Values

New in version 0.4.

django-configurations allows you to optionally reduce the amount of validation and setup code in your settings.py by using Value classes. They have the ability to handle values from the process environment of your software (os.environ) and work well in projects that follow the Twelve-Factor methodology.

Note

These classes are required to be used as attributes of Configuration classes. See the main documentation for more information.

Overview

Here is an example (from a settings.py file with a Configuration subclass):

 from configurations import Configuration, values

 class Dev(Configuration):
     DEBUG = values.BooleanValue(True)

As you can see all you have to do is to wrap your settings value in a call to one of the included values classes. When Django’s process starts up it will automatically make sure the passed-in value validates correctly – in the above case checks if the value is really a boolean.

You can safely use other Value instances as the default setting value:

 from configurations import Configuration, values

 class Dev(Configuration):
     DEBUG = values.BooleanValue(True)
     DEBUG_PROPAGATE_EXCEPTIONS = values.BooleanValue(DEBUG)

See the list of built-in value classes for more information.

Environment variables

To separate the site configuration from your application code you should use environment variables for configuration. Unfortunately environment variables are string based so they are not easily mapped to the Python based settings system Django uses.

Luckily django-configurations’ Value subclasses have the ability to handle environment variables for the common use cases.

Default behavior

For example, imagine you want to override the ROOT_URLCONF setting on your staging server to be able to debug a problem with your in-development code. You’re using a web server that passes the environment variables from the shell it was started from into your Django WSGI process.

Use the boolean environ option of the Value class (True by default) to tell django-configurations to look for an environment variable with the same name as the specific Value variable, only uppercased and prefixed with DJANGO_. E.g.:

 from configurations import Configuration, values

 class Stage(Configuration):
     # ..
     ROOT_URLCONF = values.Value('mysite.urls')

django-configurations will try to read the DJANGO_ROOT_URLCONF environment variable when deciding which value the ROOT_URLCONF setting should have. When you run the web server simply specify that environment variable (e.g. in your init script):

DJANGO_ROOT_URLCONF=mysite.debugging_urls gunicorn mysite.wsgi:application

If the environment variable can’t be found it’ll use the default 'mysite.urls'.

Disabling environment variables

To disable environment variables, specify the environ parameter of the Value class. For example this would disable it for the TIME_ZONE setting value:

from configurations import Configuration, values

class Dev(Configuration):
    TIME_ZONE = values.Value('UTC', environ=False)

Custom environment variable names

To support legacy systems, integrate with other parts of your software stack or simply better match your taste in naming public configuration variables, django-configurations allows you to use the environ_name parameter of the Value class to change the base name of the environment variable it looks for. For example this would enforce the name DJANGO_MYSITE_TZ instead of using the name of the Value instance.:

from configurations import Configuration, values

class Dev(Configuration):
    TIME_ZONE = values.Value('UTC', environ_name='MYSITE_TZ')

Allow final value to be used outside the configuration context

You may use the environ_name parameter to allow a Value to be directly converted to its final value for use outside of the configuration context:

>>> type(values.Value([]))
<class 'configurations.values.Value'>
>>> type(values.Value([], environ_name="FOOBAR"))
<class 'list'>

This can also be achieved when using environ=False and providing a default value.

Custom environment variable prefixes

In case you want to change the default environment variable name prefix of DJANGO to something to your likening, use the environ_prefix parameter of the Value instance. Here it’ll look for the MYSITE_TIME_ZONE environment variable (instead of DJANGO_TIME_ZONE):

from configurations import Configuration, values

class Dev(Configuration):
    TIME_ZONE = values.Value('UTC', environ_prefix='MYSITE')

The environ_prefix parameter can also be None to completely disable the prefix.

Value class

class Value(default[, environ=True, environ_name=None, environ_prefix='DJANGO', environ_required=False])[source]

The Value class takes one required and several optional parameters.

