Learn how to package non-Python assets into your Python Package

package-non-python-assets.md

Package non-Python Assets into your Python Package

There are times where you may need to include non-Python assets in your Python package for distribution. This may include data files or JSON assets from a submodule for example that your Python package needs to reference. By default, Python will not include these assets in the bdist/sdist. You can either include an empty __init__.py file in that submodule (even if the project isn't Python) and rely on the magic of packages=setuptools.find_packages() in setup.py or you can explicitly include those non-Python assets by using the following steps.

1. In setup.py, include an array of locations to include. These are glob matching patterns. An example of this looks like the following:

package_data={
    'top_level_package': [
        'path/to/assets/one/*.json',
        'path/to/assets/two/*.json',
    ],
},

2. Now to properly reference these JSON files, you need to use pkg_resources, otherwise your package won't be able to properly find the assets (relative or full path):

data_file = pkg_resources.resource_stream('top_level_package', 'path/to/asset')
json_data = json.load(data_file)
print(json_data)

Additional Resources

• Datafile support in setup.py
• Package Resources (referencing data)
• Including files in an sdist - I will say that my files were included in both bdist and sdist without including a MANIFEST.in file, your mileage may vary depending on how you package your distribution