Question

I have this in my main execution file:

databaseUrl = appPath + '/db/timey.db' 

which is pointing to my SQLite DB.

I have done some encapsulation for accessing my model (Data/DB). So until databaseURL finally gets used I would need to pass it from main -> view.py -> model.py -> db.py.
This would be stupid because e.g. my view class doesn’t need to know about my database or its path. So what would be a proper approach to actually make this path “globally” accessable without passing it around all the time?

I tried to make databaseUrl global, but I don’t like the idea and haven’t really gotten it to work like that anyway.

Storing the information in an external file would be an overkill, as it is the only (constant!) global used variable anyway.

Thank you!

Answer 1

I don’t think storing it in an external file would be overkill at all. I think it is helpful to have a settings or config file

# settings.py

import os
PROJECT_ROOT = os.path.abspath(os.path.dirname(__file__))
DATABASE_URL = ''
DATABASE_USER = ''
DATABSE_PASSWORD = ''

etc.

from myproject import settings 
settings.DATABASE_URL

This is what django and scrapy do to store a projects database config settings, and all other project settings

Also, if you have a database class it might make sense to store these settings inside of it? I don’t know.

The settings.py file let you easily set up a development / local database urls.
TO do this you can have a local_settings.py file that will never be put under version control or packaged in your project

in your settings.py file

try:
  from local_settings import *
except ImportError:
  pass

then in local_settings.py you can override the DATABASE_URL to be your dev database!! This is a django project convention