Is the naming convention in django mandatory?

Question

In Django you name your files like models.py, views.py, urls.py and so on. I wonder, if this naming convention is mandatory for Django. Will Django's functionality break if you place your models in a file called foo.py? I mean, only the import-line should change, right? Or is there any magic with this named files done by the framework?

Of course, I won't give my files shitty names; but I am just curious.

For the sake of anyone maintaining your project afterwards, I would strongly suggest that you stick to the conventions and use `models.py` `urls.py` and `views.py`. If organisation is an issue you can use `models` and `views` subfolders but I would really recommend sticking with the nomenclature — Timmy O'Mahony, Nov 03 '14 at 14:21

score 3 · Accepted Answer · answered Nov 03 '14 at 14:08

views, urls can be configured.

url: You can defined your one urls by setting <project>.settings.ROOT_URLCONF, and include your apps' urls.
views: Import your views or use view names as you want.

But for models, there's assumption about the model module name in the django code and other third-party apps. (https://github.com/django/django/blob/stable/1.7.x/django/apps/config.py#L9)

score 1 · Answer 2 · edited May 23 '17 at 10:28

The best is to create modules instead for a couple of reasons:

you'll keep it consistent with Django conventions making it easier for others to work on it
you can give more descriptive appropriate names to your files
you will avoid really long files

So you'd have:

- my_application
  - urls
    - sub_set_urls_1.py
    - etc.
  - models
    __init__.py <= import your models in here
    sub_set_models_1.py
    etc.
  - views
    sub_set_views_1.py
    etc.

It's a bit more involved for the models, you need to import the models in __init__.py. Another way is to have a models.py file and put your models somewhere else: Split models.py into several files

Is the naming convention in django mandatory?

2 Answers2