Summary

The HDX Python Utilities Library provides a range of helpful utilities for Python developers. Note that these are not specific to HDX.

Contents

1. Easy downloading of files with support for authentication, streaming and hashing
2. Retrieval of data from url with saving to file or from data previously saved
3. Date utilities
4. Loading and saving JSON and YAML (maintaining order)
5. Loading and saving HXLated csv and/or JSON
6. Dictionary and list utilities
7. HTML utilities (inc. BeautifulSoup helper)
8. Compare files (eg. for testing)
9. Simple emailing
10. Easy logging setup and error logging
11. State utility
12. Path utilities
13. Text processing
14. Matching utilities
15. Encoding utilities
16. Check valid UUID
17. Easy building and packaging

Information

This library is part of the Humanitarian Data Exchange (HDX) project. If you have humanitarian related data, please upload your datasets to HDX.

The code for the library is here. The library has detailed API documentation which can be found in the menu at the top.

Breaking Changes

From 3.8.0, multiple_replace, match_template_variables, earliest_index, get_matching_text_in_strs, get_matching_text, get_matching_then_nonmatching_text moved from hdx.utilities.text to hdx.utilities.matching. ErrorOnExit renamed ErrorHandler with changed functionality.

From 3.5.5, Python 3.7 no longer supported

From 3.3.7, improved parse_date and parse_date_range by default will attempt to parse time zone if date format not given. The default time zone is UTC (not no timezone).

From 3.1.5, changed setup_logging parameters to console_log_level, log_file and file_log_level.

From 3.1.1, setup_logging now sets up logaru instead of colorlog and has only one parameter error_file which is False by default. There is no longer SMTP (email) handling which can be done directly with logaru instead.

From 3.0.7, send method of Email class has parameter to rather than recipients. The parameters to, cc and bcc take either a string email address or list of string email addresses.

From 3.0.3, build stack has changed. Now uses tox, codecov etc. setup.py clean, package and publish removed. is_valid_uuid and get_uuid are now under hdx.utilities.uuid.

From 3.0.1, removed raisefrom function

From 3.0.0, only supports Python >= 3.6

From 2.6.9, the Download class and get_session have optional allowed_methods instead of optional method_whitelist

From 2.5.5, the Database class and all the libraries on which it depended have been moved to the new HDX Python Database library.

From 2.1.2, get_tabular_rows in the Download class returns headers, iterator and a new method get_tabular_rows_as_list returns only the iterator.

From 2.1.4, read_list_from_csv and write_list_to_csv change the order of their parameters to be more logical. Arguments about choosing between dict and list are all made consistent - dict_form.

Description of Utilities

Downloading files

Various utilities to help with downloading files. Includes retrying by default. The Download class inherits from BaseDownload which specifies a number of standard methods that all downloaders should have: download_file, download_text, download_yaml, download_json and get_tabular_rows.

• download_file returns a path to a file
• download_text returns the text in a file
• download_json returns the JSON in a Python dictionary
• download_yaml returns the YAML in a Python dictionary
• get_tabular_rows returns headers and an iterator (through rows)

Note that a single Download object cannot be used in parallel: each download operation must be completed before starting the next.

For example, given YAML file extraparams.yaml:

mykey:
    basic_auth: "XXXXXXXX"
    locale: "en"

We can create a downloader as shown below that will use the authentication defined in basic\_auth and add the parameter locale=en to each request (eg. for get request http://myurl/lala?param1=p1&locale=en):

with Download(user_agent="test", extra_params_yaml="extraparams.yaml", extra_params_lookup="mykey") as downloader:
    response = downloader.download(url)  # get requests library response
    json = response.json()

    # Download file to folder/filename
    f = downloader.download_file("http://myurl", post=False,
                                 parameters=OrderedDict([("b", "4"), ("d", "3")]),
                                 folder=tmpdir, filename=filename)
    filepath = abspath(f)

    # Read row by row from tabular file
    headers, iterator = downloader.get_tabular_rows("http://myurl/my.csv", dict_rows=True, headers=1)
    for row in iterator:
        a = row["col"]

You will get an error if you try to call get_tabular_rows twice with different urls to get two iterators, then afterwards iterate through those iterators. The first iteration must be completed before obtaining another iterator.