Parameters
  • default – the default value of the setting

  • environ (bool) – toggle for environment use

  • environ_name (str or None) – capitalized name of environment variable to look for

  • environ_prefix (str) – capitalized prefix to use when looking for environment variable

  • environ_required (bool) – whether or not the value is required to be set as an environment variable

The default parameter is effectively the value the setting has right now in your settings.py.

setup(name)[source]
Parameters

name – the name of the setting

Returns

setting value

The setup method is called during startup of the Django process and implements the ability to check the environment variable. Its purpose is to return a value django-configurations is supposed to use when loading the settings. It’ll be passed one parameter, the name of the Value instance as defined in the settings.py. This is used for building the name of the environment variable.

to_python(value)[source]
Parameters

value – the value of the setting as found in the process environment (os.environ)

Returns

validated and “ready” setting value if found in process environment

The to_python method is used when the environ parameter of the Value class is set to True (the default) and an environment variable with the appropriate name was found.

It will be used to handle the string based environment variables and returns the “ready” value of the setting.

Some Value subclasses also use it during initialization when the default value has a string-like format like an environment variable which needs to be converted into a Python data type.

Built-ins

Type values

class BooleanValue[source]

A Value subclass that checks and returns boolean values. Possible values for environment variables are:

  • True values: 'yes', 'y', 'true', '1'

  • False values: 'no', 'n', 'false', '0', '' (empty string)

DEBUG = values.BooleanValue(True)
class IntegerValue[source]

A Value subclass that handles integer values.

MYSITE_CACHE_TIMEOUT = values.IntegerValue(3600)
class PositiveIntegerValue[source]

A Value subclass that handles positive integer values.

New in version 2.1.

MYSITE_WORKER_POOL = values.PositiveIntegerValue(8)
class FloatValue[source]

A Value subclass that handles float values.

MYSITE_TAX_RATE = values.FloatValue(11.9)
class DecimalValue[source]

A Value subclass that handles Decimal values.

MYSITE_CONVERSION_RATE = values.DecimalValue(decimal.Decimal('4.56214'))
class SequenceValue[source]

Common base class for sequence values.

class ListValue(default[, separator=', ', converter=None])[source]

A SequenceValue subclass that handles list values.

Parameters
  • separator – the separator to split environment variables with

  • converter – the optional converter callable to apply for each list item

Simple example:

ALLOWED_HOSTS = ListValue(['mysite.com', 'mysite.biz'])

Use a custom converter to check for the given variables:

def check_monty_python(person):
    if not is_completely_different(person):
        error = '{0} is not a Monty Python member'.format(person)
        raise ValueError(error)
    return person

MONTY_PYTHONS = ListValue(['John Cleese', 'Eric Idle'],
                          converter=check_monty_python)

You can override this list with an environment variable like this:

DJANGO_MONTY_PYTHONS="Terry Jones,Graham Chapman" gunicorn mysite.wsgi:application

Use a custom separator:

EMERGENCY_EMAILS = ListValue(['admin@mysite.net'], separator=';')

And override it:

DJANGO_EMERGENCY_EMAILS="admin@mysite.net;manager@mysite.org;support@mysite.com" gunicorn mysite.wsgi:application
class TupleValue[source]

A SequenceValue subclass that handles tuple values.

Parameters
  • separator – the separator to split environment variables with

  • converter – the optional converter callable to apply for each tuple item

See the ListValue examples above.

class SingleNestedSequenceValue[source]

Common base class for nested sequence values.

class SingleNestedTupleValue(default[, seq_separator=';', separator=', ', converter=None])[source]

A SingleNestedSequenceValue subclass that handles single nested tuple values, e.g. ((a, b), (c, d)).

Parameters
  • seq_separator – the separator to split each tuple with

  • separator – the separator to split the inner tuple contents with

  • converter – the optional converter callable to apply for each inner tuple item

Useful for ADMINS, MANAGERS, and the like. For example:

ADMINS = SingleNestedTupleValue((
    ('John', 'jcleese@site.com'),
    ('Eric', 'eidle@site.com'),
))

Override using environment variables like this:

DJANGO_ADMINS=Terry,tjones@site.com;Graham,gchapman@site.com
class SingleNestedListValue(default[, seq_separator=';', separator=', ', converter=None])[source]

A SingleNestedSequenceValue subclass that handles single nested list values, e.g. [[a, b], [c, d]].

