Improvements to locating `piccolo_conf.py`

[dantownsend]

Issue #323 gave me some ideas about improvements to the way Piccolo looks for a piccolo_conf.py file.

I'm just documenting them here as ideas - they could be developed in the future if people think they're needed.

1. PICCOLO_CONF changes

The PICCOLO_CONF environment variable could accept a comma separated list of paths, in case you wanted Piccolo to look in multiple places.

# Piccolo would search for piccolo_conf.py in the current directory, and in an 'app' sub directory
export PICCOLO_CONF="piccolo_conf,app.piccolo_conf"

2. Add --piccolo_conf option to the CLI

When using the piccolo CLI, an extra parameter could be added which specifies where to look for the piccolo_conf.py file:

piccolo migrations check --piccolo_conf=app.piccolo_conf

3. .piccolo file

The contents would be something like:

PICCOLO_CONF=piccolo_conf_test

The precedence for finding a piccolo_conf.py file would then be as follows:

• If the PICCOLO_CONF environment variable exists, use this.
• Otherwise, look for a .piccolo file in the current directory, and use that.
• Otherwise, import piccolo_conf.py

[AliSayyah]

I like these ideas, especially .piccolo. it seems like a permanent solution.

[stronk7]

Just guessing if looking for it also in CWD could be interesting.

Until now, I’ve had it in the root of my project (following a hint in the docs) and it has been working perfectly from the IDE (because it, automatically, adds the project root to the python path.

But a few hours ago, I’ve packaged the project, that includes a script to launch it and when I install it in other environment/project and execute it, the conf file isn’t found anymore.

I know that I can I set it both adding to the python path or hacking the package main script to setup the piccolo_conf env var… and I will. Just I was expecting it to work automatically in the root of any project / that uses to be the CWD normally.

FYC, ciao :)