A pyramid plugin that describes a pyramid application URL hierarchy via inspection.
Project description
===================================
Self-Documentation for Pyramid Apps
===================================
.. warning::
2013/09/13: though functional, this package is pretty new... Come
back in a couple of weeks if you don't like living on the
beta-edge!
A pyramid plugin that describes a pyramid application URL hierarchy,
either by responding to an HTTP request or on the command line, via
application inspection and reflection. It has built-in support for
plain-text hierachies, reStructuredText, HTML, JSON, YAML, WADL, and
XML, however other custom formats can be added easily.
Exposing an application's structure via HTTP is useful to dynamically
generate an API description (via WADL, JSON, or YAML) or to create
documentation directly from source code.
On the command-line it is useful to get visibility into an
application's URL structure and hierarchy so that it can be understood
and maintained.
.. note::
Although pyramid-describe is intended to be able to describe any
kind of pyramid application, currently it only supports
pyramid-controllers_ based dispatch.
TL;DR
=====
Install:
.. code-block:: bash
$ pip install pyramid-describe
Command-line example:
.. code-block:: bash
$ pdescribe example.ini --format txt
/ # The application root.
├── contact/ # Contact manager.
│ ├── <POST> # Creates a new 'contact' object.
│ └── {CONTACTID} # RESTful access to a specific contact.
│ ├── <DELETE> # Delete this contact.
│ ├── <GET> # Get this contact's details.
│ └── <PUT> # Update this contact's details.
├── login # Authenticate against the server.
└── logout # Remove authentication tokens.
Examples of the above application in all other formats with built-in
support are available at:
`text (pure-ASCII) <https://raw.github.com/cadithealth/pyramid_describe/master/doc/example.txt.asc>`_,
`reStructuredText <https://raw.github.com/cadithealth/pyramid_describe/master/doc/example.rst>`_,
`HTML <http://htmlpreview.github.io/?https://raw.github.com/cadithealth/pyramid_describe/master/doc/example.html>`_,
`JSON <https://raw.github.com/cadithealth/pyramid_describe/master/doc/example.json>`_,
`YAML <https://raw.github.com/cadithealth/pyramid_describe/master/doc/example.yaml>`_,
`WADL <https://raw.github.com/cadithealth/pyramid_describe/master/doc/example.wadl>`_,
and `XML <https://raw.github.com/cadithealth/pyramid_describe/master/doc/example.xml>`_.
Configuration
=============
When pyramid-describe is integrated via inclusion
(e.g. ``config.include('pyramid_describe')``), the module will
auto-create DescribeController's as defined in the application's
settings. The following configurations can be specified there (note
that the first one controls the prefix set on the others):
* ``describe.prefixes`` : list(str), default: 'describe'
Defines the prefix or the list of prefixes that pyramid-describe
settings will be searched for in the configuration. For each prefix,
a separate DescribeController will be created and attached to the
application router. The following example attaches two controllers
at ``/desc-one`` and ``/desc-two``:
.. code-block:: ini
[app:main]
describe.prefixes = describe-one describe-two
describe-one.attach = /desc-one
# other `describe-one` options...
describe-two.attach = /desc-two
# other `describe-two` options...
* ``{PREFIX}.attach`` : str, default: /describe
Specifies the path to attach the controller to the current
application's router. Note that this uses the `add_controller`
directive, and ensures that pyramid-controllers has already been
added via an explicit call to ``config.include()``. This path will
serve the default format: to request alternate formats, use
"PATH/FILENAME.EXT" (where FILENAME is controlled by the
``{PREFIX}.filename`` configuration and EXT specifies the format)
or use the "format=EXT" query-string. Examples using the default
settings:
.. code-block:: text
http://localhost:8080/describe/application.txt
http://localhost:8080/describe/application.json
http://localhost:8080/describe?format=json
* ``{PREFIX}.filename`` : str, default: application
Sets the filename base component. Typically, this is set to the
application's name and should probably include the application
version.
* ``{PREFIX}.redirect`` : str, default: null
Similar to the `filename` option, this option sets a filename base
component that will redirect (with a 302) to the current `filename`.
This allows there to be a persistent known location that can be used
if the `filename` option is dynamic or changes with revisions.
* ``{PREFIX}.inspect`` : str, default: /
Specifies the top-level URL to start the application inspection at.
* ``{PREFIX}.include`` : list(str), default: null
The `include` option lists regular expressions that an endpoint must
match at least one of in order to be included in the output. This
option can be used with the `exclude` option, in which case
endpoints are first matched for inclusion, then matched for
exclusion (i.e. the order is "allow,deny" in apache terminology).
