clevertext 0.1

Keep and compare a history of changes to your Python strings.

CleverText

Work in progress... copied from CleverDict

>CONTENTS

1. OVERVIEW
2. INSTALLATION
3. INPUT METHODS
4. OUTPUT METHODS
5. ATTRIBUTE NAMES AND ALIASES
6. DEEPER DIVE INTO ATTRIBUTE NAMES
7. SETTING AN ATTRIBUTE WITHOUT CREATING A DICTIONARY ITEM
8. THE AUTO-SAVE FEATURE
9. CREATING YOUR OWN AUTO-SAVE FUNCTION
10. CONTRIBUTING
11. CREDITS

1. OVERVIEW

CleverText is a convenience class that behaves almost exactly like regular Python string but also contain its own self-contained version history and record of actions. It is mainly intented for recording and comparing different states of text (string, HTML, JSON, code etc) as various transformations (replacements, deletions, validation, parsing) are applied to it. Built in CleverText methods (e.g. diff()) are readily available for ETL style processing, and can be added easily and consistently, allowing you to segregate common text manipulation function from your main control code for example.

2. INSTALLATION

Very lightweight install via pip. No dependencies.

python -m pip install clevertext --upgrade

Then from your Python shell just import the class...

>>> from clevertext import CleverText

3. INPUT METHODS

You can create a CleverText instance using keyword arguments:

>>> x = CleverText("This is the my first draft")

4. OUTPUT METHODS

5. ATTRIBUTES

6. BUILT-IN METHODS

7. ADDING YOUR OWN METHODS

8. ENABLING AUTO-SAVE

9. CREATING YOUR OWN AUTO-SAVE/AUTO-DELETE FUNCTION

As well as autosave/autodelete options baked in to CleverText, you can set pretty much any custom function to run automatically when a CleverText value is created, changed, or deleted, for example to update a database, save to a file, or synchronise with cloud storage etc. Less code for you, and less chance you'll forget to explicitly call that crucial update function...

This can be enabled at a class level, or by creating subclasses of CleverText with different options, or an object/instance level. We strongly recommend the object/instance approach wherever possible, but you have the choice.

Autosaving a particular object/instance:

You can either overwrite the .save() / .delete() methods when you create your object, or use .set_autosave() / .set_autodelete() after the event:

Autosaving at a class level:

Simple to do, but beware this could change all existing CleverText instances as well as all future ones:

>>> CleverText.save = your_save_function
>>> CleverText.delete = your_delete_function

Creating Subclasses:

If you create a subclass of CleverText remember to call super().__init__() before trying to set any further class or object attributes, otherwise you'll run into trouble:

class AutoStore(CleverText):
    def __init__(self, *args, **kwargs):
        self.setattr_direct('index', [])
        super().__init__(*args, **kwargs)

    def save(self, name, value):
        """ Keep a separate 'store' for data in .index """
        self.index.append((name, value))

class AutoConfirm(CleverText): pass
    def __init__(self, *args, **kwargs):
        super().__init__(*args, **kwargs)

    def save(self, name, value):
        """ Print confirmation of the latest change """
        print(f"{name.title()}: {value.upper()}")

CONTRIBUTING METHODS AS PULL REQUESTS

10. CONTRIBUTING TO THE CORE DESIGN

We'd love to see Pull Requests (and relevant tests) from other contributors, particularly if you can help:

• Evolve CleverText to make it play nicely with other classes and formats. For example: datetime.
• Put the finishing touches on the docstrings to enable autocompletion in modern IDEs (this is neither the author's strong suit nor his passion!).
• Improve the structure and coverage of test_clevertext.py.

For a list of all outstanding Feature Requests and (heaven forbid!) actual Issues please have a look here and maybe you can help out?

https://github.com/PFython/clevertext/issues?q=is%3Aopen+is%3Aissue

11. CREDITS

CleverText was conceived by Peter Fison and co-developed with the expert assistance of Ruud van der Ham from the friendly and excellent Pythonista Cafe forum (www.pythonistacafe.com).

It follows on from the success of CleverDict which is similar in concept and well worth checking out if you haven't already.

If you find clevertext helpful, please feel free to: