[mod_python] The new module loader

>How arbitrary is this path? Must it be within the DocumentRoot?

This one I can answer I believe. I put a path starting from C:\, and
it worked fine, with the limitation that you can't have spaces in the
path, and you can't use double quotes to get around that. So I had to
figure out how to write things dos style, like MyDocu~1, and that
worked.

I came across a bit of trouble with the importer now, It can't find a
module that exists.

  File "C:\Docume~1\Dan\MyDocu~1\PYROOT\pyserver\web.py", line 348, in
import_module
    module = apache.import_module(module, 1, 1, path)

  File "C:\Program
Files\Python\lib\site-packages\mod_python\importer.py", line 236, in
import_module
    return __import__(module_name, {}, {}, ['*'])

ImportError: No module named _config

Now I've confirmed there is a module named _config.py in the path
specified, and I can find it if I add path to sys.path.

There is an import at the top of _config.py that should fail and raise
and exception, but that shouldn't be related?

Any ideas why this is happening?

Thanks,
-Dan



On 4/21/06, Jorey Bump <list at joreybump.com> wrote:
> Graham Dumpleton wrote:
> > Graham Dumpleton wrote ..
> >> The new module importer completely ignores packages as it is practically
> >> impossible to get any form of automatic module reloading to work
> >> correctly with them when they are more than trivial. As such, packages
> >> are handed off to standard Python __import__ to deal with. That it even
> >> finds the package means that you have it installed in sys.path. Even if
> >> it was a file based module, because it is on sys.path and thus likely to
> >> be installed in a standard location, the new module importer would again
> >> ignore it as it leaves all sys.path modules up to Python __import__
> >> as too dangerous to be mixing importing schemes.
> >>
> >> Anyway, that all only applies if you were expecting PyServer.pyserver to
> >> automatically reload upon changes.
>
> Graham, can you enumerate the different ways packages are handled, or is
> it enough to say that packages are never reloaded? In this thread, you
> explain that when a package is imported via PythonHandler, mod_python
> uses the conventional Python __import__, requiring an apache restart to
> reliably reload the package, as in the past.
>
> This also implies that if a published module imports a package, and the
> published module is touched or modified, then the module will be
> reloaded, but not the package. Is this correct?
>
> > BTW, that something outside of the document tree, possibly in sys.path,
> > is dealt with by Python __import__ doesn't mean you can't have module
> > reloading on stuff outside of the document tree. The idea is that if it is
> > part of the web application and needs to be reloadable, that it doesn't
> > really belong in standard Python directories anyway. People only install
> > it there at present because it is convenient.
>
> There are security benefits to not putting your code in the
> DocumentRoot. It's also useful to develop generic utilities that are
> used in multiple apps (not just mod_python), but that you don't want
> available globally on the system. I prefer extremely minimal frontends
> in the DocumentRoot, with most of my code stored elsewhere. Will the new
> importer support reloading modules outside of the DocumentRoot without
> putting them in sys.path?
>
> > The better way of dealing with this with the new module importer is to
> > put your web application modules elsewhere, ie., not on sys.path. You then
> > specify an absolute path to the actual .py file in the handler directive.
> >
> >  <Directory />
> >      SetHandler mod_python
> >      PythonHandler /path/to/web/application/PyServer/pserver.py
> >      ...
>
> How arbitrary is this path? Must it be within the DocumentRoot?
>
> > Most cases I have seen is that people use packages purely to create a
> > namespace to group the modules. With the new module importer that
> > doesn't really need to be done anymore. That is because you can
> > directly reference an arbitrary module by its path. When you use the
> > "import" statement in files in that directory, one of the places it will
> > automatically look, without that directory needing to be in sys.path,
> > is the same directory the file is in. This achieves the same result as
> > what people are using packages for now but you can still have module
> > reloading work.
>
> Does it (the initial loading, not the reloading) also apply to packages
> in that directory? Or will it only work with standalone single file
> modules in the root of that directory?
>
> This is all very nifty, because it implies that a mod_python application
> can now be easily distributed by inflating a tarball and specifying the
> PythonHandler accordingly.
>
> If the new importer works outside of the DocumentRoot, and Location is
> used instead of Directory, no files need to be created in the
> DocumentRoot at all. Or is this currently impossible, in regards to
> automatic module reloading? I already do this for some handlers I've
> written, and really like the flexibility provided by the virtualization.
>
>
>
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