[mod_python] Subclassing Session

Thanks for the help Jim. I just wanted to add that I am not really sure about the implementation of those 4 methods you suggested because they aren't in the docs, but I am going to take a look at the source code and figure out what they're doing.
Thanks again,
Tom


-----Original Message-----

> Date: Tue Jul 18 13:12:58 EDT 2006
> From: "Jim Gallacher" <jpg at jgassociates.ca>
> Subject: Re: [mod_python] Subclassing Session
> To: "Thomas J. Schirripa" <tommys at eden.rutgers.edu>
>
> Thomas J. Schirripa wrote:
> > Before stating my problem, let me say that I am running apache version 2.0.52, mod_python 3.2.8, python 2.3, all on Redhat Enterprise Linux WS release 4.
> > 
> > I am making some basic web utilities that require that I create sessions. Essentially, I want to use session ids created by mod_python to create a session folder where I can temporarily dump files  and manipulate stuff so I can generate some output for the client. Since I would be using this feature a lot, I thought it would be a good idea to make a subclass of BaseSession that added this functionality of making a folder with the session name. I made a file located somewhere else on my machine called SessDirectory.py, and it defines the class SessionDirectory. The file looks like this:
> > 
> > from Session import BaseSession
> > import os
> > 
> > class SessionDirectory(BaseSession):
> > 	def __init__(self, req, path=None, sid=None, secret=None, lock=1, timeout=0):
> > 		BaseSession.__init__(self, req, sid, secret, lock, timeout)
> > 		if path == None:
> > 			self.absPath = os.path.join(os.getcwd(), sid)
> > 		else:
> > 			self.absPath = os.path.join(path, sid)
> > 		os.mkdir(self.absPath, mode=0755)
> > 
> > It can take an absolute path to create the session directory, or it can take no path, in which case it creates the session directory in the current directory. When I try to instantiate the SessionDirectory object, the following exception is raised:
> > 
> > AttributeError: 'SessionDirectory' object has no attribute 'do_load'
> > 
> > I did some fishing around and looked at the source code of the session module. Apparently, BaseSession has a method called "load()" that makes a call to "do_load()". BaseSession does not define "do_load()", HOWEVER, it seems that the built in sublcasses of BaseSession (ie- FileSession, DbmSession, etc) all define a "do_load()" method.
> > 
> > My background is really in Java, and to me, it seems like BaseSession is an abstract class, but it has no signature for "do_load()" and I believe the exception would have been NotImplemented or something like that if there was a required implementation missing. 
> 
> This is a good suggestion, and it would make it easier to subclass
> BaseSession if the following methods existed and raised NotImplemented.
>  I suppose this info should be included in the docs as well and since I
> have the magic powers required I shall make it so. :)
> 
> Offhand I'd say the 4 methods you'll need to implement are:
> 
> do_load()
> do_save()
> do_delete()
> do_cleanup()
> 
> For your application do_delete and do_cleanup may be noop, as I'm sure
> you'll want to preserve your data.
> 
> > 
> > Also, why does BaseSession inherit from "dict" and not "UserDict". I wanted to see if "dict" had a "do_load()" method, but if it did, then the instantiation of SessionDirectory should have called the "do_load()" from dict. 
> 
> I'm not sure I get your point about the superiority of UserDict.
> According to the python docs, inheriting from dict is preferred:
> 
> """
> UserDict -- Class wrapper for dictionary objects
> 
> Note: This module is available for backward compatibility only. If you
> are writing code that does not need to work with versions of Python
> earlier than Python 2.2, please consider subclassing directly from the
> built-in dict type.
> """
> 
> Jim