Command Line Interface

Installing Protean installs the protean script, a Click command line interface, in your virtualenv. Executed from the terminal, this script gives access to built-in, extension, and application-defined commands. The --help option will give more information about any commands and options.

Application Discovery

The protean command is installed by Protean, not your application; it must be told where to find your application in order to use it. The PROTEAN_DOMAIN environment variable is used to specify how to load the application.

$ export PROTEAN_DOMAIN=shipping
$ protean server

While PROTEAN_DOMAIN supports a variety of options for specifying your application, most use cases should be simple. Here are the typical values:

(nothing)

The name “domain” or “subdomain” is imported (as a “.py” file, or package), automatically detecting an app (domain or subdomain).

PROTEAN_DOMAIN=shipping

The given name is imported, automatically detecting a domain (domain or subdomain).

PROTEAN_DOMAIN has three parts: an optional path that sets the current working directory, a Python file or dotted import path, and an optional variable name of the instance or factory. If the name is a factory, it can optionally be followed by arguments in parentheses. The following values demonstrate these parts:

PROTEAN_DOMAIN=src/shipping

Sets the current working directory to src then imports shipping.

PROTEAN_DOMAIN=shipping.domain

Imports the path shipping.domain.

PROTEAN_DOMAIN=shipping:dom2

Uses the dom2 Flask instance in shipping.

If PROTEAN_DOMAIN is not set, the command will try to import “domain” or “subdomain” (as a “.py” file, or package) and try to detect a domain instance.

Within the given import, the command looks for a domain instance named domain or subdomain, then any domain instance.

Run the Development Server

The server command will start the background development server:

$ protean server
 * Starting server...