minform 0.1.0

WTForms/struct integration to validate and serialize to packed buffers of binary data.

The declarative ease of WTForms, the small data footprint of struct.

Why does Minform exist?

Because I wanted to write declarative data schemas, like Google’s protocol buffers, but with a little more power on the Python end.

What can Minform do for me?

Minform can add a lightweight binary protocol to your WTForms forms, or add validation and web form input to your binary protocols.

How does Minform work?

An awful lot like WTForms: you subclass minform.BinaryForm, and add BinaryFields as class properties. Here’s a quick example:

import minform

class MyForm(minform.BinaryForm):
    '''
    This is a subclass of wtforms.Form: you can validate data with it,
    construct it from an HTML form, extract the data as a Python dict, etc.
    '''
    first_name = minform.BytesField('First Name', max_length=10)
    last_name = minform.BytesField('Last Name', max_length=10)
    age = minform.UInt8Field('Age')

#               first_name (10)          last_name (10)           age (1)
packed_data = b'David\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00Donna\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x18'
form = MyForm.unpack(packed_data)
assert form.data == {
    'first_name': b'David',
    'last_name': b'Donna',
    'age': 24,
}

next_form = MyForm(first_name=b'Foo', last_name=b'Barsson', age=100)
packed = next_form.pack()
assert packed == b'Foo\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00Barsson\x00\x00\x00\x64'

Because the library is built on struct, binary serializations of a form’s data are in fixed-length buffers. This makes them easier to store, and easy to map onto relatively naive serializations of C structs. It also allows for clear documentation of the binary format, because the data maps predictably onto different positions in a packed buffer.

Compound BinaryFields allow you to create nested structures that still serialize into flat buffers.

class MyBigBadForm(minform.BinaryForm):
    """
    This is taking a turn for campy criminality.
    """
    riches = minforms.Int16Field()
    goons = minform.BinaryFieldList(Person, max_entries=4, length=minform.EXPLICIT)

squad = MyBigBadForm(riches=55223, goons=[
    {'first_name': 'Joey', 'last_name': 'Schmoey', 'age': 32},
    {'first_name': 'Manny', 'last_name': 'The Man', 'age': 40},
    {'first_name': 'Gerta', 'last_name': 'Goethe', 'age': 52},
])
assert squad.pack() == (b'\xd7\xb7' +                                  # riches
                        b'\x03' +                                      # goons prefix
                        b'Joey\0\0\0\0\0\0Schmoey\0\0\0\x32' +         # goons[0]
                        b'Manny\0\0\0\0\0The Man\0\0\0\x40' +          # goons[1]
                        b'Gerta\0\0\0\0\0Goethe\0\0\0\0\x52' +         # goons[2]
                        b'\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0)  # goons[3]

For more detailed examples, read the full docs at https://minform.readthedocs.org.

History

Hold your horses.