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POHTML ─ Python dictionary from form-subelement via CherryPy
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  1. POHTML ─ Python dictionary from form-subelement via CherryPy
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    copied!<pre><code># ! /usr/bin/env python # -*- coding: utf-8 -*- # image_slide.py """ Python 2.7.3 Cherrypy 3.2.2 """ </code></pre> <p>When an HTML form is submitted to a Python function, the values are sent within one dictionary. For some subelements in an HTML form, I want to POST an additional nested dictionary, within that form dictionary. The question is, if there is an HTML tag or such a thing, which Python would interpret as opening for a new dictionary. So far I tried naming the <code>&lt;td&gt;</code> or an invisible <code>&lt;fieldset&gt;</code>, but of course it isn't as simple. And nested forms aren't possible either. </p> <p>What I have is a form, which contains a few text inputs and a table with a selection of associated items.</p> <pre><code>_____ the entire form __________________________________________________________ | | | beverage: coffee | | time of day: morning | | temperature: hot | | color: brown | | taste: full-bodied | | | | Ingredients: | | ________________________________________________________________________ | | | | | | | | | | &lt;IMAGE_1&gt; | &lt;IMAGE_2&gt; | &lt;IMAGE_3&gt; | &lt;IMAG| | | | | | | | | | | filename: coffee | filename: sugar | filename: milk | filename:| | | | x select item | x select item | x select item | x select | | | |___________________|___________________|___________________|__________| | | |_____________________________&lt;scrollbar&gt;______________________________| | | | | &lt; OK &gt; | |______________________________________________________________________________| </code></pre> <p>Following are three simple pseudo-code snippets to explain the gist. </p> <ul> <li><p>Content of one form entry: </p> <pre><code>beverages = { 'coffee': { 'beverage': 'coffee', 'time of day': 'morning', 'temperature': 'hot', 'color': 'brown', 'taste': 'full-bodied', } } ingredients = { 'coffee': [ 'coffee', 'sugar', 'milk', 'cinnamon', ], } </code></pre></li> <li><p>Top part of the form : </p> <pre><code>yield(u''' &lt;form action="..." method="POST"&gt; &lt;table&gt; ''') for key, value in beverages['coffee'].items(): yield(u''' &lt;tr&gt; &lt;td&gt; {key}: &lt;/td&gt; &lt;td&gt; &lt;input type="text" name="{key}" value="{value}"&gt;&lt; /td&gt; &lt;/tr&gt; '''.format(locals(),) </code></pre></li> <li><p>Bottom part of the form : </p> <pre><code>""" This hole bottom part already shall be in a dictionary named 'ingredients'. For each loop pass, I'd like a sub-dictionary, named by its loop pass. I used the fictional tag &lt;SPECIAL_SUB_DICT&gt;, to open a new dictionary. """ yield(u''' &lt;/table&gt; &lt;SPECIAL_SUB_DICT name="ingredients"&gt; &lt;table style="overflow-x: scroll"&gt; &lt;tr&gt; ''') for index, name in enumerate(ingredients['coffee']): yield(u''' &lt;td&gt; &lt;SPECIAL_SUB_DICT name="{index}"&gt; &lt;img src="..."&gt; &lt;input type="text" name="filename" value="{name}"&gt; &lt;input type="check" name="chosen_one" value="{index}"&gt; select item &lt;/SPECIAL_SUB_DICT&gt; &lt;/td&gt; '''.format(locals(),) yield(u''' &lt;/tr&gt; &lt;/table&gt; &lt;/SPECIAL_SUB_DICT&gt; &lt;input type="submit" name="submit" value="OK"&gt; &lt;/form&gt; ''') </code></pre></li> </ul> <h2>Conclusion</h2> <p>The problem is, without some sort of <code>&lt;SPECIAL_SUB_DICT&gt;</code> tag, I can't easily rename single ingredients. For example, if I'd like to change the filename from 'milk' to 'hole cream milk'. The way I do it now is, to add the current loop pass to the input name, like this: </p> <p><code>'&lt;input type="text" name="filename_{index}" value="{name}"&gt; '.format(locals(),)</code> </p> <p>Then, within the receiving function, I can check which key starts with 'filename_' and update all of them: </p> <pre><code>for key, values in kwargs: if key startswith('filename_'): ingredients['coffee'][key[9:]] = value </code></pre> <p>It would be much nicer, if I just could iterate <code>kwargs['ingredients']</code>:</p> <pre><code>for key, values in kwargs['ingredients'].items(): ingredients['coffee'][key] = value[filename] </code></pre> <p>I'm asking, because a <code>&lt;SPECIAL_SUB_DICT&gt;</code> tag would be much closer to my current solution than parsing the table with Python's BeautifulSoup. And of course I want to know it. After all, with BeautifulSoup I'd probably be done by now.</p> <p><strong>EDIT 1:</strong> </p> <p>This runs with the web application framework CherryPy.<br> Maybe there's a way it could handle such a request.<br> Though I dont't think, that it would offer something off-standard.</p> <p><strong>EDIT 2:</strong> </p> <p>Given, that the form-dictionary starts in the URL with a question mark, I don't think a sub-dictionary is possible, because I don't know of any dictionary closing character. The closest thing I could come up with is using a hidden input named 'index', and zip() it with the text input named 'filename'. <a href="https://stackoverflow.com/questions/1893332/html-table-of-forms/1893346#1893346">This answer</a>, unfortunately for PHP, got me in the right direction. </p> <pre><code>'&lt;input type="hidden" name="index" value="{index}"&gt; '.format(locals(),) '&lt;input type="text" name="filename" value="{name}"&gt; '.format(locals(),) for key, values in zip(kwargs['index'], kwargs['filename']): ingredients['coffee'][key] = value </code></pre> <p>However, this wouldn't work for the delete button, which I planed to add to each ingredient. Since only the submit input can carry the index, and its value is used to display the button's unicode symbol, I again have to append the index to the name. </p> <p>Then, the only thing I can think of, is a form for each ingredient and the top part of the formular, instead of one large form for everything. Though I don't know if that would be good for the performance, if the list of ingredients becomes too long.</p> <p>As a visual trick comes a background image to mind, to replace the value, which then transparently, can be used according to its name. <a href="https://stackoverflow.com/questions/11772326/submit-button-image/11772584#11772584">This answer</a> and its corresponding question was helpful to get it working. </p> <p>But nothing of this is an answer to my question.<br> I'm still missing the one solution for all inputs,<br> like multiple forms, just more elegant. </p>
 

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