marrow.schema 1.0.1

1.1 Goals

Marrow Schema was created with the goal of extracting a component common to nearly every database ORM, ODM, and widget system into a shared library to benefit all. While some of the basic principles (data descriptors, etc.) are simple, few implementations are truly complete. Often you would lose access to standard Python idioms, such as the use of positional arguments with class constructors.

With a proven generic implementation we discovered quickly that the possibilities aren’t limited to the typical uses. One commercial project that uses Marrow Schema does so to define generic CRUD controllers declaratively, greatly reducing development time and encouraging WORM (write-once, read-many) best practice.

Marrow Schema additionally aims to have a very narrow scope and to “eat its own dog food”, using a declarative syntax to define the declarative syntax. This is in stark contrast to alternatives (such as scheme) which utilize multiple metaclasses and a hodge-podge of magical attributes internally. Or guts, which is heavily tied to its XML and YAML data processing capabilities. Neither of these currently support positional instantiation, and both can be implemented as a superset of Marrow Schema.

2.1. Development Version

Development takes place on GitHub in the marrow.schema project. Issue tracking, documentation, and downloads are provided there.

Installing the current development version requires Git, a distributed source code management system. If you have Git you can run the following to download and link the development version into your Python runtime:

git clone https://github.com/marrow/marrow.schema.git
(cd marrow.schema; python setup.py develop)

You can then upgrade to the latest version at any time:

(cd marrow.schema; git pull; python setup.py develop)

If you would like to make changes and contribute them back to the project, fork the GitHub project, make your changes, and submit a pull request. This process is beyond the scope of this documentation; for more information see GitHub’s documentation.

3.1. Container

This class provides the underlying machinery for processing arguments and assigning values to instance attributes at class instantiation time. Basically it provides __init__ so you don’t have to.

You can extend this to support validation during instantiation, for example, to check for required values.

3.2. DataAttribute

The base attribute class which implements the descriptor protocol, pulling the instance value of the attribute from the containing object’s __data__ dictionary. If an attempt is made to read an attribute that does not have a corresponding value in the data dictionary an AttributeError will be raised.

3.3. Attribute

A subclass of DataAttribute which adds the ability to re-name the __data__ key (name) and define a default value.

3.4. Attributes

A declarative attribute you can use in your own Container subclasses to provide views across the known attributes on that container. Can provide a filter (which uses isinstance) to limit to specific attributes.

Always results in an OrderedDict.

Version 1.0

• Initial release.

Version 1.0.1

• Compatibility with Python 2.6.

• Added pypy3 to test suite.

5.1. The MIT License

Copyright © 2013-2014 Alice Bevan-McGregor and contributors.

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the “Software”), to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:

The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED “AS IS”, WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NON-INFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.