Django: Plugable apps on runserver

Question

I have following structure of my folders in Django:

./project_root
    ./app
       ./fixtures/
       ./static/
       ./templates/
       ./blog/
       ./settings.py
       ./urls.py
       ./views.py
       ./manage.py
       ./__init__.py 
    ./plugin
       ./code_editor
           ./static
           ./templates
           ./urls.py
           ./views.py
           ./__init__.py 
       ./code_viewer
           ./static
           ./templates
           ./urls.py
           ./views.py
           ./__init__.py

So how I can change settings.py in order to load plugins dynamically (It means i do not know how many plugins will be installed in different servers. It should dynamically check it on run time and add it.)on:

python manage.py runserver

Shoule i change ROOT_URLSCONF? or INSTALLED_APPS? Thank you for answers.

you need to add the apps/plugin to `INSTALLED_APPS` and you need to include the apps urls in the `urls.py` in project directory. — , Nov 07 '13 at 02:25
@void Is it possible to make it dynamically? I now that I can manually. What about adding to ROOT_URLCONF and give it several values? — Khamidulla, Nov 07 '13 at 02:29

Austin Phillips · Answer 1 · 2013-11-07T02:48:17.797

1

Have your settings.py execute code to determine which plugins exist by scanning the 'plugin' folder, and build up the appropriate INSTALLED_APPS variable.

# In settings.py    
for path in os.listdir(my_plugins_folder_location):
    if os.path.isdir(path):
        app_name = 'project_root.plugin.%s' % path
        if app_name not in INSTALLED_APPS:
            INSTALLED_APPS.append(app_name)

edited Nov 07 '13 at 02:48

answered Nov 07 '13 at 02:30

Austin Phillips

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It is question or suggestion? – Khamidulla Nov 07 '13 at 02:31
Ok. I got it. What about STATICFILES_DIRS? TEMPLATE_DIRS? URLS? – Khamidulla Nov 07 '13 at 02:35
Another strange thing. When I put print 'Hello' in settings.py file it prints two time. Why it happens? – Khamidulla Nov 07 '13 at 02:36
`manage.py runserver 127.0.0.1:8000 Hello World Hello World Validating models...` – Khamidulla Nov 07 '13 at 02:38
1

@antindexer You can set up any of your settings this way, eg TEMPLATE_DIRS etc. The double import may be explained by this answer, http://stackoverflow.com/a/15605813/302243. It shouldn't occur in Django >= 1.4. – Austin Phillips Nov 07 '13 at 02:47
Thank you for answer. However i have one more clarification here. What about URLs? I guess ROOT_URLCONF is not right place to do so. So can you suggest some other thing? – Khamidulla Nov 07 '13 at 02:51
Or should I make append in urls.py? – Khamidulla Nov 07 '13 at 02:56
1

@antindexer I'd possibly have the root urls.py automatically build up the list of urls by looking for other urls.py based on the INSTALLED_APPS. – Austin Phillips Nov 07 '13 at 02:57
I did so far what you say INSTALLED_APPS,TEMPLATE_DIRS and STATICFILES_DIRS works great. But I cannot figure out how to add other url patters – Khamidulla Nov 07 '13 at 08:54
let us [continue this discussion in chat](http://chat.stackoverflow.com/rooms/40719/discussion-between-antindexer-and-austin-phillips) – Khamidulla Nov 07 '13 at 10:15

Django: Plugable apps on runserver

1 Answers1