[mod_python] strange behavior of form + patch for mod_python

On 11/26/05, Rafal Zawadzki <bluszcz at jabberpl.org> wrote:
> When i set one checkbox, form['testkey'] result is key. When I set two or
> more, this is a list. IMVHO it is a BIG bug.

When the submitted form is being processed there is no way for it to
know how the form variables were created, whether by checkboxes, or
whatever.  So unless it sees a particular named variable more than
once, there is no way to anticipate you want a list rather than a
single value.  For most other input types other than checkboxes you
will almost always want a single value anyway, and not a list.

Also there is a lot of prior tradition that this is how python HTML
form processors should work.  For instance the standard cgi module
also does it this way.

What you can/should do instead is to just change it to a list in your
template if you want rather than patching mod_python.  You can easily
write a helper function as so:

  def force_as_list( v ):
     if type(v) is not type([]):
        return [v]
     return v
--
Deron Meranda