If we want to limit the rate of get and post requests to say 1 per 0.1 seconds, then the rate_limit parameter can be passed:

with Download(rate_limit={"calls": 1, "period": 0.1}) as downloader:
    response = downloader.download(url)  # get requests library response

If we want a user agent that will be used in all relevant HDX Python Utilities methods (and all HDX Python API ones too if that library is included), then it can be configured once and used automatically:

UserAgent.set_global("test")
with Download() as downloader:
    response = downloader.download(url)  # get requests library response

The response is of the form produced by the requests library. It may not be needed as there are functions directly on the Download object eg.

assert downloader.get_status() == 200
assert len(downloader.get_headers()) == 24
assert bool(re.match(r"7\d\d", downloader.get_header("Content-Length"))) is True
assert downloader.get_text() == "XXX"
assert downloader.get_json() == {...}
assert downloader.get_yaml() == {...}

The get_tabular_rows method enables iteration through tabular data. It returns the header of tabular file pointed to by the url and an iterator where each row is returned as a list or dictionary depending on the dict_rows argument.

The headers argument is either a row number or list of row numbers (in case of multi-line headers) to be considered as headers (rows start counting at 1), or the actual headers defined a list of strings. It defaults to 1 and cannot be None. The dict_form arguments specifies if each row should be returned as a dictionary or a list, defaulting to a list.

Optionally, headers can be inserted at specific positions. This is achieved using the header_insertions argument. If supplied, it is a list of tuples of the form (position, header) to be inserted. Optionally a function can be called on each row. If supplied, it takes as arguments: headers (prior to any insertions) and row (which will be in dict or list form depending upon the dict_rows argument) and outputs a modified row. Example:

def testfn(headers, row):
    row["la"] = "lala"
    return row

insertions = {"headers": [(2, "la")], "function": testfn}
headers, generator = downloader.get_tabular_rows(url, headers=3,
                                                 header_insertions=[(2, "la")], row_function=testfn)

Other useful functions:

# Iterate through tabular file returning lists for each row
headers, iterator = downloader.get_tabular_rows_as_list(url)
for row in iterator:
    ...
# Get hxl row
assert Download.hxl_row(["a", "b", "c"], {"b": "#b", "c": "#c"}, dict_form=True)
# == {"a": "", "b": "#b", "c": "#c"}
# Build get url from url and dictionary of parameters
Download.get_url_for_get("http://www.lala.com/hdfa?a=3&b=4",
                         OrderedDict([("c", "e"), ("d", "f")]))
# == "http://www.lala.com/hdfa?a=3&b=4&c=e&d=f"

# Extract url and dictionary of parameters from get url
Download.get_url_params_for_post("http://www.lala.com/hdfa?a=3&b=4",
                                 OrderedDict([("c", "e"), ("d", "f")]))
# == ("http://www.lala.com/hdfa",
          OrderedDict([("a", "3"), ("b", "4"), ("c", "e"), ("d", "f")]))
# Get mapping of columns positions of headers
Download.get_column_positions(["a", "b", "c"])
# == {"a": 0, "b": 1, "c": 2}

# Get unique filename from url and join to provided folder or temporary folder
# if no folder supplied
# path = Download.get_path_for_url(url, folder)

For more detail and additional functions, check the API documentation.

Retrieving files

The Retrieve class inherits from BaseDownload which specifies a number of standard methods that all downloaders should have: download_file, download_text, download_yaml, download_json and get_tabular_rows.

Note that a single Retrieve object cannot be used in parallel: each download operation must be completed before starting the next. For example, you will get an error if you try to call get_tabular_rows twice with different urls to get two iterators, then afterwards iterate through those iterators. The first iteration must be completed before obtaining another iterator.

When you download a file, you can opt to download from the web as usual or download from the web and and save for future reuse or use the previously downloaded file. The advantage is this is all handled in the class so you don't need to do lots of if-else conditions for the different cases for each download in your code. This is helpful for example when trying to generate test data.

All the downloads in your code can be switched between the different modes by setting the save and use_saved flags when constructing the Retrieve object.

retriever = Retrieve(downloader, fallback_dir, saved_dir, temp_dir, save, use_saved)

• save=False, use_saved=False - download from web as normal (files will go in temp_folder and be discarded)
• save=True, use_saved=False - download from web as normal (files will go in saved_dir and will be kept)
• save=False, use_saved=True - use files from saved_dir (don't download at all)

fallback_dir is a folder containing static fallback files which can optionally be used if the download fails.

