docar 0.5

Example

The following code is a simplified example of how to use python-docar. We start using the django backend:

# First declare your document
from webapp.models import EntryModel, AuthorModel
from docar import Document, Collection, fields

class Author(Document):
    name = fields.StringField()

    class Meta:
        backend_type = 'django'
        model = AuthorModel
        identifier = 'name'

class BlogEntry(Document):
    id = fields.NumberField()
    title = fields.StringField()
    body = fields.StringField()
    published = fields.BooleanField(default=False)
    author = fields.ForeignDocument(Author)

    class Meta:
        backend_type = 'django'
        model = EntryModel
        model_type = 'django'  # The default atm
        #identifier = 'id'  # The identifier defaults to 'id'

# You can also declare collections of documents
class Blog(Collection):
    document = BlogEntry

You can use those documents in the views of your app:

from webapp.documents import Author, BlogEntry, Blog

entry = BlogEntry({'id': 1})

# Bind the document to a model
entry.fetch()

I can also change attributes of the document and save it back to the model:

entry.title = "Hello World"
entry.save()  # --> saves to the django model backend

The to_json method renders the document into a json message. It adds a few goodies to be a better REST player, like the link to itself. It could look like that:

# render the document as a json string
entry.to_json()

{
    "id": 1,
    "title": "Hello World",
    "body": "Long Text",
    "published": True,
    "author": {
        "rel": "related",
        "href": "https://example.org/author/crito/"
        },
    "link": {
        "rel": "self",
        "href": "https://example.org/entry/1/"
        }
}

There is another backend in development, that connects documents to a remote HTTP endpoint. The API is the same, only the underlying backend type differs. This can be used for client applications to connect to remote services using the same document declarations.

Installation

Clone yourself the latest source from github. Development happens fast, so its good to always go with the latest commit:

$ git clone git://github.com/30loops/python-docar.git
$ cd python-docar
$ sudo python setup.py install

Development

This module comes along with a thorough test suite. Run it the following way:

$ cd python-docar
$ python setup.py nosetests