Python Golden Template

Creating a python package with all of the best practices can be daunting. I myself have spent a lot of time trying to figure this out so I decided to make a template with the goal of showing myself how to add each "feature" to my project. This post will be a brief overview of all the steps. Detailed documentation is on the readthedocs page associated with the template features include:

• python packaging with setup.py, README.md, CHANGELOG.md
• deploying to pypi with twine and continuous delivery with Gitlab
• deploying to conda with conda and continuous delivery with Gitlab
• creating docker containters and continuous delivery to gitlab registries and docker hub
• testing and code coverage on every commit with Gitlab and pytest
• documenting a package with readthedocs and gitlab pages and a custom domain
• command line interface with argparse
• badges to decorate your README.md

The excellent python packages used:

• pytest for testing
• pytest-cov for test coverage
• twine for pypi package deployment
• conda for anaconda package deployment
• sphinx for documentation
• sphinx_rtd_theme for the excellent readthedocs css theme
• argparse the awesome cli tool from the standard library

Non-python tools used (all open-source):

• gitlab.com for a package repository (similar to Github)
• readthedocs.org for hosting package documentation
• dockerhub for hosting public docker containers
• shields.io for some badges that are not provided by services
• pypi.org for python package repository
• anaconda.org for python conda package repository

Other than that everything is in the standard library! Python best practices are still confusing. Compiling all of these steps took me about a day of time to get just right even after I have already done it before.

If there are any more python best practices that should be added to the template please let me know!