Ask Me Anything V0.2¶

Ask Me Anything (AMA) is a package to prompt the user for answers to a series of questions and return the results as a dictionary.

Questions are specified using a JSON dictionary

Currently you have 2 choices in how to ask the questions…

Using the terminal
Using a Tkinter interface.

The Tk interface has a few niceties; dialogs to select paths, dynamic updating of values based on others, a validation indication etc.

both generated from the same JSON file.

License¶

This module is licensed under the terms of the Apache V2.0 license.

Contact¶

Simon Kennedy <sffjunkie+code@gmail.com>

Version History¶

Version	Description
0.2	Added date, time, color handling Changed how questions are defined in JSON Simplification of validation
0.1	Initial version with terminal and Tkinter support

Questions in JSON¶

Each question is specified as an entry in a JSON dictionary.

After the dictionary key to use to lookup the question comes a list containing the following…

a short description/label to be displayed
help text to display
the default value
the type specified as a string “str”, “bool” etc.
a custom specification to modify the validation (see Validation).

The default value can use Python string formatting operators to build a value from other answers as in the join_path question below.

Note

If you’re using the terminal you can only refer to previous answers as the questions are asked in order of definition and only once.

JSON Example

{
"a_date":
    ["Select a date",
     "A date",
     null,
     "date",
     null
    ],
"a_time":
    ["Select a time",
     "A time",
     null,
     "time",
     "%H:%M:%S"
    ],
"a_color":
    ["Select a color",
     "A color",
     "#fdcbef",
     "color",
     "rgbhex"
    ],
"path":
   ["Root path",
     "Root path for the documentation",
     ".",
     "path",
     "new"
    ],
"count":
   ["Number of items",
     "How many items",
     1,
     "int",
     null
    ],
"payment":
   ["Payment per month",
     "How many items",
     1.1,
     "float",
     null
    ],
"show_all":
   ["Show everything",
     "Do you want to show every single item in the whole world",
     true,
     "bool",
     null
    ],
"show_yesno":
   ["Really everything",
     "Do you really want to show every single item in the whole world",
     false,
     "yesno",
     null
    ],
"something":
   ["A non empty field",
     "You really have to enter something",
     "a",
     "str",
     "nonempty"
    ],
"path2":
    ["Another path",
     "A second path used by the next question to join 2 together",
     "pypirc",
     "path",
     null
    ],
"join_path":
    ["Compound path",
     "Joining of path & path2",
     "{path}/{path2}",
     "path",
     null
    ]
}

Validation¶

Types¶

The types available are

nonempty

str

bool

yesno (like bool but displays ” (y/n)” at the prompt)

int

float

path

date

time

color (RGB and RGB Hex e.g. rgb(1.0, 0.0, 0.0) or #ff0000 for red)

regular expressions

An entry point definition

nonempty

Enter any value to pass the validation.

bool

Matches any of true, false, 1, 0.

yesno

Matches any of yes, y, no, n with any case plus the bool values

str

Can it be converted to a string.

int

Can it be converted to an integer.

float

Can it be converted to a float.

path

Verifies that the value is a valid path. Varoius specs can be provided to modify the path validation

empty: verifies that the path is empty
nonempty: verifies that at least one file is found in the path
new: verifies that the path does not exist and is a valid path name
pathspec: Verifies that the path conforms to the pathspec given (see below)

date

Verifies that a valid date is provided that matches the datespec where datespec follows the standard Python strptime() format string. If no specification is provided then %Y-%m-%d will be used.

time

Verifies that the time is a valid time that matches the timespec where timespec follows the standard Python strptime() format string. If no specification is provided then %H:%M will be used.

color

Verifies that the value is a valid color that matches the colorspec where colorspec is either rgb or rgbhex

re

Verifies that the value specified matches the regular expression.

Entry Point

If a setuptools entry point is specified then it will be loaded and used to validate the entry.

Path Specs¶

Path specs contain multiple glob patterns separated by commas each preceded by either a plus or minus sign.

A plus sign (+) indicates that a file matching the glob must be in the directory.

A minus sign (-) indicates that a file matching the glob must not be in the directory.

e.g. +test.py,-*.txt means the directory must have a test.py file included but no text files

The `ama` Module¶

Base Asker class

Asker¶

class ama.Asker(ds=None, json_string=None)¶

An object which mediates the question asking.

Parameters:	ds (Any object with a read metod) – A datastream to read the questions from json_string (str) – A JSON formatted string to load the questions from

ask(questions=None, initial_answers=None, all_questions=True)¶

Ask the questions and return the answers

Parameters:	questions (string or dict) – The questions to prompt for answers. Can either be a json formatted string or a dict subclass initial_answers (dict) – A dictionary containing the already answered questions all_questions (bool) – If True only the already unanswered questions will be asked; if False all questions will be asked. validators (dict) – A dictionary of custom validator functions
Returns:	The answers
Return type:	OrderedDict

add_question(key, question)¶: Overridden by subclasses to add a question to the list to ask. Called by the ask() method

run()¶: Overridden by subclasses to ask the questions. Subclasses should return a dictionary of the answers

ama.terminal¶

TerminalAsker¶

ama.tk¶

TkAsker¶

TkQuestion¶

ama.validator¶

Provides access to a registry of validation functions.