Examples:

with Download() as downloader:
    # Downloads file returning the path to the downloaded file and using a fallback file if the download
    # fails. Since saved is False, the file will be saved with name filename in temp_dir
    retriever = Retrieve(downloader, fallback_dir, saved_dir, temp_dir, save=False, use_saved=False, log_level=logging.DEBUG)
    path = retriever.download_file(url, filename, logstr="my file", fallback=True)

    # Downloads text file saving it for future usage and returning the text data (with no fallback)
    # Since saved is True, the file will be saved with name filename in saved_dir
    retriever = Retrieve(downloader, fallback_dir, saved_dir, temp_dir, save=True, use_saved=False)
    text = retriever.download_text(url, filename, logstr="test text", fallback=False)
    # Downloads YAML file saving it for future usage and returning the YAML data with fallback taken
    # from fallback_dir if needed.
    data = retriever.download_yaml(url, filename, logstr="test yaml", fallback=True)

    # Uses previously downloaded JSON file in saved_dir returning the JSON data (with no fallback)
    retriever = Retrieve(downloader, fallback_dir, saved_dir, temp_dir, save=False, use_saved=True)
    data = retriever.download_json(url, filename, logstr="test json", fallback=False, log_level=logging.DEBUG)

Date utilities

There are utilities to parse dates. By default, no timezone information will be parsed and the returned datetime will have timezone set to UTC. To change this behaviour, the functions have a parameter timezone_handling which should be changed from its default of 0. If it is 1, then no timezone information will be parsed and a naive datetime will be returned. If it is 2 or more, then timezone information will be parsed. For 2, failure to parse timezone will result in a naive datetime. For 3, failure to parse timezone will result in the timezone being set to UTC. For 4 and 5, the time will be converted from whatever timezone is identified to UTC. For 4, failure to parse timezone will result in a naive (local) datetime converted to UTC. For 5, failure to parse timezone will result in the timezone being set to UTC.

Ambiguous dates are parsed as day first D/M/Y where there are values in front of the year and day last Y/M/D where there are values after the year.

Examples:

# Standard dates
now_in_utc = now_utc()
date = default_date  # a very early date for avoiding date comparison with None
date = default_date_notz  # as above with no timezone info
date = default_end_date  # a very late date for avoiding date comparison with None
date = default_end_date_notz  # as above with no timezone info

# Parse dates
assert parse_date("20/02/2013") == datetime(2013, 2, 20, 0, 0, tzinfo=timezone.utc)
assert parse_date("20/02/2013", "%d/%m/%Y") == datetime(2013, 2, 20, 0, 0, tzinfo=timezone.utc)
parse_date("20/02/2013 01:30:20 IST")  # ==
# datetime(2013, 2, 20, 1, 30, 20, tzinfo=timezone.utc)
parse_date("20/02/2013 01:30:20 IST", timezone_handling=1)  # ==
# datetime(2013, 2, 20, 1, 30, 20)
parse_date("20/02/2013 01:30:20 IST", timezone_handling=2)  # ==
# datetime(2013, 2, 20, 1, 30, 20, tzinfo=timezone(timedelta(hours=5, minutes=30)))
parse_date("20/02/2013 01:30:20 IST", timezone_handling=3)  # ==
# datetime(2013, 2, 20, 1, 30, 20, tzinfo=timezone(timedelta(hours=5, minutes=30)))
parse_date("20/02/2013 01:30:20 IST", timezone_handling=4)  # ==
# datetime(2013, 2, 19, 20, 0, 20, tzinfo=timezone.utc)
parse_date("20/02/2013 01:30:20", zero_time=True)  # ==
# datetime(2013, 2, 20, 0, 0, 0, tzinfo=timezone.utc)
parse_date("20/02/2013 01:30:20 IST", max_time=True)  # ==
# datetime(2013, 2, 20, 23, 59, 59, tzinfo=timezone.utc)
parse_date("20/02/2013 01:30:20 IST", include_microseconds=True, max_time=True)
# datetime(2013, 2, 20, 23, 59, 59, 999999, tzinfo=timezone.utc)
parse_date("20/02/2013 01:30:20 NUT", timezone_handling=2, default_timezones="-11 X NUT SST")  # ==
# datetime(2013, 2, 20, 1, 30, 20, tzinfo=timezone(timedelta(hours=-11)))

