Examples

Validate with Pydantic

This example shows how to use pydantic to validate and parse a NestedText file. The file in this case specifies deployment settings for a web server:

debug: false
secret_key: t=)40**y&883y9gdpuw%aiig+wtc033(ui@^1ur72w#zhw3_ch

allowed_hosts:
  - www.example.com

database:
  engine: django.db.backends.mysql
  host: db.example.com
  port: 3306
  user: www

webmaster_email: admin@example.com

Below is the code to parse this file. Note that basic types like integers, strings, Booleans, and lists are specified using standard type annotations. Dictionaries with specific keys are represented by model classes, and it is possible to reference one model from within another. Pydantic also has built-in support for validating email addresses, which we can take advantage of here:

#!/usr/bin/env python3

import nestedtext as nt
from pydantic import BaseModel, EmailStr
from typing import List
from pprint import pprint

class Database(BaseModel):
    engine: str
    host: str
    port: int
    user: str

class Config(BaseModel):
    debug: bool
    secret_key: str
    allowed_hosts: List[str]
    database: Database
    webmaster_email: EmailStr

obj = nt.load('deploy.nt')
config = Config.parse_obj(obj)

pprint(config.dict())

This produces the following data structure:

{'allowed_hosts': ['www.example.com'],
 'database': {'engine': 'django.db.backends.mysql',
              'host': 'db.example.com',
              'port': 3306,
              'user': 'www'},
 'debug': False,
 'secret_key': 't=)40**y&883y9gdpuw%aiig+wtc033(ui@^1ur72w#zhw3_ch',
 'webmaster_email': 'admin@example.com'}

Validate with Voluptuous

This example shows how to use voluptuous to validate and parse a NestedText file. The input file is the same as in the previous example, i.e. deployment settings for a web server:

debug: false
secret_key: t=)40**y&883y9gdpuw%aiig+wtc033(ui@^1ur72w#zhw3_ch

allowed_hosts:
  - www.example.com

database:
  engine: django.db.backends.mysql
  host: db.example.com
  port: 3306
  user: www

webmaster_email: admin@example.com

Below is the code to parse this file. Note how the structure of the data is specified using basic Python objects. The Coerce() function is necessary to have voluptuous convert string input to the given type; otherwise it would simply check that the input matches the given type:

#!/usr/bin/env python3

import nestedtext as nt
from voluptuous import Schema, Coerce
from pprint import pprint

schema = Schema({
    'debug': Coerce(bool),
    'secret_key': str,
    'allowed_hosts': [str],
    'database': {
        'engine': str,
        'host': str,
        'port': Coerce(int),
        'user': str,
    },
    'webmaster_email': str,
})
raw = nt.load('deploy.nt')
config = schema(raw)

pprint(config)

This produces the following data structure:

{'allowed_hosts': ['www.example.com'],
 'database': {'engine': 'django.db.backends.mysql',
              'host': 'db.example.com',
              'port': 3306,
              'user': 'www'},
 'debug': False,
 'secret_key': 't=)40**y&883y9gdpuw%aiig+wtc033(ui@^1ur72w#zhw3_ch',
 'webmaster_email': 'admin@example.com'}

JSON to NestedText

This example implements a command-line utility that converts a JSON file to NestedText. It demonstrates the use of dumps() and NestedTextError.

#!/usr/bin/env python3
"""
Read a JSON file and convert it to NestedText.

usage:
    json-to-nestedtext [options] [<filename>]

options:
    -f, --force            force overwrite of output file
    -i <n>, --indent <n>   number of spaces per indent [default: 4]

If <filename> is not given, json input is taken from stdin and NestedText output 
is written to stdout.
"""

from docopt import docopt
from inform import fatal, full_stop, os_error
from pathlib import Path
import json
import nestedtext as nt
import sys
sys.stdin.reconfigure(encoding='utf-8')
sys.stdout.reconfigure(encoding='utf-8')

cmdline = docopt(__doc__)
input_filename = cmdline['<filename>']
try:
    indent = int(cmdline['--indent'])
except Exception:
    warn('indent garbled.', culprit=cmdline['--indent'])
    indent = 4

try:
    # read JSON content; from file or from stdin
    if input_filename:
        input_path = Path(input_filename)
        json_content = input_path.read_text(encoding='utf-8')
    else:
        json_content = sys.stdin.read()
    data = json.loads(json_content)

