Packaging Stand-Alone Django Apps

Directory structure

The app goes in a directory outside of any Django web project. If the app is addresses, structure it littled-addresses/addresses/.

Try to avoid naming conflicts, of course. (Check resources like PyPI.)

• Create README.rst
  • In the package root, e.g. littled-addresses/README.rst.
  • Sample contents at How to Write Reusable Apps—Packaging your app
• Create LICENSE file in the package root.
  • Django itself uses the BSD license.
• Create setup.py in the project root.
  • Sample at How to Write Reusable Apps—Packaging your app
  • More complete documentation at setuptools docs.
• Create MANIFEST.in in the project root.
  • This includes files other than Python modules and packages.
• Create a docs directory
  • Include it in MANIFEST.in with recursive-include docs *

Building the package

$ python setup.py sdist

• Run from the package root directory.
• Creates a dist directory which contains the (zipped) package.

Using the package

Installing the package

$ pip install --user django-addresses/dist/django-addresses-0.1.tar.gz

This installs the package on a system as a user library.

It can now be referenced in other Django projects.

Using the package in a project

Assuming that the package is

|
 +-- django-addresses
      |
      +-- addresses
      |    |
      |    +- [...]
      |
      [...]

In the project's settings.py:

INSTALLED_APPS = (
        ...
        'addresses',
    )

Then from the web project root:

$ python manage.py migrate

To reference the objects in a model within the web project:

class Person(models.Model):
    address = models.ForeignKey('addresses.Address')
    # ...

Uninstalling the package

$ pip uninstall django-addresses