Functions are returned via the get_validator() function and can be refined by passing a specification which alters what passes the validation.

All validators throw TypeError if the value’s type cannot be validated and ValueError if the value fails validation.

Validator Name	Tests that the value…
`nonempty`	is not None or an empty string
`constant`	always returns the same value
`str`	can be converted to a string
`int`	can be converted to an integer value
`float`	can be converted to a floating point value
`bool`	can be converted to a boolean value
`yesno`	matches one of `yes`, `y`, `no`, `n` with any case plus 1, 0, True and False
`re`	matches the regular expression.
`path`	is a valid path
`date`	is a valid date
`time`	is a valid time
`color`	is a valid RGB or RGB hex color
`email`	is a valid email address

ama.validator.NonEmpty(*args, **kwargs)¶: Create a validator that checks that any value is provided

ama.validator.Constant(*args, **kwargs)¶: Create a validator that always return the same value.

ama.validator.Str(*args, **kwargs)¶

Create a validator that checks that the value is a valid string according to the spec

Parameters:

spec (str) –

The specification to check the string against. Can be either

None

Anything that can be converted to a string passes

The string nonempty

a string of length greater than 1 passes

A string of argument=value pairs separated by commas.

Checks the string matches based on the arguments specified

The following arguments can be specified.

min - The minimum number of characters

max - The maximum number of characters

e.g. “min=3,max=6” means the string must be between 3 and 6 characters long.

ama.validator.Int(*args, **kwargs)¶

Create a validator that checks that the value is a valid integer according to the spec

Parameters:

spec (str) –

The specification to check the integer against. Can be either

None: Anything that is an integer passes. e.g. 1 and “1” are valid integers but 1.2, “1.2” or “chas” are not.
A string of argument=value pairs separated by commas.: Alters how the integer is validated. The following arguments can be specified.

min - The minimum value

max - The maximum value

e.g. “min=3,max=6” means the value must be between 3 and 6.

ama.validator.Float(*args, **kwargs)¶

Create a validator that checks that the value is a valid float according to the spec

Parameters:

spec (str) –

The specification to check the float against. Can be either

None: Anything that is a float passes. e.g. 1.2 and “1.2” are valid floats but 1, “1” or “dave” are not.
A string of argument=value pairs separated by commas.: Alters how the float is validated. The following arguments can be specified.

min - The minimum value

max - The maximum value

decimal - The character to consider as the decimal separator

nocoerce - Disable coercing int to float

e.g. “min=3.1,max=6.0” means the value must be between 3.1 and 6.0; “decimal=\,” means that “33,234” is a valid float.

ama.validator.Number(*args, **kwargs)¶

Create a validator that checks that the value is a valid number according to the spec

Parameters:

spec (str) –

The specification to check the integer against. Can be either

None

Anything that is a number passes.

A string of argument=value pairs separated by commas.

Check s the integer matches based on the arguments specified

The following arguments can be specified.

min - The minimum value

max - The maximum value

decimal - The character to consider as the decimal separator

e.g. “min=3,max=6” means the value must be between 3 and 6.

ama.validator.Bool(*args, **kwargs)¶: Create a validator that checks that the value is a valid bool.

ama.validator.Regex(*args, **kwargs)¶: Create a validator that checks that the value matches a regular expression.

ama.validator.Path(*args, **kwargs)¶

Create a validator that checks that the value is a valid path.

The meaning of valid is determined by the spec argument

Parameters:

spec (str) –

Determines what is a valid path.

existing: is a path that exists (the default)
empty: is a path that is empty
nonempty: is a path that is not empty
new: is a path that does not exist and is a valid name for a path
pathspec: is a valid path name that contains files that conform to pathspec
pathspec is of the form [+-]glob where the leading + indicates that the path must include a file that matches the glob and - indicates that it must not include files that match the glob. Multiple pathspecs can be specified separated by commas.

ama.validator.Date(*args, **kwargs)¶

Create a validator that checks that the value is a valid date.

Parameters:

spec (str) –

The date format to accept if a string value is used.

spec follows the standard Python strftime format string.

ama.validator.Time(*args, **kwargs)¶

Create a validator that checks that the value is a valid time.

Parameters:

spec (str) –

The time format to accept if a string value is used.

spec follows the standard Python strftime format string.

ama.validator.Color(*args, **kwargs)¶

Create a validator that checks that the value is a valid color

The color format, which is determined by the spec argument, can be one of the following

An RGB hex representation i.e. # followed by either 3 or 6 hex digits.
A string of the form ‘rgb(R, G, B)’ where R, G and B are floating point values between 0.0 and 1.0

Parameters:	spec (str) – The color type to accept either ‘rgbhex’ or ‘rgb’

ama.validator.Email(*args, **kwargs)¶

Create a validator that checks that the value is a valid email address.

If the pyisemail module is available then that is used to validate the email address otherwise a regular expression is used (which my produce false positives.)

Ask Me Anything V0.2¶

License¶

Contact¶

Version History¶

Questions in JSON¶

Validation¶

Types¶

Path Specs¶

The ama Module¶

Asker¶

ama.terminal¶

TerminalAsker¶

ama.tk¶

TkAsker¶

TkQuestion¶

ama.validator¶

The `ama` Module¶