DataTree is a library for creating structured documents in python. Inspired by ruby builder but with the goal of reducing the amount of line noise while remaining “pythonic”. As an added bonus the tree can be output to to any structured format (with XML, JSON and YAML supported in the library).
Note
More documentation is coming soon but for now a very basic rough draft can be found at datatree.readthedocs.org.
You can install via PyPi or direct from the github repository.
To install with pip:
$ pip install datatree
To install with easy_install:
$ easy_install datatree
Version 0.2.0 is about 70% complete. The remaining tasks are:
You can install the alpha with pip directly from github using the command:
$ pip install -e git://github.com/bigjason/datatree.git@v0.2.alpha.1#egg=datatree
A small example:
from datatree import Tree, Node
tree = Tree()
with tree.node("author") as author:
author.node('name', 'Terry Pratchett')
author.node('genre', 'Fantasy/Comedy')
author.comment("Only 2 books listed")
with author.node('novels', count=2) as novels:
novels.node('novel', 'Small Gods', year=1992)
novels.node('novel', 'The Fifth Elephant', year=1999)
novels.node("novel", "Guards! Guards!", year=1989)
print tree(pretty=True)
Which produces the XML:
<author>
<name>Terry Pratchett</name>
<genre>Fantasy/Comedy</genre>
<!-- Only 2 books listed -->
<novels count="2">
<novel year="1992">Small Gods</novel>
<novel year="1999">The Fifth Elephant</novel>
<novel year="1989">Guards! Guards!</novel>
</novels>
</author>
Or the JSON:
{
"author": {
"genre": "Fantasy/Comedy",
"name": "Terry Pratchett",
"novels": [
"Small Gods",
"The Fifth Elephant",
"Guards! Guards!"
]
}
}
Or the YAML:
author:
genre: Fantasy/Comedy
name: Terry Pratchett
novels: [Small Gods, The Fifth Elephant, Guards! Guards!]
This work is licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0.
I welcome any and all constructive feedback. Feel free to contact me (Jason Webb) at www.bigjason.com or (preferably) on twitter @bigjasonwebb.