Changing conf.app.modules and conf.app.root to string representations.

pecan/commands/base.py

@@ -35,7 +35,7 @@ class Command(paste_command.Command):
     def get_package_names(self, config):
         if not hasattr(config.app, 'modules'):
             return []
-        return [module.__name__ for module in config.app.modules if hasattr(module, '__name__')]
+        return config.app.modules
     
     def import_module(self, package, name):
         parent = __import__(package, fromlist=[name])

pecan/core.py

@@ -188,7 +188,8 @@ class Pecan(object):
         '''
         Creates a Pecan application instance, which is a WSGI application.
         
-        :param root: The root controller object.
+        :param root: A string representing a root controller object (e.g.,
+                    "myapp.controller.root.RootController")
         :param default_renderer: The default rendering engine to use. Defaults to mako.
         :param template_path: The default relative path to use for templates. Defaults to 'templates'.
         :param hooks: A list of Pecan hook objects to use for this application.
@@ -197,12 +198,40 @@ class Pecan(object):
         :param force_canonical: A boolean indicating if this project should require canonical URLs.
         '''
 
+        if isinstance(root, basestring):
+            root = self.__translate_root__(root)
+
         self.root             = root
         self.renderers        = RendererFactory(custom_renderers, extra_template_vars)
         self.default_renderer = default_renderer
         self.hooks            = hooks
         self.template_path    = template_path
         self.force_canonical  = force_canonical
+
+    def __translate_root__(self, item):
+        '''
+        Creates a root controller instance from a string root, e.g.,
+
+        > __translate_root__("myproject.controllers.RootController")
+        myproject.controllers.RootController()
+        
+        :param item: The string to the item 
+        '''
+
+        if '.' in item:
+            parts = item.split('.')
+            name = '.'.join(parts[:-1])
+            fromlist = parts[-1:]
+
+            try:
+                module = __import__(name, fromlist=fromlist)
+                kallable = getattr(module, parts[-1])
+                assert hasattr(kallable, '__call__'), "%s does not represent a callable class or function." % item
+                return kallable()
+            except AttributeError, e:
+                raise ImportError('No item named %s' % item)
+
+        raise ImportError('No item named %s' % item)
         
     def route(self, node, path):
         '''

pecan/deploy.py

@@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ def deploy(config_module_or_path):
     set_config(config_module_or_path)
     for module in getattr(conf.app, 'modules'):
         try:
-            module_app = import_module('%s.app' % module.__name__)
+            module_app = import_module('%s.app' % module)
             if hasattr(module_app, 'setup_app'):
                 return module_app.setup_app(conf)
         except ImportError:

pecan/templates/project/config.py_tmpl

@@ -1,7 +1,3 @@
-from ${package}.controllers.root import RootController
-
-import ${package}
-
 # Server Specific Configurations
 server = {
     'port' : '8080',
@@ -10,8 +6,8 @@ server = {
 
 # Pecan Application Configurations
 app = {
-    'root'          : RootController(),
-    'modules'       : [${package}],
+    'root'          : '${package}.controllers.root.RootController',
+    'modules'       : ['${package}'],
     'static_root'   : '%(confdir)s/public', 
     'template_path' : '%(confdir)s/${package}/templates',
     'reload'        : True,

pecan/tests/test_base.py

@@ -11,6 +11,9 @@ from pecan.decorators import accept_noncanonical
 import os
 
 
+class SampleRootController(object): pass
+
+
 class TestBase(TestCase):
     
     def test_simple_app(self):    
@@ -31,6 +34,10 @@ class TestBase(TestCase):
         r = app.get('/index.html')
         assert r.status_int == 200
         assert r.body == 'Hello, World!'
+
+    def test_controller_lookup_by_string_path(self):
+        app = Pecan('pecan.tests.test_base.SampleRootController')
+        assert app.root and isinstance(app.root, SampleRootController)
     
     def test_object_dispatch(self):
         class SubSubController(object):

pecan/tests/test_config/sample_apps/sample_app_config.py

@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 import sample_app
 
 app = {
-    'modules': [sample_app]
+    'modules': ['sample_app']
 }
 
 foo = {

pecan/tests/test_config/sample_apps/sample_app_config_missing.py

@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 import sample_app_missing
 
 app = {
-    'modules': [sample_app_missing]
+    'modules': ['sample_app_missing']
 }
 
 foo = {

pecan/tests/test_deploy.py

@@ -16,7 +16,7 @@ class TestDeploy(TestCase):
     def test_module_lookup(self):
         """
         1.  A config file has:
-            app { 'modules': [valid_module] }
+            app { 'modules': ['valid_module'] }
         2.  The module, `valid_module` has an app.py that defines a `def setup.py`
         """
         test_config_file = os.path.join(os.path.dirname(__file__), 'test_config', 'sample_apps', 'sample_app_config.py')
@@ -25,7 +25,7 @@ class TestDeploy(TestCase):
     def test_module_lookup_find_best_match(self):
         """
         1.  A config file has:
-            app { 'modules': [invalid_module, valid_module] }
+            app { 'modules': ['invalid_module', 'valid_module'] }
         2.  The module, `valid_module` has an app.py that defines a `def setup_app`
         """
         test_config_file = os.path.join(os.path.dirname(__file__), 'test_config', 'sample_apps', 'sample_app_config.py')
@@ -34,7 +34,7 @@ class TestDeploy(TestCase):
     def test_missing_app_file_lookup(self):
         """
         1. A config file has:
-            app { 'modules': [valid_module] }
+            app { 'modules': ['valid_module'] }
         2. The module has no `app.py` file.
         """
         test_config_file = os.path.join(os.path.dirname(__file__), 'test_config', 'sample_apps', 'sample_app_config_missing.py')
@@ -47,7 +47,7 @@ class TestDeploy(TestCase):
     def test_missing_setup_app(self):
         """
         1.  A config file has:
-            app { 'modules': [valid_module] }
+            app { 'modules': ['valid_module'] }
         2.  The module, `valid_module` has an `app.py` that contains no `def setup_app`
         """
         test_config_file = os.path.join(os.path.dirname(__file__), 'test_config', 'sample_apps', 'sample_app_config_missing_app.py')