Question

I have a few imports and statements needed to get some crypto modules from gdata to load into my GAE Python SDK:

from google.appengine.tools.dev_appserver import HardenedModulesHook
HardenedModulesHook._WHITE_LIST_C_MODULES += ['_counter']

But this import does not work (nor is it needed) while deployed on GAE, only local.

How can I test if the code is running on GAE or local so I can conditionally perform this import or other local-specific stuff?

Answer 1

If the import actually doesn’t work because it throws an ImportError then your best choice it to just try/except the error.

try:
    from google.appengine.tools.dev_appserver import HardenedModulesHook
    HardenedModulesHook._WHITE_LIST_C_MODULES += ['_counter']
except ImportError:
    HardenedModulesHook = None

You could just pass in the except block but doing it this way lets you check the HardenedModulesHook reference and perform some application logic.