# Parse date ranges
parse_date_range("20/02/2013")
# == datetime(2013, 2, 20, 0, 0, tzinfo=timezone.utc), datetime(2013, 2, 20, 0, 0, tzinfo=timezone.utc)
parse_date_range("20/02/2013 10:00:00")
# == datetime(2013, 2, 20, 10, 0, tzinfo=timezone.utc), datetime(2013, 2, 20, 10, 0, tzinfo=timezone.utc)
parse_date_range("20/02/2013 10:00:00", zero_time=True)
# == datetime(2013, 2, 20, 0, 0, tzinfo=timezone.utc), datetime(2013, 2, 20, 0, 0, tzinfo=timezone.utc)
parse_date_range("20/02/2013 10:00:00", max_starttime=True, max_endtime=True)  # ==
# datetime(2013, 2, 20, 23, 59, 59, tzinfo=timezone.utc), datetime(2013, 2, 20, 23, 59, 59, tzinfo=timezone.utc)
parse_date_range("20/02/2013", "%d/%m/%Y")
# == datetime(2013, 2, 20, 0, 0, tzinfo=timezone.utc), datetime(2013, 2, 20, 0, 0, tzinfo=timezone.utc)
parse_date_range("02/2013")
# == datetime(2013, 2, 1, 0, 0, tzinfo=timezone.utc), datetime(2013, 2, 28, 0, 0, tzinfo=timezone.utc)
parse_date_range("2013")
# == datetime(2013, 1, 1, 0, 0, tzinfo=timezone.utc), datetime(2013, 12, 31, 0, 0, tzinfo=timezone.utc)

# Pass dict in fuzzy activates fuzzy matching that allows for looking for dates within a sentence
fuzzy = dict()
parse_date_range("date is 20/02/2013 for this test", fuzzy=fuzzy)
# == datetime(2013, 2, 20, 0, 0, tzinfo=timezone.utc), datetime(2013, 2, 20, 0, 0, tzinfo=timezone.utc)
assert fuzzy == {"startdate": datetime(2013, 2, 20, 0, 0, tzinfo=timezone.utc),
                 "enddate": datetime(2013, 2, 20, 0, 0, tzinfo=timezone.utc),
                 "nondate": ("date is ", " for this test"), "date": ("20/02/2013",)}
fuzzy = dict()
parse_date_range("date is 02/2013 for this test", fuzzy=fuzzy)
# == datetime(2013, 2, 1, 0, 0, tzinfo=timezone.utc), datetime(2013, 2, 28, 0, 0, tzinfo=timezone.utc)
assert fuzzy == {"startdate": datetime(2013, 2, 1, 0, 0, tzinfo=timezone.utc),
                 "enddate": datetime(2013, 2, 28, 0, 0, tzinfo=timezone.utc),
                 "nondate": ("date is ", " for this test"), "date": ("02/2013",)}

# Convert between datetime and timestamp
expected_timestamp = 1596180834.0
expected_date = datetime(2020, 7, 31, 7, 33, 54, tzinfo=timezone.utc)
timestamp = get_timestamp_from_datetime(expected_date)
assert timestamp == expected_timestamp
date = get_datetime_from_timestamp(
    expected_timestamp, timezone=timezone.utc
)
assert date == expected_date
date = get_datetime_from_timestamp(
    expected_timestamp * 1000, timezone=timezone.utc
)
assert date == expected_date

Loading and saving JSON and YAML

Examples:

# Load YAML
mydict = load_yaml("my_yaml.yaml")

# Load 2 YAMLs and merge into dictionary
mydict = load_and_merge_yaml("my_yaml1.yaml", "my_yaml2.yaml")

# Load YAML into existing dictionary
mydict = load_yaml_into_existing_dict(existing_dict, "my_yaml.yaml")

# Load JSON raising a LoadError if the file is empty
mydict = load_json("my_json.json")

# Load JSON returning None if the file is empty
mydict = load_json("my_json.json", loaderror_if_empty=False)

# Load 2 JSONs and merge into dictionary
mydict = load_and_merge_json("my_json1.json", "my_json2.json")

# Load JSON into existing dictionary
mydict = load_json_into_existing_dict(existing_dict, "my_json.json")

# Save dictionary to YAML file in pretty format
# preserving order if it is an OrderedDict
save_yaml(mydict, "mypath.yaml", pretty=True, sortkeys=False)

# Save dictionary to JSON file in compact form
# sorting the keys
save_json(mydict, "mypath.json", pretty=False, sortkeys=False)

Loading and saving HXLated csv and/or JSON

save_hxlated_output is a utility to save HXLated output (currently JSON and/or csv are supported) based on a given configuration. Here is an example YAML configuration:

input:
  headers:
    - "Col1"
    - "Col2"
    - "Col3"
  hxltags:
    - "#tag1"
    - "#tag2"
    - "#tag3"
process:
  - header: "tag4"
    hxltag: "#tag4"
    expression: "#tag1 * 10"
output:
  csv:
    filename: "out.csv"
    hxltags:
      - "#tag2"
      - "#tag3"
  json:
    filename: "out.json"
    data: "results"
    metadata:
      "#date": "{{today}}"
      "#mytag": 123
    hxltags:
      - "#tag1"
      - "#tag2"

