Replace pkg_resources with importlib_resources

[tvuotila]

Fixes #90

Use importlib.resources.files (usage copied from documentation) instead of deprecated pkg_resources.resource_string (function documentation).

Install importlib-resources backport package on Python versions less than 3.9 (documentation on how to do that).

importlib.resources.files was introduced in Python 3.9 (function documentation). Use minimum version of 1.3 for importlib-resources package as that matches the Python 3.9 (compatibility table) I was importing the importlib-resources package wrong. I instead bumped the required Python version to 3.9.

[tvuotila]

Is there anything I can do to get this merged?

[yobuntu]

As python 3.12 is now the new stable python version and raise a deprecated warning on using pkg_resources api, this merge is really needed

[lafrech]

Was about to look into fixing this. Thanks @tvuotila for taking care of it.

[awtimmering]

Hoping to see this merged soon ...

[skupriienko]

I'm joining to the crowd waiting this PR merged soon...

[theodore86]

Bump

[rburhum]

Throw us a Christmas gift @lukasgraf Pretty please :-)

[hoetaek]

Hoping to see this merged too...

[aurelien-slodzian]

Hoping to see this merged too...

[Kolger]

Hoping to see this merged too...

[mredaelli]

Same. Maybe @buchi can help?

[daldbv314]

+1

[Va1a]

@buchi Save us please, deprecation warnings are ugly.

[rostisluvvv]

can you tell me if this update will be included in the master branch?

[saadshaikh3]

Hoping to see this merged too...

[francisco-ramirez-neostella]

bump

[jeff-2025-jp]

Can this fix be merged and released soon?

[acanalis]

@lukasgraf is this on your radar? Dependants on docxtpl are currently getting this warning:

...\docxcompose\properties.py:18:` UserWarning: pkg_resources is deprecated as an API. 
See https://setuptools.pypa.io/en/latest/pkg_resources.html. 
The pkg_resources package is slated for removal as early as 2025-11-30. 
Refrain from using this package or pin to Setuptools<81.

Any help with this issue will be much appreciated by many! Best to you 😎

[lukasgraf]

Hey @acanalis and everyone else,
I do not work for 4teamwork any more. So unfortunately I cannot help with a merge or release here, sorry! 😢

[barbich]

hi
is anyone operating a clean and reliable fork of the project which to switch to ?

[lafrech]

If people at 4teamwork are not interested in maintaining this anymore, the repo might even be transferred rather than forked. Could it be to [JazzBand](https://jazzband.co/about)? If only for security, to avoid giving it to some anonymous GH account. @buchi, is 4teamwork still interested in this? Would you be open to transfer (this and PyPI project) to volunteers? You may even keep it here and just invite external contributors.

[jdamian1310]

hi is anyone operating a clean and reliable fork of the project which to switch to ?

from july 2025
https://github.com/darkvisiontech/docxcompose

[jcardali]

@lukasgraf Who does still work for 4teamwork that you recommend reaching out to? Thanks!

[etienned]

@jcardali, maybe @buchi. Looks like is the only one who touch the project after @lukasgraf quit.

[jcardali]

@etienned I tagged him in #105 (comment), but no response yet 🤞

[zlonghofer]

@lukasgraf even if you're no longer with 4teamwork, perhaps you can point us to a reliable contact at the organization who could approve this PR and get eyes on making sure external contributors could approve a PR and publish a new version to PyPI? @buchi doesn't appear to be responsive.

It looks like we're only a few weeks out from possible package removal on the 30th of this month; perhaps darkvision's repo or another fork will be the best alternative, but it'd be a shame to need to publish a new package to PyPI instead of a new version!

[kairkhan713]

is there any forked and fixed repository? I want to add to my pyproject directly from github

[mitya57]

This backport needs to be imported differently: the module name is importlib_resources, not importlib.resources.

However, given that Python 3.8 EOL date was in October 2024, I think you can remove this backport completely and bump required Python to 3.9.

[tvuotila]

You are completely right!

I will bump the required Python to 3.9.

[kazuhiko-hotta]

I wish a maintainer would notice this pull request.

[matthuisman]

setuptools 82 was released 9th Feb 2026 and has removed pkg_resources
https://setuptools.pypa.io/en/stable/history.html

So importing docxcompose now causes

venv313\Lib\site-packages\docxcompose\composer.py:12: in <module>
    from docxcompose.properties import CustomProperties
venv313\Lib\site-packages\docxcompose\properties.py:18: in <module>
    import pkg_resources
E   ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'pkg_resources'

This affects all python versions that setuptools is released for

I suspect this will push someone to fork and publish a fixed version of this to pypi :)
If you do - please comment here

[matthuisman]

I think newer PR #113 should be preferred over this one :)
That has the pkg_import fix as well as migrating to pyproject etc

[matthuisman]

I have published a new pypi package called docxcompose3
Which is simply docxcompose with PR #113 and few fixes to packaging

https://pypi.org/project/docxcompose3/

You should be able to simply swap your dependency to this and then work with newer setuptools

Hopefully this can help others :)

[matthuisman]

looks like the maintainer of this repo came back / was replaced and there is a new version 2. which supports latest setuptools! yah
I will be removing my fork above :)

[tvuotila]

I will close this as the issue has been fixed on the main branch.