Pass a variable from custom settings into a Django view

Question

I know how to access the settings module (as detailed here) but I have a number of custom settings modules that extend settings.py and I'm not sure how to access it in my view. It's available in my template but I can't find any information on how to access it in the settings. os.environ["DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE"] correctly returns the string of my intended settings module, but since it's just a string it doesn't have my variables on it.

custom_settings1.py

from settings import *  # noqa: F403

SITE_ID = 1
SITE_NAME = "MY SITE"

The duplicate you've included shows exactly how to access settings in a view.. what isn't working? — Sayse, Dec 14 '16 at 19:47
@sayse I can get things from `settings.py` no problem, but not from the module that extends it. — thumbtackthief, Dec 14 '16 at 19:48
You should show this module that "extends" settings. It's hard to tell what you mean. — Daniel Roseman, Dec 14 '16 at 19:51
@Brobin In my view. It's already correctly working in my template. — thumbtackthief, Dec 14 '16 at 20:02
@Brobin Custom_settings changes based on which site I'm running so not sure how to do that — thumbtackthief, Dec 14 '16 at 20:08
But since it's available in my template there must be a way to get it in the view — thumbtackthief, Dec 14 '16 at 20:08

score 0 · Answer 1 · answered Dec 14 '16 at 19:55

To use settings in a view, you just import it as in the cited post.

def settings_view(request):
    from django.conf import settings
    context = { 
        'settings': settings
    }
    return render(request, 'template.html', context)

And in your template:

My setting is {% settings.my_setting %}

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Dec 14 '16 at 19:56

In my project, I use a custom context processor to inject settings variables into my templates. This way you don't have to add it to the context of every view function/class.

# app/context.py
from django.conf import settings


def my_settings(request):
    return { 'MY_CUSTOM_SETTING': settings.MY_CUSTOM_SETTING }

Then you add it to your context processors in the the TEMPLATE setting.

TEMPLATES = [
    {
        'BACKEND': 'django.template.backends.django.DjangoTemplates',
        'DIRS': [os.path.join(BASE_DIR, 'templates')],
        'APP_DIRS': True,
        'OPTIONS': {
            'context_processors': [
                ...
                'app.context.my_settings',
            ],
        },
    },
]

Now it is available in any template!

{{ MY_CUSTOM_SETTING }}

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Dec 14 '16 at 20:09

0

Far from being a "common use case", you have this exactly the wrong way round.

Almost always, you will define custom settings directly in settings.py; that way they are added to the object you get when you do from django.conf import settings.

Very occasionally you might want to define settings in separate modules; in which case, you import them from there into the main settings.py, not the other way round as you have them.

settings.py is the canonical place for settings to go.

answered Dec 14 '16 at 20:09

Daniel Roseman

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Different parts of our site use different settings files, though, so I'm not really sure how that would work. – thumbtackthief Dec 14 '16 at 20:22
But that doesn't make sense. Settings are project-wide. I suspect you are using settings for something that are not intended for. – Daniel Roseman Dec 14 '16 at 20:43
Every job I've ever had used them this way, and I've worked for large, well-known industries. Oh well; I'll figure something else out. – thumbtackthief Dec 14 '16 at 20:45
Maybe I'm misunderstanding the docs https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/1.10/topics/settings/#custom-default-settings – thumbtackthief Dec 14 '16 at 20:48
I can't see the relevance of that link at all, I'm afraid. – Daniel Roseman Dec 14 '16 at 20:52

Pass a variable from custom settings into a Django view

3 Answers3