The input section is needed if the rows of data that are passed in are missing either headers or HXL hashtags. The output section defines what files will be created. If hxltags are specified, then only those columns are output. CSV output would look like this:

Col2,Col3,tag4
#tag2,#tag3,#tag4
2,3,10
5,6,40

For JSON output, if no metadata or data is specified, the output will look like this:

[
{"#tag1":1,"#tag2":"2","#tag4":10},
{"#tag1":4,"#tag2":"5","#tag4":40}
]

If only metadata was specified, not data, then output is like this:

{"metadata":{"#date":"today!","#mytag":123},"data":[
{"#tag1":1,"#tag2":"2","#tag4":10},
{"#tag1":4,"#tag2":"5","#tag4":40}
]}

Otherwise, the result is like this:

{"metadata":{"#date":"today!","#mytag":123},"results":[
{"#tag1":1,"#tag2":"2","#tag4":10},
{"#tag1":4,"#tag2":"5","#tag4":40}
]}

The utility is called as follows:

save_hxlated_output(
    configuration,
    rows,
    includes_header=True,
    includes_hxltags=True,
    output_dir=output_dir,
    today="today!",
)

The first parameter is the configuration which can come from a YAML file for example. The second parameter, rows is the data. That data can be a list of lists, tuples or dictionaries. If includes_header is True, headers are taken from rows, otherwise they must be given by the configuration. If includes_hxltags is True, HXL hashtags are taken from rows, otherwise they must be given by the configuration. output_dir specifies where the output should go and defaults to "". Any other parameters (such as today in the example above) are used to populate template variables given in the configuration for the metadata.

Dictionary and list utilities

Examples:

# Invert dictionary
a = {"a": "#a", "b": "#b", "c": "#c"}
assert invert_dictionary(a) == {"#a": "a", "#b": "b", "#c": "c"}

# Merge dictionaries
d1 = {1: 1, 2: 2, 3: 3, 4: ["a", "b", "c"]}
d2 = {2: 6, 5: 8, 6: 9, 4: ["d", "e"]}
result = merge_dictionaries([d1, d2])
assert result == {1: 1, 2: 6, 3: 3, 4: ["d", "e"], 5: 8, 6: 9}

# Diff dictionaries
d1 = {1: 1, 2: 2, 3: 3, 4: {"a": 1, "b": "c"}}
d2 = {4: {"a": 1, "b": "c"}, 2: 2, 3: 3, 1: 1}
diff = dict_diff(d1, d2)
assert diff == {}
d2[3] = 4
diff = dict_diff(d1, d2)
assert diff == {3: (3, 4)}

# Add element to list in dict
d = dict()
dict_of_lists_add(d, "a", 1)
assert d == {"a": [1]}
dict_of_lists_add(d, 2, "b")
assert d == {"a": [1], 2: ["b"]}
dict_of_lists_add(d, "a", 2)
assert d == {"a": [1, 2], 2: ["b"]}

# Add element to set in dict
d = dict()
dict_of_sets_add(d, "a", 1)
assert d == {"a": {1}}
dict_of_sets_add(d, 2, "b")
assert d == {"a": {1}, 2: {"b"}}

# Add element to dict in dict
d = dict()
dict_of_dicts_add(d, "a", 1, 3.0)
assert d == {"a": {1: 3.0}}
dict_of_dicts_add(d, 2, "b", 5.0)
assert d == {"a": {1: 3.0}, 2: {"b": 5.0}}

# Spread items in list so similar items are further apart
input_list = [3, 1, 1, 1, 2, 2]
result = list_distribute_contents(input_list)
assert result == [1, 2, 1, 2, 1, 3]

# Get values for the same key in all dicts in list
input_list = [{"key": "d", 1: 5}, {"key": "d", 1: 1}, {"key": "g", 1: 2},
              {"key": "a", 1: 2}, {"key": "a", 1: 3}, {"key": "b", 1: 5}]
result = extract_list_from_list_of_dict(input_list, "key")
assert result == ["d", "d", "g", "a", "a", "b"]

