How do I import a local module in a Mako template?

Question

Suppose we have a local python module in the same directory as a mako template: ./my_template.mako ./my_module/module.py

How do I import that module into a Mako template that is supposed to be rendered from the command line using mako-render? The following does not work:

<%! import my_module.module %>

It seems that the local path is not part of the search path. However, putting each custom module into the global path is not an option.

Answer 1

My guess is that you are missing the __init__.py in your ./my_module folder that is required for my_module to be a package. This file can be left empty, it just needs to be present to create the package.

Here is a working example doing what you describe.

Directory Layout

.
├── example.py
├── my_module
│   ├── __init__.py    <----- You are probably missing this.
│   └── module.py
└── my_template.mako

Files

example.py

from mako.template import Template
print Template(filename='my_template.mako').render()

my_template.mako

<%! import my_module.module %>
${my_module.module.foo()}

module.py

def foo():
    return '42'

__init__.py

# Empty

Running the Example

>> python example.py

42