    # convert to NestedText
    nestedtext_content = nt.dumps(data, indent=indent) + "\n"

    # output NestedText content; to file or to stdout
    if input_filename:
        output_path = input_path.with_suffix('.nt')
        if output_path.exists():
            if not cmdline['--force']:
                fatal('file exists, use -f to force over-write.', culprit=output_path)
        output_path.write_text(nestedtext_content, encoding='utf-8')
    else:
        sys.stdout.write(nestedtext_content)
except OSError as e:
    fatal(os_error(e))
except nt.NestedTextError as e:
    e.terminate(culprit=input_filename)
except json.JSONDecodeError as e:
    # create a nice error message with surrounding context
    msg = e.msg
    culprit = input_filename
    codicil = None
    try:
        lineno = e.lineno
        culprit = (culprit, lineno)
        colno = e.colno
        lines_before = e.doc.split('\n')[lineno-2:lineno]
        lines = []
        for i, l in zip(range(lineno-len(lines_before), lineno), lines_before):
            lines.append(f'{i+1:>4}> {l}')
        lines_before = '\n'.join(lines)
        lines_after = e.doc.split('\n')[lineno:lineno+1]
        lines = []
        for i, l in zip(range(lineno, lineno + len(lines_after)), lines_after):
            lines.append(f'{i+1:>4}> {l}')
        lines_after = '\n'.join(lines)
        codicil = f"{lines_before}\n     {colno*' '}\n{lines_after}"
    except Exception:
        pass
    fatal(full_stop(msg), culprit=culprit, codicil=codicil)

The presence of this example should not be taken as a suggestion that NestedText is a replacement for JSON. Be aware that not all JSON data can be converted to NestedText, and in the conversion all type information is lost.

NestedText to JSON

This example implements a command-line utility that converts a NestedText file to JSON. It demonstrates the use of load() and NestedTextError.

#!/usr/bin/env python3
"""
Read a NestedText file and convert it to JSON.

usage:
    nestedtext-to-json [options] [<filename>]

options:
    -f, --force   force overwrite of output file
    -d, --dedup   de-duplicate keys in dictionaries

If <filename> is not given, NestedText input is taken from stdin and JSON output 
is written to stdout.
"""

from docopt import docopt
from inform import fatal, os_error
from pathlib import Path
import json
import nestedtext as nt
import sys
sys.stdin.reconfigure(encoding='utf-8')
sys.stdout.reconfigure(encoding='utf-8')


def de_dup(key, value, data, state):
    if key not in state:
        state[key] = 1
    state[key] += 1
    return f"{key}#{state[key]}"


cmdline = docopt(__doc__)
input_filename = cmdline['<filename>']
on_dup = de_dup if cmdline['--dedup'] else None

try:
    if input_filename:
        input_path = Path(input_filename)
        data = nt.load(input_path, top='any', on_dup=de_dup)
        json_content = json.dumps(data, indent=4)
        output_path = input_path.with_suffix('.json')
        if output_path.exists():
            if not cmdline['--force']:
                fatal('file exists, use -f to force over-write.', culprit=output_path)
        output_path.write_text(json_content, encoding='utf-8')
    else:
        data = nt.load(sys.stdin, top='any', on_dup=de_dup)
        json_content = json.dumps(data, indent=4)
        sys.stdout.write(json_content)
except OSError as e:
    fatal(os_error(e))
except nt.NestedTextError as e:
    e.terminate()

Cryptocurrency holdings

This example implements a command-line utility that displays the current value of cryptocurrency holdings. The program starts by reading a settings file held in ~/.config/cc that in this case holds:

holdings:
    - 5 BTC
    - 50 ETH
    - 50,000 XLM
currency: USD
date format: h:mm A, dddd MMMM D
screen width: 90

This file, of course, is in NestedText format. After being read by load() it is processed by a voluptuous schema that does some checking on the form of the values specified and then converts the holdings to a list of QuantiPhy quantities. The latest prices are then downloaded from cryptocompare, the value of the holdings are computed, and then displayed. The result looks like this:

Holdings as of 11:18 AM, Wednesday September 2.
5 BTC = $56.8k @ $11.4k/BTC    68.4% ████████████████████████████████████▏
50 ETH = $21.7k @ $434/ETH     26.1% █████████████▊
50 kXLM = $4.6k @ $92m/XLM     5.5%  ██▉
Total value = $83.1k.

