The problem

factory_boy/__init__.py uses this pattern for its optional sub-packages:

try:
    from . import alchemy
except ImportError:
    pass

I have a Django project that uses factory_boy a lot, and imports it even in view code. It also happens that the project has sqlalchemy installed for another tool, but it doesn’t use it directly.

On a importtime-waterfall profile, I noticed that importing factory_boy.alchemy takes ~300ms, nearly all in sqlalchemy and its submodules.

It would be great if importing factory_boy didn’t automatically import sqlalchemy.

Proposed solution

Defer the few sqlalchemy imports in factory.alchemy to the functions that use them. Drop the except ImportError pattern in factory_boy since it should then work regardless of whether sqlalchemy is installed.

Extra notes

None.