django-constance/docs/index.rst

Constance - Dynamic Django settings
===================================

Features
--------

* Easily migrate your static settings to dynamic settings.
* Admin interface to edit the dynamic settings.

.. image:: screenshot2.png

Installation
------------

Install from PyPI the backend specific variant of django-constance:

For the (default) Redis backend::

    pip install "django-constance[redis]"

For the database backend::

    pip install "django-constance[database]"

Alternatively -- if you're sure that the dependencies are already
installed -- you can also run::

    pip install django-constance

Configuration
-------------

Modify your ``settings.py``. Add ``'constance'`` to your
:setting:`INSTALLED_APPS`, and move each key you want to turn dynamic into
the :setting:`CONSTANCE_CONFIG` section, like this:

.. code-block:: python

    INSTALLED_APPS = (
        ...
        'constance',
    )

    CONSTANCE_CONFIG = {
        'THE_ANSWER': (42, 'Answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, '
                           'The Universe, and Everything'),
    }

Here, ``42`` is the default value for the key ``THE_ANSWER`` if it is
not found in the backend. The other member of the tuple is a help text the
admin will show.

See the :ref:`Backends <backends>` section how to setup the backend and
finish the configuration.

``django-constance``'s hashes generated in different instances of the same
application may differ, preventing data from being saved. 

Use this option in order to skip hash verification.

.. code-block:: python

    CONSTANCE_IGNORE_ADMIN_VERSION_CHECK = True

Custom fields
-------------

You can set the field type by the third value in the `CONSTANCE_CONFIG`
tuple. The value can be string or one of the supported types:

.. code-block:: python

        'THE_ANSWER': (42, 'Answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, '
                                   'The Universe, and Everything', str),

If you can add your custom field types, you can use the
`CONSTANCE_ADDITIONAL_FIELDS` variable. Note that you must
use later evaluated strings instead of direct classes:

.. code-block:: python

        CONSTANCE_ADDITIONAL_FIELDS = {
            'yes_no_null_select': ['django.forms.fields.ChoiceField', {
                'widget': 'django.forms.Select',
                'choices': (("-----", None), ("yes", "Yes"), ("no", "No"))
            }],
        }

        CONSTANCE_CONFIG = {
            'MY_SELECT_KEY': ('yes', 'select yes or no', 'yes_no_null_select'),
        }

Usage
-----

Constance can be used from your Python code and from your Django templates.

Python
^^^^^^

Accessing the config variables is as easy as importing the config
object and accessing the variables with attribute lookups::

    from constance import config

    # ...

    if config.THE_ANSWER == 42:
        answer_the_question()

Django templates
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

To access the config object from your template you can either
pass the object to the template context:

.. code-block:: python

    from django.shortcuts import render
    from constance import config

    def myview(request):
        return render(request, 'my_template.html', {'config': config})

Or you can use the included config context processor.:

.. code-block:: python

    TEMPLATE_CONTEXT_PROCESSORS = (
        # ...
        'constance.context_processors.config',
    )

This will add the config instance to the context of any template
rendered with a ``RequestContext``.

Then, in your template you can refer to the config values just as
any other variable, e.g.:

.. code-block:: django

    <h1>Welcome on {{ config.SITE_NAME }}</h1>
    {% if config.BETA_LAUNCHED %}
        Woohoo! Head over <a href="/sekrit/">here</a> to use the beta.
    {% else %}
        Sadly we haven't launched yet, click <a href="/newsletter/">here</a>
        to signup for our newletter.
    {% endif %}

Editing
-------

Fire up your ``admin`` and you should see a new app called ``Constance``
with ``THE_ANSWER`` in the ``Config`` pseudo model.

By default changing the settings via the admin is only allowed for super users.
But in case you want to use the admin's ability to implement custom
authorization checks, feel free to set the :setting:`CONSTANCE_SUPERUSER_ONLY`
setting to ``False`` and give the users or user groups access to the
``constance.change_config`` permission.

.. figure:: screenshot1.png

   The virtual application ``Constance`` among your regular applications.

Custom settings form
--------------------

If you aim at creating a custom settings form this is possible in the following
way: You can inherit from ``ConstanceAdmin`` and set the ``form`` property on
your custom admin to use your custom form. This allows you to define your own
formsets and layouts, similar to defining a custom form on a standard
Django ModelAdmin. This way you can fully style your settings form and group
settings the way you like.

.. code-block:: python

    from constance.admin import ConstanceAdmin, ConstanceForm, Config
    class CustomConfigForm(ConstanceForm):
          def __init__(self, *args, **kwargs):
            super(CustomConfigForm, self).__init__(*args, **kwargs)
            #... do stuff to make your settings form nice ...

    class ConfigAdmin(ConstanceAdmin):
        form = CustomConfigForm
        change_list_template = 'admin/config/settings.html'

    admin.site.unregister([Config])
    admin.site.register([Config], ConfigAdmin)


More documentation
------------------

.. toctree::
   :maxdepth: 2

   backends
   testing
   changes

Indices and tables
==================

* :ref:`genindex`
* :ref:`modindex`
* :ref:`search`