And finally, the code:

#!/usr/bin/env python3

from appdirs import user_config_dir
import nestedtext as nt
from voluptuous import Schema, Required, All, Length, Invalid, Coerce
from inform import display, fatal, is_collection, os_error, render_bar, full_stop
import arrow
import requests
from quantiphy import Quantity
from pathlib import Path

# configure preferences
Quantity.set_prefs(prec=2, ignore_sf = True)
currency_symbols = dict(USD='$', EUR='€', JPY='¥', GBP='£')

try:
    # read settings
    settings_file = Path(user_config_dir('cc'), 'settings')
    settings_schema = Schema({
        Required('holdings'): All([Coerce(Quantity)], Length(min=1)),
        'currency': str,
        'date format': str,
        'screen width': Coerce(int)
    })
    settings = settings_schema(nt.load(settings_file, top='dict'))
    currency = settings.get('currency', 'USD')
    currency_symbol = currency_symbols.get(currency, currency)
    screen_width = settings.get('screen width', 80)

    # download latest asset prices from cryptocompare.com
    params = dict(
        fsyms = ','.join(coin.units for coin in settings['holdings']),
        tsyms = currency,
    )
    url = 'https://min-api.cryptocompare.com/data/pricemulti'
    try:
        r = requests.get(url, params=params)
        if r.status_code != requests.codes.ok:
            r.raise_for_status()
    except Exception as e:
        raise Error('cannot access cryptocurrency prices:', codicil=str(e))
    prices = {k: Quantity(v['USD'], currency_symbol) for k, v in r.json().items()}

    # compute total
    total = Quantity(0, currency_symbol)
    for coin in settings['holdings']:
        price = prices[coin.units]
        value = price.scale(coin)
        total = total.add(value)

    # display holdings
    now = arrow.now().format(settings.get('date format', 'h:mm A, dddd MMMM D, YYYY'))
    print(f'Holdings as of {now}.')
    bar_width = screen_width - 37
    for coin in settings['holdings']:
        price = prices[coin.units]
        value = price.scale(coin)
        portion = value/total
        summary = f'{coin} = {value} @ {price}/{coin.units}'
        print(f'{summary:<30} {portion:<5.1%} {render_bar(portion, bar_width)}')
    print(f'Total value = {total}.')

except nt.NestedTextError as e:
    e.terminate()
except Invalid as e:
    fatal(full_stop(e.msg), culprit=e.path)
except OSError as e:
    fatal(os_error(e))
except KeyboardInterrupt:
    pass

PostMortem

This example illustrates how one can implement references in NestedText. A reference allows you to define some content once and insert that content multiple places in the document. The example also demonstrates a slightly different way to implement validation and conversion on a per field basis with voluptuous.

PostMortem is a program that generates a packet of information that is securely shared with your dependents in case of your death. Only the settings processing part of the package is shown here. Here is a configuration file that Odin might use to generate packets for his wife and kids:

my gpg ids: odin@norse-gods.com
sign with: @ my gpg ids
name template: {name}-{now:YYMMDD}
estate docs:
    - ~/home/estate/trust.pdf
    - ~/home/estate/will.pdf
    - ~/home/estate/deed-valhalla.pdf

recipients:
    frigg:
        email: frigg@norse-gods.com
        category: wife
        attach: @ estate docs
        networth: odin
    thor:
        email: thor@norse-gods.com
        category: kids
        attach: @ estate docs
    loki:
        email: loki@norse-gods.com
        category: kids
        attach: @ estate docs

Notice that estate docs is defined at the top level. It is not a PostMortem setting; it simply defines a value that will be interpolated into a setting later. The interpolation is done by specifying @ along with the name of the reference as a value. So for example, in recipients attach is specified as @ estate docs. This causes the list of estate documents to be used as attachments. The same thing is done in sign with, which interpolates my gpg ids.

