distribute and reference static content in a python package

[Vince Forgetta]

I assume this is an appropriate solution to my problem:

http://docs.python.org/distutils/setupscript.html#installing-additional-files



On Thu, 2012-02-02 at 13:42 -0500, Vince Forgetta wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> I have developed a python program that contains multiple python modules
> and static content in the form of fonts (pil,pbm and tff files),  html,
> images, css and javascript.
> 
> I want to share the program with others as a python package. I have
> followed the instructions at 
> 
> http://guide.python-distribute.org/creation.html
> 
> I have created an identical structure (apart from directory naming) as
> specified in the link, with the exception of a "static" directory within
> the module directory (towelstuff in the example). Within this directory
> are sub-directories named "css", "html", "images", "fonts" and "js".
> 
> TowelStuff/
>     bin/
>         run.py
>     CHANGES.txt
>     docs/
>     LICENSE.txt
>     MANIFEST.in
>     README.txt
>     setup.py
>     towelstuff/
>         __init__.py
>         module1.py
>         module2.py
>         static/
>             images/someimage.png
>             css/
>             html/
>             js/
>             fonts/
> 
> 
> When the user install the program using "python setup.py install", the
> modules (in towelstuff) are copied to the common python library path
> (e.g. /usr/lib/python2.7/site-packages/), but the static content is not
> (understandably).
> 
> What is common method to distribute static content, and how to I make
> reference to it in my python program?
> 
> For programs in TowelStuff/bin (i.e. run.py), I currently make reference
> to the static content like so:
> 
> sys.path[0] + "../towelstuff/static/images/someimage.png"
> 
> I am sure there is a more pythonic way of doing this ...
> 
> Thanks in advance for the help.
> 
> Vince