Azure Automation runbook with custom Python classes in multiple files

Question

I am developing multiple Python classes (in separate files) to be used in a runbook.
Azure DevOps (git) is used as version control with runbooks automatically syncing to Azure Automation.

I know there is a way to include the classes as modules in the environment but I don't want to do that.
Not yet, because I'm still developing those classes.

I could also pull the class files from DevOps separately but I do not want to that either.

Is there any way to include all the files the runbook needs in the runbook run?
My workaround currently is to concatenate all the files in one file, which works but is a bit nasty way of doing this.

Answer 1

Hello !

Thank you for posting on Microsoft Learn.

You're are right about the limitations compared to a typical python dev environment when dealing with multiple files or modules.

But you can zip them up as a module and upload them as a shared asset, or concatenate them into a single script, as you've done.

I am thinking about using Python import semantics within a single script where you wrap your modules as classes/functions within the same file, like this:

Structure in a single runbook:

# --- module_a.py ---
class HelperA:
    def do_something(self):
        print("Doing something from HelperA")
# --- module_b.py ---
class HelperB:
    def do_another_thing(self):
        print("Doing something from HelperB")
# --- main.py ---
def main():
    a = HelperA()
    a.do_something()
    b = HelperB()
    b.do_another_thing()
if __name__ == "__main__":
    main()

So, you write each module as a standalone .py file in your dev environment and u se a CI step or local script to auto-concatenate them in the right order into one file (runbook.py), before pushing to Azure Automation.

You can use a simple Python or shell script like:

cat module_a.py module_b.py main.py > runbook.py