* ``{PREFIX}.exclude`` : list(str), default: null
The converse of the `include` option.
* ``{PREFIX}.filters`` : list(resolve-spec), default: null
This option specifies a callable (or string in python dot syntax) or
list of callables (or strings) that filter and modify the endpoints
before they are rendered to the requested format. Each endpoint that
is selected for inclusion for rendering is first passed through each
filter and replaced by the return value from the call. This is done
for each filter in turn. If any filter returns ``None``, the endpoint
is removed from the selection list.
These filters are intended to allow two primary features:
* Access control: a filter can inspect the endpoint and the
requesting user and determine if the endpoint should be made
visible. If not, it should return ``None``.
* Custom documentation parsing: a filter can parse the endpoints'
`doc` attribute (which gets auto-populated with the endpoint's
python documentation string), and extract other information such
as expected parameters, return values, and exceptions thrown.
Typically, this is done with something like numpydoc_.
Filters are passed two parameters: an `entry` object (see
pyramid_describe.entry.Entry for detailed attributes) and an
`options` dictionary. The latter has many interesting attributes,
including a reference to the current `request`.
TODO: add documentation about `entry` and `options`.
* ``{PREFIX}.formats`` : list(str), default: ['html', 'txt', 'rst', 'json', 'yaml', 'wadl', 'xml']
Specifies the list of formats that can be generated. The default
list includes all supported built-in formats, but this can be
extended by adding a format to this list and then specifying a
template to render the format. For example:
.. code-block:: ini
# declare support for HTML, JSON and SWF
describe.formats = html json swf
# HTML and JSON are built-in, but SWF needs a custom template
describe.format.swf.renderer = mypackage:templates/describe-swf.mako
* ``{PREFIX}.format.default`` : str, default: `describe.formats`[0]
Set the default format if not specified in the request.
* ``{PREFIX}.format.{FORMAT}.renderer`` : asset-spec, default: 'pyramid_describe:template/{FORMAT}.mako'
Override the default renderer for the specified format using a
pyramid-style asset specification. The default is to use the
pyramid-describe template with the exception of the structured
data formats (JSON, YAML, XML, and WADL), which do not use a
template.
.. _pyramid-controllers: https://pypi.python.org/pypi/pyramid_controllers
.. _numpydoc: https://github.com/numpy/numpy/blob/master/doc/HOWTO_DOCUMENT.rst.txt
Self-Documentation for Pyramid Apps
===================================
.. warning::
2013/09/13: though functional, this package is pretty new... Come
back in a couple of weeks if you don't like living on the
beta-edge!
A pyramid plugin that describes a pyramid application URL hierarchy,
either by responding to an HTTP request or on the command line, via
application inspection and reflection. It has built-in support for
plain-text hierachies, reStructuredText, HTML, JSON, YAML, WADL, and
XML, however other custom formats can be added easily.
Exposing an application's structure via HTTP is useful to dynamically
generate an API description (via WADL, JSON, or YAML) or to create
documentation directly from source code.
On the command-line it is useful to get visibility into an
application's URL structure and hierarchy so that it can be understood
and maintained.
.. note::
Although pyramid-describe is intended to be able to describe any
kind of pyramid application, currently it only supports
pyramid-controllers_ based dispatch.
TL;DR
=====
Install:
.. code-block:: bash
$ pip install pyramid-describe
Command-line example:
.. code-block:: bash
$ pdescribe example.ini --format txt
/ # The application root.
├── contact/ # Contact manager.
│ ├── <POST> # Creates a new 'contact' object.
│ └── {CONTACTID} # RESTful access to a specific contact.
│ ├── <DELETE> # Delete this contact.
│ ├── <GET> # Get this contact's details.
│ └── <PUT> # Update this contact's details.
├── login # Authenticate against the server.
└── logout # Remove authentication tokens.
Examples of the above application in all other formats with built-in
support are available at:
`text (pure-ASCII) <https://raw.github.com/cadithealth/pyramid_describe/master/doc/example.txt.asc>`_,
`reStructuredText <https://raw.github.com/cadithealth/pyramid_describe/master/doc/example.rst>`_,
`HTML <http://htmlpreview.github.io/?https://raw.github.com/cadithealth/pyramid_describe/master/doc/example.html>`_,
`JSON <https://raw.github.com/cadithealth/pyramid_describe/master/doc/example.json>`_,
`YAML <https://raw.github.com/cadithealth/pyramid_describe/master/doc/example.yaml>`_,
`WADL <https://raw.github.com/cadithealth/pyramid_describe/master/doc/example.wadl>`_,
and `XML <https://raw.github.com/cadithealth/pyramid_describe/master/doc/example.xml>`_.
