Python Project Issue: Import from parent folder or change project architecture
Question: I have a problem with my Python project. My project parses different recipe
websites for each recipe and writes the recipe data to a text file.

**My Problem:** I cannot import a python file/module that resides in the
parent directory. This file contains generic functions that parse webpages. I
get an error when I do so: "ValueError: Attempted relative import in non-
package"

**My solution:** I dont know what my solution is? I am thinking I either need
to find a way to import a file from the parent directory or to change my
project architecture so every domain parsing script sits in the same directory

**Project Architecture:**

    
    
    Test Folder:  
        __init__.py   
        UtilityFunctions.py     # the file I am importing  
        PerformAllIndexing.py 
        all_recipes:
            __init__.py
            index.py            # imports ../UtilityFunctions.py
        simply_recipes:
           __init__.py
            index.py            # imports ../UtilityFunctions.py
    

Each subdirectory contains a file called _index.py_ that can extract recipe
name, ingredients and directions for a specific website and writes it to a
text file.

I encourage you to download my project to get a detailed understanding of my
problem: <http://www.mediafire.com/?ynup22oe8ofam21>

_Can you tell me what I can do to import a python module from a parent
directory or how I can change my project architecture to make this work
without having repeating code(the code residing in UtilityFunctions.py)?_


Answer: Just add the Test Folder to the python sys.path so you can import it with no
problems.

    
    
    import sys
    # Add the Test Folder path to the sys.path list
    sys.path.append('/path/to/test/folder/')
    
    # Now you can import your module
    from test_folder import UtilityFunctions
    

