Quickstart

Install django-configurator:

$ python -m pip install django-configurator

or, alternatively, if you want to use URL-based values:

$ python -m pip install django-configurator[cache,database,email,search]

Then subclass the included dj_configurator.Configuration class in your project’s settings.py or any other module you’re using to store the settings constants, e.g.:

# mysite/settings.py

from dj_configurator import Configuration

class Dev(Configuration):
    DEBUG = True

Set the DJANGO_CONFIGURATION environment variable to the name of the class you just created, e.g. in bash:

$ export DJANGO_CONFIGURATION=Dev

and the DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE environment variable to the module import path as usual, e.g. in bash:

$ export DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE=mysite.settings

Alternatively supply the --configuration option when using Django management commands along the lines of Django’s default --settings command line option, e.g.

$ python -m manage runserver --settings=mysite.settings --configuration=Dev

To enable Django to use your configuration you now have to modify your manage.py, wsgi.py or asgi.py script to use django-configurator’s versions of the appropriate starter functions, e.g. a typical manage.py using django-configurator would look like this:

#!/usr/bin/env python

import os
import sys

if __name__ == "__main__":
    os.environ.setdefault('DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE', 'mysite.settings')
    os.environ.setdefault('DJANGO_CONFIGURATION', 'Dev')

    from dj_configurator.management import execute_from_command_line

    execute_from_command_line(sys.argv)

Notice in line 10 we don’t use the common tool django.core.management.execute_from_command_line but instead dj_configurator.management.execute_from_command_line.

The same applies to your wsgi.py file, e.g.:

import os

os.environ.setdefault('DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE', 'mysite.settings')
os.environ.setdefault('DJANGO_CONFIGURATION', 'Dev')

from dj_configurator.wsgi import get_wsgi_application

application = get_wsgi_application()

Here we don’t use the default django.core.wsgi.get_wsgi_application function but instead dj_configurator.wsgi.get_wsgi_application.

Or if you are not serving your app via WSGI but ASGI instead, you need to modify your asgi.py file too.:

import os

os.environ.setdefault('DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE', 'mysite.settings')
os.environ.setdefault('DJANGO_CONFIGURATION', 'Dev')

from dj_configurator.asgi import get_asgi_application

application = get_asgi_application()

That’s it! You can now use your project with manage.py and your favorite WSGI/ASGI enabled server.