Parameters
  • seq_separator – the separator to split each list with

  • separator – the separator to split the inner list contents with

  • converter – the optional converter callable to apply for each inner list item

See the SingleNestedTupleValue examples above.

class SetValue[source]

A Value subclass that handles set values.

Parameters
  • separator – the separator to split environment variables with

  • converter – the optional converter callable to apply for each set item

See the ListValue examples above.

class DictValue[source]

A Value subclass that handles dicts.

DEPARTMENTS = values.DictValue({
    'it': ['Mike', 'Joe'],
})

Override using environment variables like this:

DJANGO_DEPARTMENTS={'it':['Mike','Joe'],'hr':['Emma','Olivia']}

Validator values

class EmailValue[source]

A Value subclass that validates the value using the django.core.validators.validate_email validator.

SUPPORT_EMAIL = values.EmailValue('support@mysite.com')
class URLValue[source]

A Value subclass that validates the value using the django.core.validators.URLValidator validator.

SUPPORT_URL = values.URLValue('https://support.mysite.com/')
class IPValue[source]

A Value subclass that validates the value using the django.core.validators.validate_ipv46_address validator.

LOADBALANCER_IP = values.IPValue('127.0.0.1')
class RegexValue(default, regex[, environ=True, environ_name=None, environ_prefix='DJANGO'])[source]

A Value subclass that validates according a regular expression and uses the django.core.validators.RegexValidator.

Parameters

regex – the regular expression

DEFAULT_SKU = values.RegexValue('000-000-00', regex=r'\d{3}-\d{3}-\d{2}')
class PathValue(default[, check_exists=True, environ=True, environ_name=None, environ_prefix='DJANGO'])[source]

A Value subclass that normalizes the given path using os.path.expanduser and checks if it exists on the file system.

Takes an optional check_exists parameter to disable the check with os.path.exists.

Parameters

check_exists – toggle the file system check

BASE_DIR = values.PathValue('/opt/mysite/')
STATIC_ROOT = values.PathValue('/var/www/static', checks_exists=False)

URL-based values

Note

The following URL-based Value subclasses are inspired by the Twelve-Factor methodology and use environment variable names that are already established by that methodology, e.g. 'DATABASE_URL'.

Each of these classes require external libraries to be installed, e.g. the DatabaseURLValue class depends on the package dj-database-url. See the specific class documentation below for which package is needed.

class DatabaseURLValue(default[, alias='default', environ=True, environ_name='DATABASE_URL', environ_prefix=None])[source]

A Value subclass that uses the dj-database-url app to convert a database configuration value stored in the DATABASE_URL environment variable into an appropriate setting value. It’s inspired by the Twelve-Factor methodology.

By default this Value subclass looks for the DATABASE_URL environment variable.

Takes an optional alias parameter to define which database alias to use for the DATABASES setting.

Parameters

alias – which database alias to use

The other parameters have the following default values:

Parameters
  • environTrue

  • environ_nameDATABASE_URL

  • environ_prefixNone

DATABASES = values.DatabaseURLValue('postgres://myuser@localhost/mydb')
class CacheURLValue(default[, alias='default', environ=True, environ_name='CACHE_URL', environ_prefix=None])[source]

A Value subclass that uses the django-cache-url app to convert a cache configuration value stored in the CACHE_URL environment variable into an appropriate setting value. It’s inspired by the Twelve-Factor methodology.

By default this Value subclass looks for the CACHE_URL environment variable.

Takes an optional alias parameter to define which database alias to use for the CACHES setting.

