How do I set my settings.py variables via views and forms?

Using Django Getting Started
1

Hi there,

I want to set my variables in settings.py through the front-end using Views and Forms.

Let’s say, I have following in settings.py:

# My personal settings

NO_OF_DAYS = 0

and I have following in my forms.py:

def class SettingsForm(froms.Form):
    no_of_days = forms.CharField(max_length=254)

Now, I want mixture of views and forms, something like below in my views.py:

from django.conf import settings
from .forms import SettingsForm

class UpdateSettings(View):
    def get(self, request):
        settings_form = SettingsForm()
        return render(request, "settings-template.html", "form": settings_form)

    def post(self, request):
        settings_form = SettingsForm(request.POST)
        if settings_form.is_valid():
            form_data = settings_form.cleaned_data

            settings.NO_OF_DAYS = int(form_data["no_of_days"]) # I WANT SOMETHING LIKE THIS, BUT I WANT SETTINGS.PY TO STORE THE VALUE FOREVER, NOT JUST IN THIS VIEW
 
            return redirect("/success/")

How do I accomplish it?

2

You don’t. You don’t change settings after startup, and you certainly don’t write to your settings.py file from within your application.

If you need more dynamic settings, you create a model to store those settings, and refer to the values from the model when they’re needed.

1 Like
3

and refer to the values from the model when they’re needed.

how can I do this? I can’t seem to import models into settings.py

4

Welcome @adelbordbari !

You are correct, you can’t.

This depends upon the setting and what you’re doing with it.

If you’re talking about fundamental settings such as DATABASES or INSTALLED_APPS, then you can’t. Change to these require the file be changed and the app restarted.

On the other hand, if you have “user-defined” settings that you access elsewhere in your system from django.conf.settings, those should be set as data in a model.

5

that’s great, appreciate it.

is this solution feasible:

  1. have a model (with key-value fields) to store custom settings
  2. restart the server every time an instance is created/updated/deleted
  3. write the instances as VARIABLE=value into settings.py

do I write the variables into settings.py and then restart or? should I restart the server using management commands? monitor instance changes with signals? i’m kinda lost.

6

Personally, I would write the new settings file to a different name, then have your restart process copy the new file to the settings file. (Including a check to determine the validity of that file before replacement.)

This depends upon how you’re running your server. If you’ve got your server running by a systemd service, you’d need to issue the systemctl restart command on it.

I’m not sure what you’re asking here. If you’ve got a view that is letting you update settings, then you know when settings have been changed. There’s no need or value to using signals with this.

7

Are you implying that it is possible to have the user-defined settings in a model and access those model values from django.conf.settings? If that’s the case, could please help with code example of how this can be achieved?

8

Nope. Not at all.

What I’m saying is that when you need to use those settings in your views, you reference them from the model rather than from django.conf.settings.

9

Okay. Thanks for the clarification