it the default one or the one provided by the settings-template option.
The template must be a valid Tempita template, to which the whole options of the current buildout section is passed as namespace, integrated as follow:
In the options name, all minuses (-) are converted to underscores (_)
The option name and secret are added, respectively mapping to the buildout section name and to a randomly-generated secret [1].
A serie of functions is added to the namespace to simplify the handling of some situations, see below for more details.
Functions
A certain number of functions can be used inside the templates:
- absolute_url
Takes a path and, if it is relative, concatenates it with the buildout location to make it absolute.
- listify
Takes a chunk of data, splits it into lines, trims those lines and returns the obtained list, from which void strings are purged.
- rfc822tuplize
This function is quite specialized and takes any string in the form Full Name <email.address@example.com> into a tuple composed by the full name and the mail address. It will return a tuple with the unchanged data if the data fed in does not conform to the specifics.
- boolify
This functions returns True if the data fed is is any of true, on, 1 (case- insensitive) and False otherwise
- join
Equivalent of string’s join() method, with the data to join as first parameter, the infix as second and two optional parameters prefix (added just one to the beginning) and suffix (added just one to the end)
Default template options
The default template accepts a number of options. They are to be considered all optional, as sensible defaults will be provided if omitted.
- media-url
The static content prefix path. Defaults to media
- admin-media
The admin only static content prefix path. Defaults to admin_media
- database-engine
The database engine to use: defaults to sqlite
- database-name
The name of the database to use: defaults to storage.db
- database-user
The username to use when connecting to the database server. Defaults to empty string.
- database-password
The password to use when connecting to the database server. Defaults to empty string.
- database-host
The host on which the database server resides. Defaults to empty string.
- database-port
The port on which the database server accepts connections. Defaults to empty string.
- timezone
The timezone: defaults to America/Chicago
- language-code
The language code: defaults to en-us
- admins
The list of site admins, in RFC822 form. Defaults to John Smith <root@localhost>
- managers
The list of managers: same as for admins. Defaults to copy the value of admins
- middleware
The list of middleware classes to load. If an empty string, the value is not written at all.
- apps
The list of apps to load. If empty, the value is not written at all.
- template-loaders
The list of template loaders to use. If empty, the value is not written at all.
- debug
If true, activates debug mode. Defaults to false
- site-id
The Django site id. Defaults to unset.
- template-context-processors
The Django template context processors. Defaults to unset.
- authentication-backends
The Django authentication backends. Defaults to unset
- languages
A list of supported languages in the form code Fullname, for example en-us English (US). Defaults to unset.
- smtp-host
The SMTP host to use when sending mail. Defaults to localhost.
- smtp-port
The SMTP server port. Defaults to 25.
- smtp-user
The username to use to connect to the SMTP server. Defaults to unset.
- smtp-password
The password to use to connect to the SMTP server. This is not valid if smtp-user is not set aswell. Defaults to unset.
- smtp-tls
Whether TLS should be used when connecting to the SMTP server (boolean option). Defaults to false.
- site-domain
The site domain. Defaults to unset.
- site-name
The site title. Defaults to unset.
- cache-backend
The cache backend. Defaults to locmem:///.
- cache-timeout
The cache timeout in seconds. Defaults to 60*5.
- cache-prefix
The cache prefix (prefixed at all cache IDs). Defaults to Z.
- fixture-dirs
The directories into which search for fixtures. Not set by default.
Example usage
As first thing, we need to have a Django project egg around. We have made a very simple one just for testing and we have created a source distribution for it located in packages.
This is of course not the only way you can distribute and obtain the project egg: for example, during developement, it is recommended to use mr.developer for that.
That cleared, we create the most simple buildout conceivable using this recipe
>>> write('buildout.cfg',
... """
... [buildout]
... parts = django
... offline = false
... index = http://pypi.python.org/simple/
... find-links = packages
...
