The Voidspace Python Modules
Welcome to the home of the voidspace python modules. These are modules and libraries that I've developed for use with Python. They are all fully open source, with an OSI Approved License. I hope you find them useful, and I welcome feedback. Check out the Python Index Page for links to my Python CGIs, programs, and smaller "recipes".
Reading and Writing Config Files
Version 4.6.0 13th April 2009
ConfigObj is a simple but powerful config file reader and writer: an ini file round tripper. It's main feature is that it is very easy to use, with a straightforward programmer's interface and a simple syntax for config files. It has lots of other features though. This module is used in most Voidspace projects. See the ConfigObj Home Page for full documentation.
It's features include :
Nested sections (subsections), to any level
List Values
Multiple Line Values
Full Unicode support
String interpolation (substitution)
Integrated with a powerful validation system
- including automatic type checking/conversion
- repeated sections
- and allowing default values
All comments in the file are preserved
The order of keys/sections is preserved
A powerful unrepr mode for storing basic datatypes
Download links :
The best introduction to working with ConfigObj, including the powerful configuration validation system, is the article: An Introduction to ConfigObj.
There is an article on using ConfigObj for Data Persistence. The associated module is ConfigPersist. This includes tools for automatically generating 'configspecs' for use with the validate module.
A Simple Class for Mocking in Unit Tests
Version 0.4.0 12th October 2008
mock provides a core Mock class that is intended to reduce the need to create a host of trivial stubs throughout your test suite. After performing an action, you can make assertions about which methods / attributes were used and arguments they were called with. You can also specify return values and set needed attributes in the normal way.
- Mock Library Homepage
- mock.py
- mock-0.3.1.zip (module, tests and documentation)
- mock.txt (documentation)
- Google Code Home & Subversion Repository
This approach is inspired by the testing patterns used at Resolver Systems.
It also provides utility functions / objects to assist with testing, particularly monkey patching.
Automatic Test Discovery for unittest
Test discovery allows you to run all the unittest based tests (or just a subset of them) in your project without you having to write your own test collection or running machinery. Once installed, test discovery can be invoked with python -m discover. The discover module works with Python 2.4 and more recent, including Python 3.0.
The discover module also implements the load_tests protocol which allows you to customize test loading from modules and packages. Test discovery and load_tests are implemented in the DiscoveringTestLoader which can be used from your own test framework.
See the discover page on PyPI for full details.
Python Interface to the Akismet API
Version 0.2.0 18th June 2009
Akismet is a web service for recognising spam comments. It promises to be almost 100% effective at catching comment spam. They say that currently 81% of all comments submitted to them are spam.
It's designed to work with the Wordpress Blog Tool, but it's not restricted to that - so this is a Python interface to the Akismet API.
You'll need a Wordpress Key to use it. This script will allow you to plug akismet into any CGI script or web application. It's extremely easy to use, because the folks at akismet have implemented a nice and straightforward REST API.
Note
As of version 0.2.0 akismet.py can be used with Google AppEngine.
Here's an example of how to use it :
api = Akismet(agent='Test Script')
# if apikey.txt is in place,
# the key will automatically be set
# or you can call ``api.setAPIKey()``
#
if api.key is None:
print "No 'apikey.txt' file."
elif not api.verify_key():
print "The API key is invalid."
else:
# data should be a dictionary of values
# They can all be filled in with defaults
# from a CGI environment
if api.comment_check(comment, data):
print 'This comment is spam.'
else:
print 'This comment is ham.'
It also comes with an example CGI.
You can read the full docs at :
Download it here :
The Voidspace Pythonutils Package
Version 0.4.0 9th June 2009
The Voidspace Pythonutils package is collection of general utility modules that simplify common programming tasks in Python.
The modules included are all fully documented. They are :
- ConfigObj 4.6.0 - Easy config file reading/writing
- validate 1.0.0 - Validation and type conversion system
- StandOut 3.0.0 - Simple logging and output control object
- pathutils 0.2.6 - For working with paths and files
- cgiutils 0.3.6 - CGI helpers
- urlpath 0.1.0 - Functions for handling URLs
- odict 0.2.2 - Ordered Dictionary Class
Visit the Pythonutils Package Page, or download it directly :
Pythonutils is a pure Python distribution.
Prebuilt Python Binaries
Windows Binaries
Due to export restrictions Andrew Kuchling is unable to offer prebuilt binaries for his fantastic PyCrypto module.
Here are binaries for Python 2.2, 2.3, 2.4 and 2.5.
The Python 2.2 and 2.3 binaries are compiled with gcc from MingW32 [1].
The Python 2.4 and 2.5 binaries are compiled using the Microsoft Optimising compiler. As an added bonus, these are windows installers.
The Python 2.6 binary is built with Visual Studio 2008.
Download them here :
- pycrypto-2.0.1.win32-py2.2.zip (147k)
- pycrypto-2.0.1.win32-py2.3.zip (148k)
- pycrypto-2.0.1.win32-py2.4.zip (173k)
- pycrypto-2.0.1.win32-py2.5.zip (173k)
- pycrypto-2.0.1.win32-py2.6.exe (237k)
Additionally, Jeffrey Foran has provided prebuilt AMD64 binaries for Python 2.6:
Compiled Binaries
Windows Installers
As you probably know psyco is the Python specializing compiler, created by Armin Rigo who is now working on PyPy. psyco speeds up the execution of most Python programs with a single extension module.
Prebuilt binaries are only available from sourceforge for Python 2.4. Here are binaries for the missing versions from Python 2.2 and 2.3. These are for psyco 1.5.1. 
Download them here :
The installers for Python 2.2 & 2.3 were compiled with MingW32.
I've also built a binary version of psyco 1.6 for Python 2.6 (built with Visual Studio 2008):
| [1] | Done by following the instructions at Building Python Extensions Using MingW32. |
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Last edited Wed Jun 24 23:23:50 2009.
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