On Wed, 2008-07-09 at 13:56 -0700, Antoine De Groote wrote:
> Hello,
>
> this is my first post on this group. I just started using Django
> yesterday, reading throuhg the online Django Book
> (www.djangobook.com).
>
> In chapter 3, for the URLconf, the authors put:
>
> from django.conf.urls.defaults import *
> from mysite.views import current_datetime
>
> urlpatterns = patterns('',
> (r'^time/$', current_datetime),
> )
>
> mysite is the root directory of the project and the files all reside
> within this folder.
>
> I don't understand why they use:
> from mysite.views import current_datetime
> instead of
> from views import current_datetime
>
> Both work, but I don't see why. The mysite directory is on the python
> path, not its parent. Why is it possible at all to write from
> mysite.views ... ? Is this handled internally by python?
If you are running the dev-server (via "manage.py runserver"), manage.py
will automatically put the parent of the current directory into the
Python path. This is for the convenience of beginners. However, the net
effect is often to cause confusion down the road when those same people
don't realise that this is actually special behaviour and not something
Python does by default. You've caught the discrepancy, which is a safer
position to be in (you realise it's unusual).
As a general rule, it's a little more portable to not use the project
name in imports, although if the views file lives in the project
directory it doesn't make a lot of difference. Many people just write
Django "apps", so a "project" becomes a collection of apps, plus a
settings file plus a root URL configuration file. But if you're putting
other stuff into that project directory, things are a little different.
Just keep in mind that the Django book is an introduction to Django.
It's not going to take you from zero to 100 covering every single thing,
since it's not a 17 volume set. So it doesn't give bad advice, but it's
always possible to do things differently sometimes (and, just to be
certain, it almost always gives very, very good advice. It doesn't cut
corners).
Regards,
Malcolm
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