... [django]
... recipe = djc.recipe
... project = dummydjangoprj
... """)
And run it
>>> print "start\n", system(buildout) start ... Installing django. django: Specified project 'dummydjangoprj' not found, attempting install Getting distribution for 'dummydjangoprj'. ... django: Generating settings in ... django: Making empty media directory ... django: Creating script at ... Generated script ... <BLANKLINE>
This generated some files and directories for us:
A Django manage.py wrapper located at bin/django
A media directory (empty) at static (default option)
A settings file located in parts/django/settings.py
So, as we can see, we have a static directory in the root, a bin/django script and a parts/django part
>>> ls(sample_buildout)
- .installed.cfg
- .secret.cfg
d bin
- buildout.cfg
d develop-eggs
d eggs
d packages
d parts
d src
d static
>>> ls('bin')
- buildout
- django
>>> ls('parts')
d django
Let’s look at this first
>>> ls('parts', 'django')
- settings.py
>>> cat('parts', 'django', 'settings.py')
ADMINS = (
<BLANKLINE>
('John Smith', 'root@localhost'),
)
MANAGERS = ADMINS
<BLANKLINE>
<BLANKLINE>
DATABASE_ENGINE = 'sqlite3'
DATABASE_NAME = 'storage.db'
DATABASE_USER = ''
DATABASE_PASSWORD = ''
DATABASE_HOST = ''
DATABASE_PORT = ''
<BLANKLINE>
TIME_ZONE = 'America/Chicago'
<BLANKLINE>
LANGUAGE_CODE = 'en-us'
<BLANKLINE>
MEDIA_ROOT = '.../static'
<BLANKLINE>
MEDIA_URL = '/media/'
<BLANKLINE>
ADMIN_MEDIA_PREFIX = '/admin_media/'
<BLANKLINE>
SECRET_KEY = '...'
MIDDLEWARE_CLASSES = (
'django.middleware.common.CommonMiddleware',
'django.contrib.sessions.middleware.SessionMiddleware',
'django.contrib.auth.middleware.AuthenticationMiddleware',
'django.middleware.doc.XViewMiddleware',
)
<BLANKLINE>
ROOT_URLCONF = 'dummydjangoprj.urls'
INSTALLED_APPS = (
'django.contrib.auth',
'django.contrib.contenttypes',
'django.contrib.sessions',
'django.contrib.admin',
)
<BLANKLINE>
TEMPLATE_LOADERS = (
'django.template.loaders.filesystem.load_template_source',
'django.template.loaders.app_directories.load_template_source',
)
<BLANKLINE>
TEMPLATE_DIRS = (
'.../dummydjangoprj/templates',
)
<BLANKLINE>
EMAIL_HOST = 'localhost'
EMAIL_PORT = 25
EMAIL_USE_TLS = False
<BLANKLINE>
CACHE_BACKEND = 'locmem:///'
CACHE_TIMEOUT = 60*5
CACHE_PREFIX = 'Z'
As you can see, this is pretty much the standard Django settings.py as created by Django’s django-admin. It has the peculiarity of not residing in a module, however, but is loaded at run time into the appropriate manage script as a ghost module named _django_settings.
Let’s have a look at the manage script
>>> cat('bin', 'django')
#!...
<BLANKLINE>
import sys
sys.path[0:0] = [
...
]
<BLANKLINE>
import djc.recipe.manage
<BLANKLINE>
if __name__ == '__main__':
djc.recipe.manage.main('.../parts/django/settings.py')
As we can see, the main() function of the manage module is called, passing in the file with the settings as only argument.
Template overriding
As it was said in Templating, the default template can be overridden or extended.
Let’s start by extending it:
>>> write('template-extension.py.in',
... """
... # Here we can extend the template, using variables pulled in from the
... # buildout section, with the dashes converted to underscores
... MY_CONFIG_VARIABLE = '{{config_variable_one}}'
... """)
>>> write('buildout.cfg',
... """
... [buildout]
... parts = django
... offline = false
... index = http://pypi.python.org/simple/
... find-links = packages
...
... [django]
... recipe = djc.recipe
... project = dummydjangoprj
... settings-template-extension = template-extension.py.in
... config-variable-one = test
... """)
Launch the buildout and then take a look at the generated settings.py file
>>> print system(buildout)
Uninstalling django.
Installing django.
...
Generated script ...
<BLANKLINE>
>>> cat('parts', 'django', 'settings.py')
ADMINS = (
<BLANKLINE>
('John Smith', 'root@localhost'),
)
MANAGERS = ADMINS
<BLANKLINE>
<BLANKLINE>
DATABASE_ENGINE = 'sqlite3'
DATABASE_NAME = 'storage.db'
DATABASE_USER = ''
DATABASE_PASSWORD = ''
DATABASE_HOST = ''
DATABASE_PORT = ''
<BLANKLINE>
TIME_ZONE = 'America/Chicago'
<BLANKLINE>
LANGUAGE_CODE = 'en-us'
<BLANKLINE>
MEDIA_ROOT = '.../static'
<BLANKLINE>
MEDIA_URL = '/media/'
<BLANKLINE>
ADMIN_MEDIA_PREFIX = '/admin_media/'
<BLANKLINE>
SECRET_KEY = '...'