Here is the code for validating and transforming the PostMortem settings:

#!/usr/bin/env python3
import nestedtext as nt
from pathlib import Path
from voluptuous import Schema, Invalid, Extra, Required, REMOVE_EXTRA
from pprint import pprint

# Settings schema
# First define some functions that are used for validation and coercion
def to_str(arg):
    if isinstance(arg, str):
        return arg
    raise Invalid('expected text.')

def to_ident(arg):
    arg = to_str(arg)
    if len(arg.split()) > 1:
        raise Invalid('expected simple identifier.')
    return arg

def to_list(arg):
    if isinstance(arg, str):
        return arg.split()
    if isinstance(arg, dict):
        raise Invalid('expected list.')
    return arg

def to_paths(arg):
    return [Path(p).expanduser() for p in to_list(arg)]

def to_email(arg):
    user, _, host = arg.partition('@')
    if '.' in host:
        return arg
    raise Invalid('expected email address.')

def to_emails(arg):
    return [to_email(e) for e in to_list(arg)]

def to_gpg_id(arg):
    try:
        return to_email(arg)      # gpg ID may be an email address
    except Invalid:
        try:
            int(arg, base=16)     # if not an email, it must be a hex key
            assert len(arg) >= 8  # at least 8 characters long
            return arg
        except (ValueError, AssertionError):
            raise Invalid('expected GPG id.')

def to_gpg_ids(arg):
    return [to_gpg_id(i) for i in to_list(arg)]

# define the schema for the settings file
schema = Schema(
    {
        Required('my gpg ids'): to_gpg_ids,
        'sign with': to_gpg_id,
        'avendesora gpg passphrase account': to_str,
        'avendesora gpg passphrase field': to_str,
        'name template': to_str,
        Required('recipients'): {
            Extra: {
                Required('category'): to_ident,
                Required('email'): to_emails,
                'gpg id': to_gpg_id,
                'attach': to_paths,
                'networth': to_ident,
            }
        },
    },
    extra = REMOVE_EXTRA
)

# this function implements references
def expand_settings(value):
    # allows macro values to be defined as a top-level setting.
    # allows macro reference to be found anywhere.
    if isinstance(value, str):
        value = value.strip()
        if value[:1] == '@':
            value = settings[value[1:].strip()]
        return value
    if isinstance(value, dict):
        return {k:expand_settings(v) for k, v in value.items()}
    if isinstance(value, list):
        return [expand_settings(v) for v in value]
    raise NotImplementedError(value)

try:
    # Read settings
    config_filepath = Path('postmortem.nt')
    if config_filepath.exists():

        # load from file
        settings = nt.load(config_filepath)

        # expand references
        settings = expand_settings(settings)

        # check settings and transform to desired types
        settings = schema(settings)

        # show the resulting settings
        pprint(settings)

except nt.NestedTextError as e:
    e.report()
except Invalid as e:
    print(f"ERROR: {', '.join(str(p) for p in e.path)}: {e.msg}")

This code uses expand_settings to implement references, and it uses the Voluptuous schema to clean and validate the settings and convert them to convenient forms. For example, the user could specify attach as a string or a list, and the members could use a leading ~ to signify a home directory. Applying to_paths in the schema converts whatever is specified to a list and converts each member to a pathlib path with the ~ properly expanded.

Notice that the schema is defined in a different manner that the above examples. In those, you simply state which type you are expecting for the value and you use the Coerce function to indicate that the value should be cast to that type if needed. In this example, simple functions are passed in that perform validation and coercion as needed. This is a more flexible approach and allows better control of the error messages.

Here are the processed settings:

{'my gpg ids': ['odin@norse-gods.com'],
'name template': '{name}-{now:YYMMDD}',
'recipients': {'frigg': {'attach': [PosixPath('/home/ken/home/estate/trust.pdf'),
                                    PosixPath('/home/ken/home/estate/will.pdf'),
                                    PosixPath('/home/ken/home/estate/deed-valhalla.pdf')],
                        'category': 'wife',
                        'email': ['frigg@norse-gods.com'],
                        'networth': 'odin'},
                'loki': {'attach': [PosixPath('/home/ken/home/estate/trust.pdf'),
                                    PosixPath('/home/ken/home/estate/will.pdf'),
                                    PosixPath('/home/ken/home/estate/deed-valhalla.pdf')],
                        'category': 'kids',
                        'email': ['loki@norse-gods.com']},
                'thor': {'attach': [PosixPath('/home/ken/home/estate/trust.pdf'),
                                    PosixPath('/home/ken/home/estate/will.pdf'),
                                    PosixPath('/home/ken/home/estate/deed-valhalla.pdf')],
                        'category': 'kids',
                        'email': ['thor@norse-gods.com']}},
'sign with': 'odin@norse-gods.com'}