My Python Script can't find a JSON file in the same directory

Question

I am practicing some API work in python 3.7 using API star 0.5.X and my python script can't find the .json file that is in the same folder as the python file. I am working on and running the script with Atom editor and I am working in a venv, which is fairly new to me.

I am using a helper function to load in the JSON data using a "with open()" statement. I have tried using the relative and absolute file paths, and in both instances it is unable to locate the file. I have tried launching the file in Atom using terminal and the MacOS finder. This is what I have so far:

import json
from typing import List
import os
from apistar import App, Route, types, validators
from apistar.http import JSONResponse

print(os.getcwd())
os.chdir('/Users/{myusernamehere}/100days/apistar')
print(os.getcwd())

#helpers
def _load_employee_data():
   with open('employees.json') as f:
       employees = json.loads(f.read())
       return employees

the second print statement prints the correct file path, being the one that 'employees.json' and 'app.py' are located in.

Answer 1

Since the problem is specific to your setup, it's hard to reproduce or provide a solution in code. Your code itself looks to be fine, but there are two things that are likely to be the cause of your issues:

• When your script is running, Python needs access to the appropriate source folders and installed packages; you should let something like virtualenv manage this through a virtual environment. From the terminal, you can load the appropriate virtual environment with:
  /path/to/your/venv/Scripts/activate.sh
  If you do, you should expect your script to find the same libraries it did during development in that virtual environment. Make sure you include something like a requirements.txt in your project to allow easy reinstalling of the same modules on a different machine, in a new virtual environment.
• Your script, when run by Python, has a 'working directory'. This is the directory that Python is started from and your script not being able to find the file (even though it may be in the same folder as the script itself) is probably due to Python being started from a different directory.

Answer 2

This was a problem due to how the Atom editor works. It was solved by switching to vim.

I only partially understand but apparently this had something to do with Atom having a separate temp directory for working files, or something of that nature. When using vim to edit the script, and then calling it in the terminal the problem was resolved.

Answer 3

Okay, So i had the same issue with i.c.w. VScode :

file = open('file.txt')
print(file.name)

resulted in FileNotFoundError

file.txt was 100% in the same folder... According to finder on my Mac, ánd the folder column in VS code!

i was pulling out my hair. Switched a lot of interpreters, local python and Conda, to Python 3.8 instead of 3.9, back to python 2.8. Nothing mattered.

Till I changed : file = open('file.txt') to: file = open('file.txt', 'a') It didn't suddenly work, but I saw immediately in the "folder column" of VScode a new file.txt file popping up. In an entirely different folder then where the pythonfile.py was located. So after that; I pushed all local repo's to their remotes; deleted the whole caboodle, and installed them one by one in a new folder through git clone. I opened a new workspace added those project folders and since then it works like a charm.

What exactly went wrong ; im sorry, I have no idea. But for me, a fresh install of the repo's and VScode workspace is what did the trick.