MIDDLEWARE_CLASSES = (
'django.middleware.common.CommonMiddleware',
'django.contrib.sessions.middleware.SessionMiddleware',
'django.contrib.auth.middleware.AuthenticationMiddleware',
'django.middleware.doc.XViewMiddleware',
)
<BLANKLINE>
ROOT_URLCONF = 'dummydjangoprj.urls'
INSTALLED_APPS = (
'django.contrib.auth',
'django.contrib.contenttypes',
'django.contrib.sessions',
'django.contrib.admin',
)
<BLANKLINE>
TEMPLATE_LOADERS = (
'django.template.loaders.filesystem.load_template_source',
'django.template.loaders.app_directories.load_template_source',
)
<BLANKLINE>
TEMPLATE_DIRS = (
'.../dummydjangoprj/templates',
)
<BLANKLINE>
EMAIL_HOST = 'localhost'
EMAIL_PORT = 25
EMAIL_USE_TLS = False
<BLANKLINE>
CACHE_BACKEND = 'locmem:///'
CACHE_TIMEOUT = 60*5
CACHE_PREFIX = 'Z'
<BLANKLINE>
<BLANKLINE>
# Extension template template-extension.py.in
<BLANKLINE>
<BLANKLINE>
# Here we can extend the template, using variables pulled in from the
# buildout section, with the dashes converted to underscores
MY_CONFIG_VARIABLE = 'test'
As you can see, the aditional template has been simply appended to the default, and the variable config-variable-one has been substituted.
If, instead, we totally override the template:
>>> write('template.py.in',
... """
... # Total override
... FOODS = (
... {{join(listify(foods), "',\\n '", "'", "',")}}
... )
... """)
>>> write('buildout.cfg',
... """
... [buildout]
... parts = django
... offline = false
... index = http://pypi.python.org/simple/
... find-links = packages
...
... [django]
... recipe = djc.recipe
... project = dummydjangoprj
... settings-template = template.py.in
... foods =
... spam
... spam
... eggs
... spam
... """)
Launch the buildout and then take a look at the generated settings.py file
>>> print system(buildout)
Uninstalling django.
Installing django.
...
Generated script ...
<BLANKLINE>
>>> cat('parts', 'django', 'settings.py')
# Total override
FOODS = (
'spam',
'spam',
'eggs',
'spam',
)
As you can see, the builtin template has been totally discarded.
Media origin
Static files are generally not served through Django, but instead the front-end web server takes care to serve them by exposing a directory on the filesystem to the web.
However, many static files (think .js or .css) are part of the functionality of a project or application, and would be interesting to be able to distribute them alongside the code.
The relevant resources can be included in the distributed package and use of the media-origin option will allow them to be copied into the media-directory folder (see Options).
media-origin can contain a list of static file sources, and each item of the list can be either in the form package:directory or package:directory:destination; package being the full dotted name of the importable module, directory the path to the directory inside the module containing static data, and destination an optional subdirectory inside media-directory where to copy the files.
Let’s then begin from the first, simple case, with a single source of static data.
The source of static data is the package dummydjangoapp1, residing as a developement package inside src.
>>> ls('src', 'dummydjangoapp1', 'dummydjangoapp1', 'static')
- lib1.js
- main.css
>>> cat('src', 'dummydjangoapp1', 'dummydjangoapp1', 'static', 'main.css')
body { font-family: "Helvetica" "Arial" sans-serif; }
Let’s create a buildout config and run it
>>> write('buildout.cfg',
... """
... [buildout]
... parts = django
... offline = false
... index = http://pypi.python.org/simple/
... find-links = packages
... develop = src/dummydjangoapp1
... eggs = dummydjangoapp1
...
... [django]
... recipe = djc.recipe
... project = dummydjangoprj
... media-directory = static
... media-origin = dummydjangoapp1:static
... """)
>>> rmdir('static')
>>> print system(buildout)
Develop: '.../dummydjangoapp1'
...
