Question

I’m trying to build a Python program with the “structure” shown at the end.

The problem is that actions should be able to be executed as scripts as well (I’ve already included a main in them). When I try to execute DummyAction.py imports keep complaining they can’t find misc.

How can I use DummyAction.py as a script and still use the functions in utils.py?

DummyAction.py contains a class called DummyActionClass, and the same for DummyTrigger.py. In utils.py there are several functions that both actions and triggers use and MMD.py contains the main.

/MMD
├── __init__.py
├── MMD.py
├── /actions
│   ├── __init__.py
│   ├── DummyAction.py
├── /misc
│   ├── __init__.py
│   ├── utils.py
└── /triggers
    ├── DummyTrigger.py
    └── __init__.py

The import in DummyAction.py and DummyTrigger.py is:

from misc import utils

And the error is:

File "DDM/actions/DummyAction.py", line 11, in <module>
    from misc import utils
ImportError: No module named misc

Answer 1

Seen the updated question, I think the problem is that you should do the import including the root of your dependecies tree: MMD.

So they should all look like:

from MMD.misc import utils

And also you need to call python with the -m option:

python -m  MMD.actions.DummyAction

Edit: You said that MMD.py contains the main but it can’t be your executable, and that’s because is a module (is inside a directory with an __init__.py file). MMD is like your library so you need the executable to be outside and use such library.

You can find [here] some guidelines on how to organize your project.

If you can change you project structure I’ll suggest to do it like this:

MMD/
├── runner.py
└──  mmd
    ├── __init__.py
    ├── main.py
    ├── /actions
    │   ├── __init__.py
    │   ├── DummyAction.py
    ├── /misc
    │   ├── __init__.py
    │   ├── utils.py
    └── /triggers
        ├── DummyTrigger.py
        └── __init__.py

Then in any file inside the mmd directory every import should start with mmd, for example:

from mmd.misc import utils
from mmd.actions import DummyActions

And you put your main code that now is inside MMD.py inside a Main class in main.py, with something like:

# main.py
from mmd.misc import utils

class Main:
    def start_session(self):
        utils.function()
        # etc ...

And then in runner.py you do something like:

# runner.py
from mmd.main import Main

cli = Main()
cli.start_session()

This way inside the MMD directory calling python runner.py you would execute your code, and you can also make executable runner.py so a simply ./runner.py will run your code.
And run your module with:

python -m  mmd.actions.DummyAction

I’d do it like this, becasue this way is open to future implementation (and is almost like in the line guides).

If instead you can’t, then you can give it a try at removing __init__.py from the MMD directory.