Development Setup

This guide explains how to set up your local environment for writing migration scripts.

Prerequisite: The Submodule

This repository uses the official Specify 7 repository as a git submodule. Ensure it is initialized:

git submodule update --init --recursive

Python Environment

1. Install Requirements:

   pip install -r requirements.txt
   

2. Configuration: The migration scripts need to connect to a database (either local or tunneled).

   • Copy config/local_specify_settings.py (it is git-ignored).
   • Edit it with your database credentials.

The Bootstrap Mechanism

To use the Specify 7 Django ORM in standalone scripts, we use a bootstrap.py helper.

How it works

1. Adds the specify7 submodule to sys.path.
2. Injects config.local_specify_settings into sys.modules as specifyweb.settings.local_specify_settings.
3. Calls django.setup().

Writing a Script

Start your script with:

import bootstrap
bootstrap.setup()

from specifyweb.specify.models import Collection, Accession

# Now you can use the ORM!
print(Collection.objects.count())