# Cast either keys or values or both in dictionary to type
d1 = {1: 2, 2: 2.0, 3: 5, "la": 4}
assert key_value_convert(d1, keyfn=int) == {1: 2, 2: 2.0, 3: 5, "la": 4}
assert key_value_convert(d1, keyfn=int, dropfailedkeys=True) == {1: 2, 2: 2.0, 3: 5}
d1 = {1: 2, 2: 2.0, 3: 5, 4: "la"}
assert key_value_convert(d1, valuefn=int) == {1: 2, 2: 2.0, 3: 5, 4: "la"}
assert key_value_convert(d1, valuefn=int, dropfailedvalues=True) == {1: 2, 2: 2.0, 3: 5}

# Cast keys in dictionary to integer
d1 = {1: 1, 2: 1.5, 3.5: 3, "4": 4}
assert integer_key_convert(d1) == {1: 1, 2: 1.5, 3: 3, 4: 4}

# Cast values in dictionary to integer
d1 = {1: 1, 2: 1.5, 3: "3", 4: 4}
assert integer_value_convert(d1) == {1: 1, 2: 1, 3: 3, 4: 4}

# Cast values in dictionary to float
d1 = {1: 1, 2: 1.5, 3: "3", 4: 4}
assert float_value_convert(d1) == {1: 1.0, 2: 1.5, 3: 3.0, 4: 4.0}

# Average values by key in two dictionaries
d1 = {1: 1, 2: 1.0, 3: 3, 4: 4}
d2 = {1: 2, 2: 2.0, 3: 5, 4: 4, 7: 3}
assert avg_dicts(d1, d2) == {1: 1.5, 2: 1.5, 3: 4, 4: 4}

# Read and write lists to csv
l = [[1, 2, 3, "a"],
     [4, 5, 6, "b"],
     [7, 8, 9, "c"]]
write_list_to_csv(filepath, l, headers=["h1", "h2", "h3", "h4"])
newll = read_list_from_csv(filepath)
newld = read_list_from_csv(filepath, headers=1, dict_form=True)
assert newll == [["h1", "h2", "h3", "h4"], ["1", "2", "3", "a"], ["4", "5", "6", "b"], ["7", "8", "9", "c"]]
assert newld == [{"h1": "1", "h2": "2", "h4": "a", "h3": "3"},
                {"h1": "4", "h2": "5", "h4": "b", "h3": "6"},
                {"h1": "7", "h2": "8", "h4": "c", "h3": "9"}]

## Convert command line arguments to dictionary
args = "a=1,big=hello,1=3"
assert args_to_dict(args) == {"a": "1", "big": "hello", "1": "3"}

HTML utilities

These are built on top of BeautifulSoup and simplify its setup.

Examples:

# Get soup for url with optional kwarg downloader=Download() object
soup = get_soup("http://myurl", user_agent="test")
# user agent can be set globally using:
# UserAgent.set_global("test")
tag = soup.find(id="mytag")

# Get text of tag stripped of leading and trailing whitespace
# and newlines and with &nbsp replaced with space
result = get_text("mytag")

# Extract HTML table as list of dictionaries
result = extract_table(tabletag)

Comparing files

Compare two files:

result = compare_files(testfile1, testfile2)
# Result is of form eg.:
# ["- coal   ,3      ,7.4    ,'needed'\n",
#  "?         ^\n",
#  "+ coal   ,1      ,7.4    ,'notneeded'\n",
#  "?         ^                +++\n"]

Emailing

Example of setup and sending email:

smtp_initargs = {
    "host": "localhost",
    "port": 123,
    "local_hostname": "mycomputer.fqdn.com",
    "timeout": 3,
    "source_address": ("machine", 456),
}
username = "user@user.com"
password = "pass"
email_config_dict = {
    "connection_type": "ssl",
    "username": username,
    "password": password
}
email_config_dict.update(smtp_initargs)

recipients = ["larry@gmail.com", "moe@gmail.com", "curly@gmail.com"]
subject = "hello"
text_body = "hello there"
html_body = """\
<html>
  <head></head>
  <body>
    <p>Hi!<br>
       How are you?<br>
       Here is the <a href="https://www.python.org">link</a> you wanted.
    </p>
  </body>
</html>
"""
sender = "me@gmail.com"

with Email(email_config_dict=email_config_dict) as email:
    email.send(recipients, subject, text_body, sender=sender)

Logging

The library provides elegant logs to the console with a simple default setup which should be adequate for most cases. By default, the log shows INFO level and higher. This can be changed with console_log_level. If log_file, a path to a log file, is specified then logging will also go to a file. The log level for the file can be set using file_log_level which by default is ERROR.

from hdx.utilities.easy_logging import setup_logging
...
logger = logging.getLogger(__name__)
setup_logging(console_log_level="DEBUG", log_file="output.log",
file_log_level="INFO")

