This post is the seventh and last in a series on Django tricks that began with automating Admin Model creation.

This is one of my favorite tricks: setup the Django environment from the Python interpreter.

(master) $ python
>>> from lib.django_from_shell import start_django as sd
>>> sd()
>>> from procrasdonate.models import User
>>> User.objects.count()
22

All we need to do is wrap a few Django calls like so:

def start_django():
    import sys
    #Now the nearest ancestor directory with a 'settings.py' file
    settings_dir = find_file_in_ancestors("settings.py")
    sys.path.append(settings_dir)
    
    from django.core.management import setup_environ
    import settings
    setup_environ(settings)

By being flexible about finding the global settings.py file, we can call start_django from other scripts buried in bin or cron directories:

def find_file_in_ancestors(filename):
    """
    For each parent directory, check if 'filename' exists.  If found, return
    the path; otherwise raise RuntimeError.
    """
    import os
    path = os.path.realpath(os.path.curdir)
    while not filename in os.listdir(path):
        #if filename in os.listdir(path):
        #    return path
        newpath = os.path.split(path)[0]
        if path == newpath:
            raise RuntimeError("No file '%s' found in ancestor directories." % filename)
        path = newpath
    return path

Conclusion

The goal of these tricks is to reduce copy/past/alter drudgery. It’s rewarding to automate the creation of fluff code, even easy fluff that knocked my socks off when I first learned Django.

Of course, it’s hard to stay impressed with myself or Dan for long since I quickly forget that the fluff code even existed. I suppose that’s part of the point. I can forget about creating Admin Models, and new models still show up in the Admin app as I thoughtlessly expected.

Still, even if I’m not impressed, I do notice how often I get to write new, interesting code. That’s why I’m Proudly ProcrasDonating,

Lucy.