Configuration
=============
When pyramid-describe is integrated via inclusion
(e.g. ``config.include('pyramid_describe')``), the module will
auto-create DescribeController's as defined in the application's
settings. The following configurations can be specified there (note
that the first one controls the prefix set on the others):
* ``describe.prefixes`` : list(str), default: 'describe'
Defines the prefix or the list of prefixes that pyramid-describe
settings will be searched for in the configuration. For each prefix,
a separate DescribeController will be created and attached to the
application router. The following example attaches two controllers
at ``/desc-one`` and ``/desc-two``:
.. code-block:: ini
[app:main]
describe.prefixes = describe-one describe-two
describe-one.attach = /desc-one
# other `describe-one` options...
describe-two.attach = /desc-two
# other `describe-two` options...
* ``{PREFIX}.attach`` : str, default: /describe
Specifies the path to attach the controller to the current
application's router. Note that this uses the `add_controller`
directive, and ensures that pyramid-controllers has already been
added via an explicit call to ``config.include()``. This path will
serve the default format: to request alternate formats, use
"PATH/FILENAME.EXT" (where FILENAME is controlled by the
``{PREFIX}.filename`` configuration and EXT specifies the format)
or use the "format=EXT" query-string. Examples using the default
settings:
.. code-block:: text
http://localhost:8080/describe/application.txt
http://localhost:8080/describe/application.json
http://localhost:8080/describe?format=json
* ``{PREFIX}.filename`` : str, default: application
Sets the filename base component. Typically, this is set to the
application's name and should probably include the application
version.
* ``{PREFIX}.redirect`` : str, default: null
Similar to the `filename` option, this option sets a filename base
component that will redirect (with a 302) to the current `filename`.
This allows there to be a persistent known location that can be used
if the `filename` option is dynamic or changes with revisions.
* ``{PREFIX}.inspect`` : str, default: /
Specifies the top-level URL to start the application inspection at.
* ``{PREFIX}.include`` : list(str), default: null
The `include` option lists regular expressions that an endpoint must
match at least one of in order to be included in the output. This
option can be used with the `exclude` option, in which case
endpoints are first matched for inclusion, then matched for
exclusion (i.e. the order is "allow,deny" in apache terminology).
* ``{PREFIX}.exclude`` : list(str), default: null
The converse of the `include` option.
* ``{PREFIX}.filters`` : list(resolve-spec), default: null
This option specifies a callable (or string in python dot syntax) or
list of callables (or strings) that filter and modify the endpoints
before they are rendered to the requested format. Each endpoint that
is selected for inclusion for rendering is first passed through each
filter and replaced by the return value from the call. This is done
for each filter in turn. If any filter returns ``None``, the endpoint
is removed from the selection list.
These filters are intended to allow two primary features:
* Access control: a filter can inspect the endpoint and the
requesting user and determine if the endpoint should be made
visible. If not, it should return ``None``.
* Custom documentation parsing: a filter can parse the endpoints'
`doc` attribute (which gets auto-populated with the endpoint's
python documentation string), and extract other information such
as expected parameters, return values, and exceptions thrown.
Typically, this is done with something like numpydoc_.
Filters are passed two parameters: an `entry` object (see
pyramid_describe.entry.Entry for detailed attributes) and an
`options` dictionary. The latter has many interesting attributes,
including a reference to the current `request`.
TODO: add documentation about `entry` and `options`.
* ``{PREFIX}.formats`` : list(str), default: ['html', 'txt', 'rst', 'json', 'yaml', 'wadl', 'xml']
Specifies the list of formats that can be generated. The default
list includes all supported built-in formats, but this can be
extended by adding a format to this list and then specifying a
template to render the format. For example:
.. code-block:: ini
# declare support for HTML, JSON and SWF
describe.formats = html json swf
# HTML and JSON are built-in, but SWF needs a custom template
describe.format.swf.renderer = mypackage:templates/describe-swf.mako
* ``{PREFIX}.format.default`` : str, default: `describe.formats`[0]
Set the default format if not specified in the request.
* ``{PREFIX}.format.{FORMAT}.renderer`` : asset-spec, default: 'pyramid_describe:template/{FORMAT}.mako'
Override the default renderer for the specified format using a
pyramid-style asset specification. The default is to use the
pyramid-describe template with the exception of the structured
data formats (JSON, YAML, XML, and WADL), which do not use a
template.
.. _pyramid-controllers: https://pypi.python.org/pypi/pyramid_controllers
.. _numpydoc: https://github.com/numpy/numpy/blob/master/doc/HOWTO_DOCUMENT.rst.txt
