pybbdb 0.4

Creating a BBDB database

To create a new database is as simple as you might expect:

>>> from bbdb import BBDB
>>> db = BBDB()

The database starts with no records. To add a new one, use the add_record() method, specifying the first and last names, and any other attributes you want to set:

>>> fred = db.add_record("Fred", "Flintstone")
>>> fred
<Record: Fred Flintstone>

>>> barney = db.add_record("Barney", "Rubble")
>>> db
<BBDB: 2 records>

You can use the returned record object to set other attributes:

>>> fred.set_company("Slate Rock & Gravel")

A Record is a subclass of OrderedDict, so you can set or modify attributes in this style:

>>> fred["company"] = "Slate Rock & Gravel"

As a convenience, there are properties for each of the valid attributes:

>>> fred.firstname
'Fred'

>>> fred.company
'Slate Rock & Gravel'

There’s also a composite name property:

>>> fred.name
'Fred Flintstone'

Some BBDB attributes consist of lists of things, and there are add_*() methods for these:

>>> fred.add_net("fred@bedrock.org")
>>> fred.add_net("fred.flintstone@gravel.com")
>>> fred.net
['fred@bedrock.org', 'fred.flintstone@gravel.com']

>>> fred.add_aka("Freddie")
>>> fred.aka
['Freddie']

Telephone records consist of a location tag and a phone number string:

>>> fred.add_phone("Work", "555-6789")
>>> fred.add_phone("Home", "555-1234")
>>> fred.phone
SortedDict([('Home', '555-1234'), ('Work', '555-6789')])

Records can have multiple addresses, each indexed by a location tag. Each address in turn has several attributes:

>>> home = fred.add_address("Home")
>>> home.add_location("Cave 2a", "345 Cavestone Road")
>>> home.set_city("Bedrock")
>>> home.set_state("Hanna Barbera")
>>> home.set_zipcode("12345")
>>> home.set_country("USA")

>>> home
<Address: Cave 2a, 345 Cavestone Road, Bedrock, Hanna Barbera, 12345, USA>

>>> home.location
['Cave 2a', '345 Cavestone Road']

>>> home.zipcode
'12345'

Finally, each entry can have an arbitrary dictionary of user-defined fields:

>>> fred.add_field("spouse", "Wilma")
>>> fred.add_field("kids", "Pebbles, Bam-Bam")
>>> fred.add_field("catchphrase", '"Yabba dabba doo!"')
>>> fred.fields
SortedDict([('catchphrase', '"Yabba dabba doo!"'), ('kids', 'Pebbles, Bam-Bam'), ('spouse', 'Wilma')])

Field values can also have newlines:

>>> barney.add_field("pets", "brontosaurus\npterodactyl")

Reading and writing BBDB files

The write() method will write the database to a stream (default stdout) in a format suitable for use by GNU Emacs:

>>> db.write()                        # doctest: +ELLIPSIS +REPORT_UDIFF
;; -*-coding: utf-8-emacs;-*-
;;; file-version: 6
;;; user-fields: (catchphrase kids pets spouse)
["Barney" "Rubble" nil nil nil nil nil ((pets . "brontosaurus\npterodactyl")) nil]
["Fred" "Flintstone" ("Freddie") "Slate Rock & Gravel" (["Home" "555-1234"] ...

The convenience write_file() method will put that in a file:

>>> db.write_file("examples/bbdb.el")

You can read a database from file using the fromfile() static method:

>>> newdb = BBDB.fromfile("examples/bbdb.el")
>>> newdb
<BBDB: 2 records>

>>> newdb == db
True

The read() and read_file() methods of a BBDB database can be used import records from other databases.

Exporting to other formats

Since all BBDB objects are subclasses of OrderedDict, you can easily serialize it to other formats. For example, JSON:

>>> import sys
>>> import json
>>> json.dump(db, sys.stdout, indent=4)  # doctest: +NORMALIZE_WHITESPACE +REPORT_UDIFF
{
    "coding": "utf-8-emacs",
    "fileversion": 6,
    "records": [
        {
            "firstname": "Barney",
            "lastname": "Rubble",
            "company": "",
            "aka": [],
            "phone": {},
            "address": {},
            "net": [],
            "fields": {
                "pets": "brontosaurus\\npterodactyl"
            }
        },
        {
            "firstname": "Fred",
            "lastname": "Flintstone",
            "company": "Slate Rock & Gravel",
            "aka": [
                "Freddie"
            ],
            "phone": {
                "Home": "555-1234",
                "Work": "555-6789"
            },
            "address": {
                "Home": {
                    "location": [
                        "Cave 2a",
                        "345 Cavestone Road"
                    ],
                    "city": "Bedrock",
                    "state": "Hanna Barbera",
                    "zipcode": "12345",
                    "country": "USA"
                }
            },
            "net": [
                "fred@bedrock.org",
                "fred.flintstone@gravel.com"
            ],
            "fields": {
                "catchphrase": "\"Yabba dabba doo!\"",
                "kids": "Pebbles, Bam-Bam",
                "spouse": "Wilma"
            }
        }
    ]
}

You can create a BBDB database from an appropriately-structured dict using the fromdict method:

>>> serialized = json.dumps(db)
>>> data = json.loads(serialized)
>>> newdb = BBDB.fromdict(data)
>>> newdb == db
True

Version 0.4 (10 February 2017)

• Use pytest for unit tests.

• Bugfix: add support for newlines in fields.

• Bugfix: allow last name to be nil.

Version 0.3 (22 July 2015)

• Bugfix: get things working properly with Python 3.

Version 0.2 (2 July 2015)

• Add validation of data using voluptuous.

• Add a bunch of demo converter programs.

• Add tox test support.

• Add Python 3 support.

• Bugfix: convert records from file to correct type.

Version 0.1 (11 June 2015)

• Initial release.