Uninstalling django.
Installing django.
...
django: Making media directory '.../static'
...
Generated script ...
<BLANKLINE>
And now let’s see what’s in static
>>> ls('static')
- lib1.js
- main.css
>>> cat('static', 'main.css')
body { font-family: "Helvetica" "Arial" sans-serif; }
Let’s now try using two sources: the second is another dummy app, named dummydjangoapp2, that like the first one resides in src.
Let’s see what’s in its static for us:
>>> ls('src', 'dummydjangoapp2', 'dummydjangoapp2', 'static')
- lib2.js
- main.css
It seems this app too defines a main.css, so let’s look at the content:
>>> cat('src', 'dummydjangoapp2', 'dummydjangoapp2', 'static', 'main.css')
h1 { color: #92B8D8; }
But this poses a problem! What happens when I put this as second source, and both define main.css? Well, the intuitive thing to do here is probably to override the file, so that the source at the bottom is the top skin layer.
So if we have this buildout
>>> write('buildout.cfg',
... """
... [buildout]
... parts = django
... offline = false
... index = http://pypi.python.org/simple/
... find-links = packages
... develop =
... src/dummydjangoapp1
... src/dummydjangoapp2
... eggs =
... dummydjangoapp1
... dummydjangoapp2
...
... [django]
... recipe = djc.recipe
... project = dummydjangoprj
... media-directory = static
... media-origin =
... dummydjangoapp1:static
... dummydjangoapp2:static
... """)
It is reasonable to expect that, after running it, the content of the main.css file is the one provided by the version held by dummydjangoapp2 rather than the one held by dummydjangoapp2.
A quick run and inspect confirms this:
>>> rmdir('static')
>>> print system(buildout)
Develop: '.../dummydjangoapp1'
...
Uninstalling django.
Installing django.
...
django: Making media directory '.../static'
...
Generated script ...
<BLANKLINE>
>>> ls('static')
- lib1.js
- lib2.js
- main.css
>>> cat('static', 'main.css')
h1 { color: #92B8D8; }
However, I might not want the main.css override to happen, or any other clash between applications, for that matter. That is easily solved by a buildout written like this
>>> write('buildout.cfg',
... """
... [buildout]
... parts = django
... offline = false
... index = http://pypi.python.org/simple/
... find-links = packages
... develop =
... src/dummydjangoapp1
... src/dummydjangoapp2
... eggs =
... dummydjangoapp1
... dummydjangoapp2
...
... [django]
... recipe = djc.recipe
... project = dummydjangoprj
... media-directory = static
... media-origin =
... dummydjangoapp1:static:app1
... dummydjangoapp2:static:app2
... """)
It is to be noticed that the media-origin values have now three elements, the latter being the destination directory, which is defined as a subdirectory of static: in this case, both apps live in their subdirectory and no clash happens
>>> rmdir('static')
>>> print system(buildout)
Develop: '.../dummydjangoapp1'
...
Uninstalling django.
Installing django.
...
django: Making media directory '.../static'
...
Generated script ...
<BLANKLINE>
>>> ls('static')
d app1
d app2
>>> ls('static', 'app1')
- lib1.js
- main.css
>>> cat('static', 'app1', 'main.css')
body { font-family: "Helvetica" "Arial" sans-serif; }
>>> ls('static', 'app2')
- lib2.js
- main.css
>>> cat('static', 'app2', 'main.css')
h1 { color: #92B8D8; }
Of course, this behaviour is not usefol only in this case: an application might actually require you to put the static files in a precise subdirectory irrespective of the fact that other apps might be present or a clash occur.
Contributors
Simone Deponti <simone.deponti@abstract.it>, Initial Author
Bruno Ripa <bruno.ripa@abstract.it>
Inital developement sponsored by Abstract Open Solutions
Change history
0.3.1 (2010-05-19)
aka “Never release between midnight and 6am”:
Fixed absolute path bug for fixture dirs in default template [Simone Deponti]
Fixed small template extension bug [Simone Deponti]
0.3 (2010-05-19)
Added multiple media-origin support [Simone Deponti]
Added fixture-dirs support [Simone Deponti]
0.2 (2010-05-17)
First public release [Simone Deponti]
0.1 (2010-04-22)
Created package [Simone Deponti]
Release history Release notifications | RSS feed
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