How to keep all my django applications in specific folder

Question

I have a Django project, let's say "project1". Typical folder structure for applications is:

/project1/
         /app1/
         /app2/
         ...
         __init__.py
         manage.py
         settings.py
         urls.py

What should I do if I want to hold all of my applications in some separate folder, 'apps' for example? So that structure should look like the following:

/project/
         apps/
              app1/
              app2/
              ...
         __init__.py
         manage.py
         settings.py
         urls.py

score 63 · Accepted Answer · answered Oct 16 '10 at 12:09

63

You can add your apps folder to your python path by inserting the following in your settings.py:

import os
import sys

PROJECT_ROOT = os.path.dirname(__file__)
sys.path.insert(0, os.path.join(PROJECT_ROOT, 'apps'))

Then you can use all the apps in this folder just in the same way as they were in your project root!

answered Oct 16 '10 at 12:09

Bernhard Vallant

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10

If you ask me, this leads to confusion. – Gabi Purcaru Oct 16 '10 at 14:52
7

This leads to conflicts when running tests. – Ernest Jumbe Jan 01 '15 at 18:36
1

@ErnestJumbe What kind of conflicts when running tests? I use this methods and run tests fine. – run_the_race Sep 14 '20 at 23:10
Does this work with Django 3? I get a `ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'pages'` when I run the server. `pages` is the name of one of the apps. – R891 Nov 21 '20 at 03:37
1

For Django 3 this answer worked: https://stackoverflow.com/a/39747289/1365699 – R891 Nov 21 '20 at 03:43

Gabi Purcaru · Answer 2 · 2010-10-16T09:52:04.863

25

You can do this very easily, but you need to change the settings.py to look like this:

INSTALLED_APPS = (
    'apps.app1',
    'apps.app2',
    # ...
)

And your urls.py to look like this:

urlpatterns = patterns('', 
    (r'^app1/',include('apps.app1')),    
    (r'^app2/',include('apps.app2')),    
)

.. and modify any imports to point to the app location

edited Oct 16 '10 at 09:52

answered Oct 16 '10 at 09:45

Gabi Purcaru

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4

I recommend against using this method, as it might lead to other apps not being able to reference your own application, and will require you to change all imports in your apps to point to the new directory. I think the right way is in [Bernhard Vallant's answer](http://stackoverflow.com/a/3948821/1057102). – sleblanc Aug 26 '13 at 21:37
This same pattern is followed in [django-oscar](https://github.com/django-oscar/django-oscar) project. – Dineshs91 Jun 17 '17 at 17:19
I downvoted for the same reason as sleblanc - especially thinking about reusable models, where you might relate to a model using e.g. `ForeignKey('appname.ModelName', ...)` being upset by this – thclark Apr 08 '18 at 14:25
If you plan to use this convention in the mid of the development note that your migrations will create new tables in the database and won't map to the data you were working with. – Akarsh Jain May 05 '21 at 08:48

anshuman · Answer 3 · 2020-09-08T10:35:05.743

20

How about you utilize the BASE_DIR variable already present in the settings.py.

Just add the following:

import sys
sys.path.insert(0, os.path.join(BASE_DIR, 'apps'))

Hope this helps.

edited Sep 08 '20 at 10:35

answered Sep 28 '16 at 12:17

anshuman

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1

Shouldn't `BASE_DIR` be un-quoted? – run_the_race Sep 05 '20 at 22:30
Yes, my bad. I'll edit the answer. Thank you for pointing it out. – anshuman Sep 08 '20 at 10:32
1

I think this should be the correct answer for Django 3. – R891 Nov 21 '20 at 03:43

score 7 · Answer 4 · answered Mar 07 '20 at 19:16

As a slight variant to Berhard Vallant's or Anshuman's answers, here is an alternative snippet to place in settings.py

import os
import sys  # Insert this line

BASE_DIR = os.path.dirname(os.path.dirname(os.path.abspath(__file__)))

# Insert the two lines below
APPS_DIR = os.path.join(BASE_DIR, '<your_project_dir_name>/apps/')
sys.path.insert(0, APPS_DIR)

Doing it in this way has the added benefit that your template directories are cleaner as they will look like below. Without the APPS_DIR variable, there will be a lot of repitition of <your_project_dir_name>/apps/ within the DIRS list of the TEMPLATES list.

TEMPLATES = [
    {
        'BACKEND': 'django.template.backends.django.DjangoTemplates',
        'DIRS': [
            os.path.join(APPS_DIR, '<app_name>/templates/<app_name>'),
            os.path.join(APPS_DIR, '<app_name>/templates/<app_name>'),
            ...
        ],
        'APP_DIRS': True,
        'OPTIONS': {
            'context_processors': [
                'django.template.context_processors.debug',
                'django.template.context_processors.request',
                'django.contrib.auth.context_processors.auth',
                'django.contrib.messages.context_processors.messages',
            ],
        },
    },
]

You can list the apps within the INSTALLED_APPS list as normal with either the short-form name given in apps.py or by using the long-form syntax of appname.apps.AppnameConfig replacing appname with your app's name.

score 2 · Answer 5 · answered May 07 '22 at 03:17

It's easy and simple you need to add to settings.py

import os
import sys

PROJECT_ROOT = os.path.dirname(__file__)
sys.path.insert(0, os.path.join(PROJECT_ROOT, 'apps'))

and edit your app config for example

old app config:

    class MyappConfig(AppConfig):
          default_auto_field = 'django.db.models.BigAutoField'
          name = 'myapp'

to new app config:

    class MyappConfig(AppConfig):
        default_auto_field = 'django.db.models.BigAutoField'
        label='myapp'
        name = 'apps.myapp'

than installed apps example:

INSTALLED_APPS = [
     ...
     'apps.myapp.apps.MyappConfig'
     ...
]

I think it's very usefull and helpfull.Good luck :)

shacker · Answer 6 · 2020-11-17T18:33:06.513

1

If you're using virtualenv/virtualenvwrapper (which is a bit dated but still valid), you can use the included add2virtualenv command to augment your python path:

mkdir apps
cd apps
pwd
[/path/to/apps/dir]

Copy that path to clipboard, then:

add2virtualenv /path/to/apps/dir

edited Nov 17 '20 at 18:33

answered Oct 15 '14 at 05:42

shacker

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score 1 · Answer 7 · answered Jan 06 '18 at 16:07

1

Just add __init__.py (4 underscores in total) in your apps folder. Now you can just do

urlpatterns = [
        path('polls/',include('apps.polls.urls')),
        path('admin/', admin.site.urls)
]

answered Jan 06 '18 at 16:07

Aniket Thakur

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score 0 · Answer 8 · answered Jun 25 '20 at 18:56

In my case, my project folder structure is the following:

/project/
   /apps/
      /app1/
      /app2/
   /src/
      /settings.py
      ...

So I've solved it with these two lines on my settings.py:

BASE_DIR = os.path.dirname(os.path.dirname(__file__))
sys.path.insert(0, os.path.join(BASE_DIR, '../apps'))

No need to alter urls.py.

Whale · Answer 9 · 2023-03-05T21:13:04.217

0

The following worked for me.

This is the folder structure:

/project1
    /apps
        /myapp

inside apps.py under /myapp:

class MyAppConfig(AppConfig):
    name = "apps.myapp"

In the settings.py:

INSTALLED_APPS = [
    ...
    "apps.myapp.apps.MyAppConfig",
]

edited Mar 05 '23 at 21:13

answered Mar 05 '23 at 20:44

Whale

49
4

How to keep all my django applications in specific folder

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