extools package

extools is created and maintained by Poplar Development. The full source is available on Bitbucket.

Before we get started, what brings you here today? Are you looking to…

• Work with the built-in Extender views but write more idiomatic code? Check out extools: foundation.
• Write Extender scripts using try/except instead of if r != 0, views that compose themselves, automatic optional field helpers, intelligent seek, and more? Try extools.view on for size.
• Handle messages and logging easily and consistently in your Extender scripts? Have a look at extools.message.
• Automate the testing of your code? The extools.test package may be just what you need.
• Get a better handle on the environment in which your scripts are running? is this being called from Process Scheduler, an import, or a view? Helpers in extools.env may help.
• Write scripts that need to be run from the panel but don’t need a UI? extools.ui.bare helps with that.
• Add a new column to pretty much any grid in just a few lines? extools.ui.callback_column.CallbackColumnUI, extools.ui.datasource_column.DatasourceColumnUI, extools.ui.optfield_column.OptfieldColumnUI have you covered.

extools: foundation

Full of little helpers that can be used to make Extender scripts more idiomatic, these functions are the foundation for the other tools in the package. Things like checking the success of view operations in bulk, or generators that yield all records in a view. Instead of

_rc = view.recordClear()
_br = view.browse("")

if _rc != 0 or _br != 0:
    showMessage("Custom Script: failed to clear or browse.")
    return False

while view.fetch() == 0:
    val = view.get("FIELD")
    # do stuff

Use the helpers in extools to make things more idiomatic.

from extools import (success, all_records_in, )

_rc = view.recordClear()
_br = view.browse("")

# Avoid numeric comparisons that can be hard to understand.
if not success(_rc, _br):
    # Generate messages
    alert("failed to clear or browse.")
    return False

while success(view.fetch()):
    val = view.get("FIELD")
    # do stuff

# alternatively, use a for loop and the all_records_in helper.
for item in all_records_in(view):
    val = item.get("FIELD")

extools.messages: a simple logging framework for Extender scripts

Messages provides the ExMessages class, which acts like a logger but shows messages on screen (as well as writing to a file if required). It provides configurable log levels, so the verbosity of the module is easily controlled.

Set it to DEBUG while developing and then to WARNING before releasing, be confident that you haven’t left a hanging debug message lying around.

Instead of having to uncomment those hidden showMessages when trying to fix a problem in place, just change the log level and undo the Extender script check-in when you’ve finished troubleshooting.

And keep DRY. Set the log level once, and the message output format, along with titles, once. The user experience will be more consistent and the code must easier to maintain.

from extools.message import ExMessages
from extools.env import vidir_path

exn = ExMessages("My Customization",
                      level=ExMessages.INFO,
                      logpath=vidir_path / "mycust.log")

# Write to the log and display a message box with "My Customization" as a
# header and the message as content.
exn.info("This is an info message.")

# Would display a message box with "DEBUG - My Customization" as a header
# and the message as content but suppressed due to level.
exn.debug("This is a debug message.")

# Update the log level on the fly.
exn.level = ExMessages.DEBUG

# This time it will work.
exn.debug("This is a debug message.")

As an added bonus messages logged at the panic, critical, and error level can include traceback information - allowing the capture of deep tracebacks that exceed the Sage system message size.

# Append the traceback for the last exception to the
# message.
exn.error("This error occured!", exc_info=True)

extools.view: a wrapper around Extender views that raises

ExView is an exception raising wrapper around the standard Extender View object. It has some other extensions as well, such as built in generators, that make working with with views more pythonic.

from extools.message import ExMessages
from extools.view import ExView, ExViewError

exm = ExMessages("MYMOD")

try:
    # Open the AR Items view
    exv = ExView("AR0010")
    # Compose, adding the ar0009 (aritd) and ar0011 (aritt) views
    exv.compose()
    for item in exv.lines():
        for price in item.ar0009.lines():
            # Do some stuff with the item prices
except ExViewError as e:
    # Use the descriptive message in the exception.
    exm.error("Failed to update pricing, {}.".format(e))

For more information on ExView’s self-composing feature, see the doc on Self-composing views.

extools.env: details on the current execution env

Sometimes you need details about the execution environment from within a customization. What is the VI root directory? Where can I put a temp file? Is this script executing from Process Scheduler?

The environment package leverages Python’s Path library to make working with the environment easy.