To use logging in your files, simply add the line below to the top of each Python file:

logger = logging.getLogger(__name__)

Then use the logger like this:

logger.debug("DEBUG message")
logger.info("INFORMATION message")
logger.warning("WARNING message")
logger.error("ERROR message")
logger.critical("CRITICAL error message")

There is a class that allows collecting of errors to be logged later, typically on exit. It is called ErrorsOnExit and can be used as follows:

with ErrorsHandler() as errors:
    ...
    errors.add_message("MY ERROR MESSAGE")
    errors.add_message("MY WARNING MESSAGE", "category 1", "warning")
    ...
    errors.add("ERROR MESSAGE", "category 1", "warning")
    errors.add("ANOTHER ERROR MESSAGE", "category 1", "warning")

The above code will collect the errors and warnings, in this case "MY ERROR MESSAGE", "category 1 - ERROR MESSAGE", "category 1 - ANOTHER ERROR MESSAGE" and "category 1 - MY WARNING MESSAGE". On leaving the with block, the errors and warnings will be logged by category and sorted. The code will exit with the error code 1 (ie.sys.exit(1) will be called) if there are errors and should_exit_on_error is True (the default for this parameter in the constructor). If there are no errors, the code will not exit and execution will continue after the with block (ie.sys.exit(1) will not be called).

State utility

The State class allows the reading and writing of state to a given path. Input and output state transformations can be supplied in read_fn and write_fn respectively. The input state transformation takes in a string while the output transformation outputs a string. It is used as follows:

    with temp_dir(folder="test_state") as tmpdir:
        statepath = join(tmpdir, statefile)
        copyfile(join(statefolder, statefile), statepath)
        date1 = datetime(2020, 9, 23, 0, 0, tzinfo=timezone.utc)
        date2 = datetime(2022, 5, 12, 10, 15, tzinfo=timezone.utc)
        with State(
            statepath, parse_date, iso_string_from_datetime
        ) as state:
            assert state.get() == date1
            state.set(date2)
        with State(
            statepath, parse_date, iso_string_from_datetime
        ) as state:
            assert state.get() == date2.replace(hour=0, minute=0)

        with State(
            statepath,
            State.dates_str_to_country_date_dict,
            State.country_date_dict_to_dates_str,
        ) as state:
            state_dict = state.get()
            assert state_dict == {"DEFAULT": date1}
            state_dict["AFG"] = date2
            state.set(state_dict)
        with State(
            statepath,
            State.dates_str_to_country_date_dict,
            State.country_date_dict_to_dates_str,
        ) as state:
            state_dict = state.get()
            assert state_dict == {
                "DEFAULT": date1,
                "AFG": date2.replace(hour=0, minute=0),
            }

If run inside a GitHub Action, the saved state file could be committed to GitHub so that on the next run the state is available in the repository.

Path utilities

Examples:

Get current directory of script

dir = script_dir(ANY_PYTHON_OBJECT_IN_SCRIPT)

Get current directory of script with filename appended

path = script_dir_plus_file("myfile.txt", ANY_PYTHON_OBJECT_IN_SCRIPT)

Get filename or (filename, extension) from url

url = "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/OCHA-DAP/hdx-python-utilities/master/tests/fixtures/test_data.csv"
filename = get_filename_from_url(fixtureurl)
assert filename == "test_data.csv"
filename, extension = get_filename_extension_from_url(fixtureurl)
assert filename == "test_data"
assert extension == ".csv"

Gets temporary directory from environment variable TEMP_DIR and falls back to the temporary folder created by the os function gettempdir.

temp_folder = get_temp_dir()

Gets temporary directory from environment variable TEMP_DIR and falls back to the temporary folder created by the os function gettempdir. It (optionally) appends the given folder name, creates the folder and deletes the folder if exiting successfully else keeps the folder if there was an exception.

with temp_dir("papa", delete_on_success=True, delete_on_failure=False) as tempdir:
    ...

Sometimes it is necessary to be able to resume runs if they fail. The following example creates a temporary folder and iterates through a list of items. On each iteration, the current state of progress is stored in the temporary folder. If the iteration were to fail, the temporary folder is not deleted and on the next run, it will resume where it failed assuming that the new run does not recreate the environment (eg. this would work with a dedicated server but not GitHub Actions). Once the whole list is iterated through, the temporary folder is deleted.