Parameters

alias – which cache alias to use

The other parameters have the following default values:

Parameters
  • environTrue

  • environ_nameCACHE_URL

  • environ_prefixNone

CACHES = values.CacheURLValue('memcached://127.0.0.1:11211/')
class EmailURLValue(default[, environ=True, environ_name='EMAIL_URL', environ_prefix=None])[source]

A Value subclass that uses the dj-email-url app to convert an email configuration value stored in the EMAIL_URL environment variable into the appropriate settings. It’s inspired by the Twelve-Factor methodology.

By default this Value subclass looks for the EMAIL_URL environment variable.

Note

This is a special value since email settings are divided into many different settings variables. dj-email-url supports all options though and simply returns a nested dictionary of settings instead of just one setting.

The parameters have the following default values:

Parameters
  • environTrue

  • environ_nameEMAIL_URL

  • environ_prefixNone

EMAIL = values.EmailURLValue('console://')
class SearchURLValue(default[, environ=True, environ_name='SEARCH_URL', environ_prefix=None])[source]

New in version 0.8.

A Value subclass that uses the dj-search-url app to convert a search configuration value stored in the SEARCH_URL environment variable into the appropriate settings for use with Haystack. It’s inspired by the Twelve-Factor methodology.

By default this Value subclass looks for the SEARCH_URL environment variable.

Takes an optional alias parameter to define which search backend alias to use for the HAYSTACK_CONNECTIONS setting.

Parameters

alias – which cache alias to use

The other parameters have the following default values:

Parameters
  • environTrue

  • environ_nameSEARCH_URL

  • environ_prefixNone

HAYSTACK_CONNECTIONS = values.SearchURLValue('elasticsearch://127.0.0.1:9200/my-index')

Other values

class BackendsValue[source]

A ListValue subclass that validates the given list of dotted import paths by trying to import them. In other words, this checks if the backends exist.

MIDDLEWARE = values.BackendsValue([
    'django.middleware.common.CommonMiddleware',
    'django.contrib.sessions.middleware.SessionMiddleware',
    'django.middleware.csrf.CsrfViewMiddleware',
    'django.contrib.auth.middleware.AuthenticationMiddleware',
    'django.contrib.messages.middleware.MessageMiddleware',
    'django.middleware.clickjacking.XFrameOptionsMiddleware',
])
class SecretValue[source]

A Value subclass that doesn’t allow setting a default value during instantiation and force-enables the use of an environment variable to reduce the risk of accidentally storing secret values in the settings file. This usually resolves to DJANGO_SECRET_KEY unless you have customized the environment variable names.

Raises

ValueError when given a default value

Changed in version 1.0: This value class has the environ_required parameter turned to True.

SECRET_KEY = values.SecretValue()

Value mixins

class CastingMixin[source]

A mixin to be used with one of the Value subclasses that requires a caster class attribute of one of the following types:

  • dotted import path, e.g. 'mysite.utils.custom_caster'

  • a callable, e.g. int

Example:

class TemparatureValue(CastingMixin, Value):
    caster = 'mysite.temperature.fahrenheit_to_celcius'

Optionally it can take a message class attribute as the error message to be shown if the casting fails. Additionally an exception parameter can be set to a single or a tuple of exception classes that are required to be handled during the casting.

class ValidationMixin[source]

A mixin to be used with one of the Value subclasses that requires a validator class attribute of one of the following types: The validator should raise Django’s ValidationError to indicate a failed validation attempt.

  • dotted import path, e.g. 'mysite.validators.custom_validator'

  • a callable, e.g. bool

Example:

class TemparatureValue(ValidationMixin, Value):
    validator = 'mysite.temperature.is_valid_temparature'

Optionally it can take a message class attribute as the error message to be shown if the validation fails.

class MultipleMixin[source]

A mixin to be used with one of the Value subclasses that enables the return value of the to_python to be interpreted as a dictionary of settings values to be set at once, instead of using the return value to just set one setting.

A good example for this mixin is the EmailURLValue value which requires setting many EMAIL_* settings.