How to reference python package when filename contains a period

Actually, you can import a module with an invalid name. But you'll need to use imp for that, e.g. assuming file is named models.admin.py, you could do

import imp
with open('models.admin.py', 'rb') as fp:
    models_admin = imp.load_module(
        'models_admin', fp, 'models.admin.py',
        ('.py', 'rb', imp.PY_SOURCE)
    )

But read the docs on imp.find_module and imp.load_module before you start using it.

If you really want to, you can import a module with an unusual filename (e.g., a filename containing a '.' before the '.py') using the imp module:

>>> import imp
>>> a_b = imp.load_source('a.b', 'a.b.py')
>>> a_b.x
"I was defined in a.b.py!"

However, that's generally a bad idea. It's more likely that you're trying to use packages, in which case you should create a directory named "a", containing a file named "b.py"; and then "import a.b" will load a/b.py.

The file is called models/admin.py. (Source)

That is, it should be called admin.py in a directory called models.

Then you can import using from models.admin import *, assuming that it is in your Python path.

No, you can't import a python file as a module if its name contains a period (or a question mark, or exclamation mark, etc). A python module's name (not including the .py) must be a valid python name (ie can be used as a variable name).