What is returned each iteration is a tuple with 2 dictionaries. The first (info) contains key folder which is the temporary directory optionally with folder appended (and created if it doesn't exist). In key progress is held the current position in the iterator. It also contains the key batch containing a batch code to be passed as the batch parameter in create_in_hdx or update_in_hdx calls. The second dictionary is the next dictionary in the iterator. The environment variable WHERETOSTART can be set to the starting value for example iso3=SDN in the example below. If it is set to RESET, then the temporary folder is deleted before the run starts to ensure it starts from the beginning.

iterator = [{"iso3": "AFG", "name": "Afghanistan"}, {"iso3": "SDN", "name": "Sudan"},
            {"iso3": "YEM", "name": "Yemen"}, {"iso3": "ZAM", "name": "Zambia"}]
result = list()
for info, nextdict in progress_storing_tempdir(tempfolder, iterator, "iso3"):
    ...

Sometimes, it may be necessary to create the folder and batch code for use by parts of the code outside of the iterator. This can be achieved as follows:

with wheretostart_tempdir_batch(tempfolder) as info:
    folder = info["folder"]
    ...
    for info, country in progress_storing_folder(info, iterator, "iso3"):
        ...

The batch code can be passed into wheretostart_tempdir_batch in the batch parameter. If not given, the batch code is generated. The folder to use will be a generated temporary folder unless tempdir is given.

Text processing

Examples:

a = "The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog. It was so fast!"

# Normalise text eg. to support name matching
assert normalise("£^*& ()+-[]<>?|\ Al DhaleZ'eÉ / الضالع,,..1234''#~~### ") == "al dhalezee 1234"

# Remove whitespace and punctuation from end of string
assert remove_end_characters('lalala,.,"') == "lalala"
assert remove_end_characters('lalala, .\t/,"', f"{punctuation}{whitespace}" == "lalala"

# Remove list of items from end of string, stripping any whitespace
result = remove_from_end(a, ["fast!", "so"], "Transforming %s -> %s")
assert result == "The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog. It was"

# Remove string from another string and delete any preceding end characters - by default
# punctuation (eg. comma) and any whitespace following the punctuation
assert remove_string("lala, 01/02/2020 ", "01/02/2020") == "lala "
assert remove_string("lala,(01/02/2020) ", "01/02/2020") == "lala) "
assert remove_string("lala, 01/02/2020 ", "01/02/2020", PUNCTUATION_MINUS_BRACKETS) == "lala "
assert remove_string("lala,(01/02/2020) ", "01/02/2020", PUNCTUATION_MINUS_BRACKETS) == "lala,() "

# Extract words from a string sentence into a list
result = get_words_in_sentence("Korea (Democratic People's Republic of)")
assert result == ["Korea", "Democratic", "People's", "Republic", "of"]

Matching utilities

Examples:

possible_names = ["Al Maharah", "Ad Dali", "Dhamar"]
phonetics = Phonetics()
assert phonetics.match(possible_names, "al dali") == 1

org_type_lookup = {"Donor": "433", "National NGO": "441", "Other": "443"}
lookup = {
    normalise(k): v for k, v in org_type_lookup.items()
}
assert get_code_from_name("NATIONAL_NGO", lookup, [], fuzzy_match=False) == "441"

a = "The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog. It was so fast!"

# Replace multiple strings in a string simultaneously
result = multiple_replace(a, {"quick": "slow", "fast": "slow", "lazy": "busy"})
assert result == "The slow brown fox jumped over the busy dog. It was so slow!"

# Look for template variables in a string (ie. {{XXX}})
assert match_template_variables("dasdda{{abc}}gff") == ("{{abc}}", "abc")

# Search a string for each of a list of strings and return the earliest index
assert earliest_index(a, ["dog", "lala", "fox", "haha", "quick"]) == 4

# Find matching text in strings
a = "The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog. It was so fast!"
b = "The quicker brown fox leapt over the slower fox. It was so fast!"
c = "The quick brown fox climbed over the lazy dog. It was so fast!"
result = get_matching_text([a, b, c], match_min_size=10)
assert result == " brown fox  over the  It was so fast!"

Encoding utilities

Examples:

# Base 64 encode and decode string
a = "The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog. It was so fast!"
b = str_to_base64(a)
c = base64_to_str(b)
user = "user"
password = "password"
a = basicauth_encode(user, password)
b = basicauth_decode(a)

Valid UUID

Examples:

assert is_valid_uuid("jpsmith") is False
assert is_valid_uuid("c9bf9e57-1685-4c89-bafb-ff5af830be8a") is True

Easy building and packaging

The pyproject.toml, setup.cfg, .readthedocs.yaml and GitHub Actions workflows provide a template that can be used by other projects or libraries.