[mod_python] Setting parameter types with Publisher

Hi All,
Been playing around with mod_python for a few weeks now and am very 
impressed :-)

Recently I've found in my apps that I seem to be doing a lot of type 
checking and catching of empty strings -- because all parameters are 
passed as string and this causes problems with database criteria for 
example.

So I thought I'd hack publisher.py to make things a little easier. I 
include my changes below for discussion/criticism. Since I'm new to 
Python and mod_python any comments gratefully received :-)

-----------8<-----------------------------------------------------
First, add these lines to any actions scripts and customise as you wish 
(just like you would add __auth__ variables)...

# Identify which parameters to actions are longs and should
# be converted as such...

# Use zero if not long...
__long_or_zero__ = [ 'projectid', 'staffid' ]

# Use None if not long...
__long_or_None__ = [ 'jobid' ]


-----------8<-----------------------------------------------------
Secondly, add the following lines to publisher.py...

In the function handler, line 175, insert these lines:

         # Perform any type conversions
         args = process_types(req, module, args)

Just before the line:

         result = apply(object, (), args)

Then add these functions to the end of the file:

def process_types(req, object, args):
	"""Perform any type conversions"""
	
	if hasattr(object, "__long_or_zero__"):
		for p in object.__long_or_zero__:
		if args.has_key(p):
			args[p] = longOrZero(args[p])

	if hasattr(object, "__long_or_None__"):
		for p in object.__long_or_None__:
			if args.has_key(p):
				args[p] = longOrNone(args[p])
			
	return args
			
			
def longOrNone(p):
	"""Convert string parameter to long or if blank None"""
	try: return long(p)
	except ValueError: return None
	except TypeError: return None
		
	
def longOrZero(p):
	"""Convert string parameter to long or if blank zero"""
	try: return long(p)
	except ValueError: return 0
	except TypeError: return 0
	


Eric Clack
eric at bright-interactive.com
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