Relative imports require the 'package' argument

Question

I want to use Sphinx so it can automatically generate a pydoc for my python code but I'm getting an error. What an I doing wrong?

conf.py sphinx config file

import sys
import os
from django.conf import settings
os.environ['DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE'] = '../cloud_server.settings'

sys.path.insert(0, os.path.abspath('../cloud_server/cloud_api'))

views.py django file

from django.contrib.auth.models import User, Group
from rest_framework import viewsets
from cloud_api.serializers import UserSerializer, GroupSerializer


class UserViewSet(viewsets.ModelViewSet):
    """
    API endpoint that allows users to be viewed or edited.
    """
    queryset = User.objects.all()
    serializer_class = UserSerializer


class GroupViewSet(viewsets.ModelViewSet):
    """
    API endpoint that allows users to be viewed or edited.
    """
    queryset = Group.objects.all()
    serializer_class = GroupSerializer

Typeerror error thrown when I'm trying to make the html file.

    C:\Users\ogward\STUDPROJ\docs\code.rst:3: WARNING: autodoc: failed to import module u'views'; the following exception wa
s raised:
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "C:\Python27\lib\site-packages\sphinx-1.2.2-py2.7.egg\sphinx\ext\autodoc.py", line 335, in import_object
    __import__(self.modname)
  File "C:\Users\ogward\STUDPROJ\cloud_server\cloud_api\views.py", line 1, in <module>
    from django.contrib.auth.models import User, Group
  File "C:\Python27\lib\site-packages\django\contrib\auth\__init__.py", line 6, in <module>
    from django.middleware.csrf import rotate_token
  File "C:\Python27\lib\site-packages\django\middleware\csrf.py", line 14, in <module>
    from django.utils.cache import patch_vary_headers
  File "C:\Python27\lib\site-packages\django\utils\cache.py", line 26, in <module>
    from django.core.cache import get_cache
  File "C:\Python27\lib\site-packages\django\core\cache\__init__.py", line 69, in <module>
    if DEFAULT_CACHE_ALIAS not in settings.CACHES:
  File "C:\Python27\lib\site-packages\django\conf\__init__.py", line 54, in __getattr__
    self._setup(name)
  File "C:\Python27\lib\site-packages\django\conf\__init__.py", line 49, in _setup
    self._wrapped = Settings(settings_module)
  File "C:\Python27\lib\site-packages\django\conf\__init__.py", line 128, in __init__
    mod = importlib.import_module(self.SETTINGS_MODULE)
  File "C:\Python27\lib\site-packages\django\utils\importlib.py", line 33, in import_module
    raise TypeError("relative imports require the 'package' argument")
TypeError: relative imports require the 'package' argument
looking for now-outdated files... none found
pickling environment... done
checking consistency... done
preparing documents... done
writing output... [ 50%] code
writing output... [100%] index

writing additional files... genindex search
copying static files... done
copying extra files... done
dumping search index... done
dumping object inventory... done
build succeeded, 1 warning.

Solution 1

DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE is expected to be a Python module identifier, not a filesystem path. Looking at the django/conf/__init__py file, it seems that a relative path to your settings module won't work there. You will need to move it below a directory listed in your sys.path, or you should add a parent directory to your sys.path and reference your settings module from there.

Solution 2

I came to this question via Google, so I'll answer what helped me (not directly related to the question).

I use importlib to dynamically import sub-packages given by a string.

import importlib
module_name = 'subpackage.i.import'
special_module = importlib.import_module(module_name, package=None)

This simply has to be adjusted to

import importlib
module_name = 'subpackage.i.import'
special_module = importlib.import_module(module_name, package='my_current_pkg')

Solution 3

You can also get this error simply if you have a typo in where you're specifying your settings file name.

Solution 4

you need to add your project path to sys path just like

sys.path.append("C:\\Users\\ogward\\STUDPROJ") 
os.environ['DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE'] = '../cloud_server.settings'
 

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Comments

[devmike01]

This might only work on a local machine but would cause problems when you try to deploy on a remote server.