Re: [Configobj-develop] new to configobj - questions

[Michael F. <fuz...@vo...>]

Jeremy Gray wrote:
> Hi Michael and everyone,
>
> I'm new to using configobj, and like it a lot. thanks for your work on this!
>
> I have 3 hopefully simple questions that I could not figure out after
> reading the online manuals / help pages or past postings to the list.
>
> my goal: I want allow users to edit their application preferences, eg,
> key-bindings and other settings for the app. I'm storing the settings
> in text files with syntax as expected by configobj, and have a spec
> file for default values and for validation purposes. the idea is to
> let users edit their config files in a text window, validate their
> entries, and save. Mostly this works fabulously. the eventual goal is
> to do this through a GUI, but its text for now. I'm using python 2.5,
> and need to end up with code that works cross-platform (mac, win,
> linux).
>
> here's what I'm asking about: if a user enters a badly formed value
> (i.e., that fails validation against the spec file), I've been using
> the flatten_errors() function to process it further, like this
> mock-code (hopefully indentation will be preserved when posted...):
> <code>
>     for (section_list, key, _) in configobj.flatten_errors(cfg,
> resultOfValidate):
>             if key is not None:
>                 print "Bad value"
>                 # code here to replace the bad value with the default
> given in the spec file
>             else:
>                 print "Missing section"
>                 # code here to handle missing sections
> </code>
>
> my questions:
> 1. how to restore a default value?
> I tried using restore_default(), but I kept getting key errors (and
> tried several things as keys). 
This is very odd. There is a passing test for restore_default, but when 
I call it myself it doesn't work.

I need to investigate, but at least I have a failing test. 
restore_default and restore_defaults should just work...

> I also tried get_default_value(), but
> am confused by how to call it, and what to pass to it. 

get_default_value takes the configspec check string. You could call it 
like this:

 >>> from configobj import ConfigObj
 >>> from validate import Validator
 >>> a = ['foo = fish']
 >>> b = ['foo = integer(default=3)']
 >>> c = ConfigObj(a, configspec=b)
 >>> c
ConfigObj({'foo': 'fish'})
 >>> v = Validator()
 >>> c.validate(v)
False
 >>> v.get_default_value(c.configspec['foo'])
3

It shouldn't be necessary though.

I have a version 4.7 in the works that I am part way through with 
various improvements / bugfixes so I can make sure this issue is included.

> I wrote a few
> lines to extract the default value from the spec file as a string and
> then convert the type (which mostly works, I'm just having trouble
> getting default lists to work properly). it would be nice to use the
> existing functions. any ideas?
>
> 2. how are missing sections reported by a Validator()? I was thinking
> that they would be indicated by the key being None, based on the
> example(s) on the web, but my code never hits the "missing section"
> part. if a user deletes a section, the section name appears to be
> deleted in the config file, but there's no missing section flagged as
> a key == None in flatten_errors(). if the user then adds the [section]
> back into the text, I get a duplicate section name error. so I am
> confused -- what should I be looking for?
>   

I'm not seeing that behavior, can you provide a minimal repro. Here is a 
small example of using flatten_errors where a missing section is 
represented with None for the key value:

 >>> from configobj import ConfigObj, flatten_errors
 >>> from validate import Validator
 >>> a = ['baz = 3']
 >>> b = ['baz = integer', '[foo]', 'bar=integer']
 >>> c = ConfigObj(a, configspec=b)
 >>> v = Validator()
 >>> r = c.validate(v)
 >>> r
{'foo': False, 'baz': True}
 >>> flatten_errors(c, r)
[(['foo'], None, False)]
 
> 3. finally, does anyone know of an existing project I could look at
> (and borrow from) that uses wxPython for a GUI for letting users
> manipulate configobj data? I found a relevant post to this list by
> Sebastian Wiesner on Aug 12, 2008 that linked to examples using PyQt4
> (http://paste.pocoo.org/show/79974/ ) -- is there anything using
> wxPython?
>
>   

I can't help with this one I'm afraid.

Michael

> thanks!
>
> --Jeremy
>
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