How to declare folder name as global?

Question

I have asked similar question at stackoverflow but posting here as well since it involves ArcGIS and python Add-In. Following code shows first step where i have to declare output folder as global so that later outputs can be saved in it as well. Right now I am getting an error at output folder string r'optfile/ras1'. Any help how to correctly store files in output folder and declare it as global would be appreciative.

import arcpy
import os
import pythonaddins

from datetime import datetime

now = datetime.now()
month = now.month
year = now.year

optfile = "C:/temp/"+str(year)+"_"+str(month)

class DrawRectangle(object):
"""Implementation for rectangle_addin.tool (Tool)"""
    def __init__(self):
        self.enabled = True
        self.cursor = 1
        self.shape = 'Rectangle'
        os.makedirs(optfile)        

def onRectangle(self, rectangle_geometry):
    """Occurs when the rectangle is drawn and the mouse button is released.
    The rectangle is a extent object."""

    extent = rectangle_geometry
    arcpy.Clip_management(r'D:/test', 
                          "%f %f %f %f" % (extent.XMin, extent.YMin, extent.XMax, extent.YMax), 
                          r'optfile/ras1', "#", "#", "NONE")
    arcpy.RefreshActiveView()

Answer 1

In the line where you call arcpy.Clip_management you reference r'optfile/ras1' which is a string, you want it to be:

os.path.join(optfile,ras1)

so that you can make use of the variable.