Load Packages

Now that we have the environment basics set up, we can add the packages required for the project.

Packages are a collection of libraries, with each library containing pre-written code typically for some specific use. The Python Package Manager bundles these libraries together in a package, which makes it easier to download the entire package, rather than each library seperately.

We could add the packages individually, one-by-one, using the following pip command:

pip install package-name

However, its smarter to use the dependency management.

Dependency Management

The repo includes requirements files in the requirements folders, namely the base.txt, dev.txt and prod.txt. If you inspect each file you’ll see the the packages and their version numbers required. Note that the dev and prod file already include a link to the base file.

We’re only concerned with development at this stage. So install the required dev & base packages via the following command:

    On Linux & Mac:
pip install requirements/dev.txt

    On Windows:
pip install requirements\dev.txt

Note we referred to the nested folder where the requirements are contained. You could have changed directories into the requirements folder and achieved the same result via the following command:

pip install dev.txt