inspired by post on stackoverflow
    :param name: import path string like 'netshowlib.linux.provider_discovery'
    :return: module matching the import statement

def import_module(mod_str):
    """
    inspired by post on stackoverflow
    :param name: import path string like 'netshowlib.linux.provider_discovery'
    :return: module matching the import statement

    """

    _module = __import__(mod_str)
    _mod_parts = mod_str.split('.')
    for _mod_part in _mod_parts[1:]:
        _module = getattr(_module, _mod_part)
    return _module