modifying local environment in python

Question

I need to inject same variables into settings.py for multiple django apps.hence i wrote a module which takes in output of local() and modifies. This works but is it the right way to do things?

def enable_theme(theme_name, container):
"""
Enable the settings for a custom theme, whose files should be stored
in ENV_ROOT/themes/THEME_NAME (e.g., edx_all/themes/stanford).
The THEME_NAME setting should be configured separately since it can't
be set here (this function closes too early). An idiom for doing this
is:
 THEME_NAME = "stanford"
 enable_theme(THEME_NAME)
"""
 container["THEME_NAME"] = theme_name
 container['MITX_FEATURES']['USE_CUSTOM_THEME'] = True
 # Calculate the location of the theme's files
 theme_root = container['THEME_ROOT'] / "themes" / theme_name
 # Include the theme's templates in the template search paths
 container['TEMPLATE_DIRS'].append(theme_root / 'templates')
 container['THEME_SASS_DIRECTORY'] = theme_root / 'static/saas'
 container['MAKO_TEMPLATES']['main'].append(theme_root / 'templates')
 # Namespace the theme's static files to 'themes/<theme_name>' to
 # avoid collisions with default edX static files
 container['STATICFILES_DIRS'].append((u'themes/%s' % theme_name,
 theme_root / 'static'))
 container['FAVICON_PATH'] = 'themes/%s/images/favicon.ico' % theme_name
#Test case
from theming_utils.template_customizer import enable_theme
THEME_NAME = "sokratik"
PIPELINE = False
MITX_FEATURES['USE_DJANGO_PIPELINE'] = False
DEBUG = True
TEMPLATE_DEBUG = True
enable_theme(THEME_NAME, locals())

• unholysampler: The code you posted doesn't use local(). Also, you need to format your code so that it shows up correctly.

Answer 1

You're not trying to modify a local environment, you're trying to modify the module's dictionary, which you can access by calling globals().

Note: the dictionary returned by locals() isn't meant to be modified.

• himangshuj: that explains a bit of stuff, in case I am actually using globals, is it fine to modify globals in this way??
• Changaco: It's okay to modify a module's dictionary, I don't know whether or not it's the right way to handle themes in Django.