config2py 0.1.8

Simplified reading and writing configurations from various sources and formats

config2py

Simplified reading and writing configurations from various sources and formats.

To install: pip install config2py

Documentation

Illustrative example

from config2py import get_config, user_gettable
from dol import TextFiles
import os

my_configs = TextFiles('~/.my_configs/')  # Note, to run this, you'd need to have such a directory!
# (But you can also use my_configs = dict() if you want.)
config_getter = get_config(sources=[locals(), os.environ, my_configs, user_gettable(my_configs)])

Now let's see what happens when we do:

config_getter('SOME_CONFIG_KEY')

Well, it will first look in locals(), which is a dictionary containing local variables (this could happen, for example, if we're in a function and want to first see if there was an argument where we could find that value).

Assuming it doesn't find such a key in locals() it goes on to try to find it in os.environ, which is a dict containing system environment variables.

Assuming it doesn't find it there either (that is, doesn't find a file with that name in the directory ~/.my_configs/), it will prompt the user to enter the value of that key. The function finally returns with the value that the user entered.

But there's more!

Now look at what's in my_configs! If you've used TextFiles, look in the folder to see that there's a new file. Either way, if you do:

my_configs['SOME_CONFIG_KEY']

You'll now see the value the user entered.

This means what? This means that the next time you try to get the config:

config_getter('SOME_CONFIG_KEY')

It will return the value that the user entered last time, without prompting the user again.

A few notable tools you can import from config2py

• get_config: Get a config value from a list of sources. See more below.
• user_gettable: Create a GettableContainer that asks the user for a value, optionally saving it.
• ask_user_for_input: Ask the user for input, optionally masking, validating and transforming the input.
• get_app_data_folder: Returns the full path of a directory suitable for storing application-specific data.
• get_configs_local_store: Get a local store (mapping interface of local files) of configs for a given app or package name
• configs: A default local store (mapping interface of local files) for configs.

get_config

Get a config value from a list of sources.

This function acts as a mini-framework to construct config accessors including defining multiple sources of where to find these configs,

A source can be a function or a GettableContainer. (A GettableContainer is anything that can be indexed with brackets: obj[k], like dict, list, str, etc..).

Let's take two sources: a dict and a Callable.

>>> def func(k):
...     if k == 'foo':
...         return 'quux'
...     elif k == 'green':
...         return 'eggs'
...     else:
...         raise RuntimeError(f"I don't handle that: {k}")
>>> dict_ = {'foo': 'bar', 'baz': 'qux'}
>>> sources = [func, dict_]

See that get_config go through the sources in the order they were listed, and returns the first value it finds (or manages to compute) for the key:

get_config finds 'foo' in the very first source (func):

>>> get_config('foo', sources)
'quux'

But baz makes func raise an error, so it goes to the next source: dict_. There, it finds 'baz' and returns its value:

>>> get_config('baz', sources)
'qux'

On the other hand, no one manages to find a config value for 'no_a_key', so get_config raises an error:

>>> get_config('no_a_key', sources)
Traceback (most recent call last):
...
config2py.errors.ConfigNotFound: Could not find config for key: no_a_key

But if you provide a default value, it will return that instead:

>>> get_config('no_a_key', sources, default='default')
'default'

You can also provide a function that will be called on the value before it is returned. This is useful if you want to do some post-processing on the value, or if you want to make sure that the value is of a certain type:

This "search the next source if the previous one fails" behavior may not be what you want in some situations, since you'd be hiding some errors that you might want to be aware of. This is why allow you to specify what exceptions should actually be considered as "config not found" exceptions, through the config_not_found_exceptions argument, which defaults to Exception.

Further, your sources may return a value, but not one that you consider valid: For example, a sentinel like None. In this case you may want the search to continue. This is what the val_is_valid argument is for. It is a function that takes a value and returns a boolean. If it returns False, the search will continue. If it returns True, the search will stop and the value will be returned.

Finally, we have egress : Callable[[KT, TT], VT]. This is a function that takes a key and a value, and returns a value. It is called after the value has been found, and its return value is the one that is returned by get_config. This is useful if you want to do some post-processing on the value, or before you return the value, or if you want to do some caching.

>>> config_store = dict()
>>> def store_before_returning(k, v):
...    config_store[k] = v
...    return v
>>> get_config('foo', sources, egress=store_before_returning)
'quux'
>>> config_store
{'foo': 'quux'}

Note that a source can be a callable or a ``GettableContainer`` (most of the
time, a ``Mapping`` (e.g. ``dict``)).
Here, you should be compelled to use the resources of ``dol``
(https://pypi.org/project/dol/) which will allow you to make ``Mapping``s for all
sorts of data sources.

For more info, see: https://github.com/i2mint/config2py/issues/4