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Framework Overview

An in-depth overview of the key features of the framework that all developers should be familiar with.

This section is intended to give a brief overview of some of the most commonly used core features of Cement. Please do not be discouraged if you don't "get it" right away. Please also do not think, "is this it?". This is not intended to be an exhaustive end-all-be-all coverage of every feature of the framework.

Some assumptions are being made here. Primarily, we assume that you've used and are familiar with Python. The overview is intended to give a high level look at using Cement. Please dive deeper into the individual sections after the overview in order to gain a better understanding of each component.

The Application Object

The core of your project starts with the Cement App object, which we will refer to throughout this documentation in several ways:

  • App - The uninstantiated Cement App base class

  • MyApp - The uninstatiated/sub-classed Cement application you are creating

  • app - The instantiated application object

Technically, Cement App can be used direcly (as in the example), however in practice you will almost always sub-class App in order to configure it for your needs (I.e. MyApp).

from cement import App

with App('myapp') as app:
    app.run()

MetaMixin

Cement uses MetaMixin classes everywhere, which allows the framework to define default functionality but also provides an easy mechanism for developers to override and customize.

This is implemented by declaring a Meta class, under your application and/or other Cement Handler classes.

Ex: Defining Meta Classes

from cement import App

class MyApp(App):
    class Meta:
        label = 'myapp'
        extensions = ['json']

All Meta-options can also be overridden by any **kwargs that are passed to the parent class that is being instantiated.

Ex: Passing meta options via **kwargs:

App('myapp', config_defaults={'foo': 'bar'})

Nearly every Cement class has an associated Meta class, which we often refer to as App.Meta, SomeHandlerClass.Meta, etc. The instantiated object is refered to in code as app._meta, some_handler._meta, etc.

Interfaces and Handlers

All aspects of the framework are broken up into interfaces, and handlers. Interfaces define some functionality, while handlers implement that functionality. Cement defines the following builtin core interfaces:

To accompany the above interfaces, Cement also defines and registers default Handlers that implement the required functionality. For example, the builtin configuration handler ConfigParserConfigHandler, implements the config interface.

Handlers are referred to by the interfaces they implement, such as config.configparser, config.json, config.yaml, etc. Application developers can also define their own interfaces, allowing customization by plugins.

Developers can override the default functionality by creating their own handlers, or by sub-classing what is provided to alter its implementation. The following example demonstrates how you would sub-class and override an existing handler:

Ex: Overriding Default Framework Handlers

from cement import App
from cement.ext.ext_configparser import ConfigParserConfigHandler


class MyConfigHandler(ConfigParserConfigHandler):
    class Meta:
        label = 'my_config_handler'

    # do something to subclass/re-implement
    # config handler here...


class MyApp(App):
    class Meta:
        label = 'myapp'
        config_handler = 'my_config_handler'
        handlers = [
            MyConfigHandler
        ]

Overriding Via Configuration Files

The App.Meta options define the builtin handlers for all of the above listed core handlers. Whatever the application code defines is the default, however you can also override via the configuration file(s).

For example, imagine that your default mail_handler is smtp for sending email via your local SMTP server. This is a configuration that might vary on a per-user/environment basis. Via the application configuration, you could override this with an alternative mail handler like mail_handler = some_other_mail_handler

Ex: Overriding Via Configuration File

[myapp]

### override App.Meta.mail_handler
mail_handler = my_mail_handler

Configuration

Cement supports loading multiple configuration files out-of-the-box. Configurations loaded from files are merged in, overriding the applications default settings (App.Meta.config_defaults). The default configuration handler is ConfigParserConfigHandler, based on ConfigParser in the standard library, and is instantiated as app.config.

Cement looks for configuration files in the most common places by default. For example:

  • /etc/myapp/myapp.yml

  • ~/.config/myapp/myapp.yml

  • ~/.config/myapp/config

  • ~/.config/myapp.yml

  • ~/.myapp.yml

  • ~/.myapp/config

The list of configuration file paths can be customized via the meta option App.Meta.config_files as well as their extension (i.e. .conf) can also be easily modified with App.Meta.config_file_suffix.

The builtin configuration handler ConfigParserConfigHandler uses common unix-like config files where blocks or sections are defined with brackets; [myapp], [plugin.myplugin], [interface.handler], etc.

Additional support for the following file formats is provided via optional extensions:

Config handler's provide dropin replacements for the default ConfigParserConfigHandler, and are often based on it. For example, the JsonConfigHandler and YamlConfigHandler classes do little more than support reading alternative file formats. Accessing the config settings in the app is exactly the same.

All extensions and application plugins can support customizations loaded from the application configuration files under the section [interface.handler]. For example, the ColorLogHandler extension reads it's configuration from [log.colorlog].

Ex: Application Configuration Settings

from cement import App, init_defaults

defaults = init_defaults('myapp')
defaults['myapp']['foo'] = 'bar'

class MyApp(App):
    class Meta:
        label = 'myapp'
        config_defaults = defaults

with MyApp() as app:
    app.run()
    print("Foo => %s" % app.config.get('myapp', 'foo'))

Alternative Configuration Handler Example

The following is an example of overriding the default config handler with an alternative, drop-in replacement YamlConfighandler:

Ex: Alternative Configuration Handler (Yaml):

from cement import App

class MyApp(App):
    class Meta:
        label = 'myapp'
        extensions = ['yaml']
        config_handler = 'yaml'
        config_file_suffix = '.yml'

Overriding Configuration Settings with Environment Variables

All configuration settings can be overridden by their associated environment variables. For example config['myapp']['foo'] is overridable by $MYAPP_FOO.

Note that all environment variable configurations are prefixed with the application label, therefore secondary namespaces such as config['log.logging']['level'] would be overridable by MYAPP_LOG_LOGGING_LEVEL.

Arguments

Argument parsing is based on the standard Argparse library, with the same usage that you're familiar with. The argument handler ArgparseArgumentHandler is instantiated as app.args, arguments are defined with app.args.add_argument(), and parsed arguments are stored as app.args.parsed_args (or more conveniently app.pargs for easy reference).

Ex: Simple Arguments Defined With Cement App

from cement import App

with App('myapp') as app:
    app.args.add_argument('-f', '--foo',
                          help='notorous foo option',
                          dest='foo')
    app.run()

    # do something with parsed arguments
    if app.pargs.foo is not None:
        print("Foo Argument => %s" % app.pargs.foo)

Arguments Defined by Controllers

The power of the framework comes into play when we start talking about application controllers that streamline the process of mapping arguments and sub-commands to actions/functions as in the example (more on this later).

Ex: Arguments Defined by Controllers

from cement import App, Controller, ex


class Base(Controller):
    class Meta:
        label = 'base'

        arguments = [
            # list of tuples in the format `( [], {} )`
            ( [ '-f', '--foo' ],
              { 'help' : 'notorious foo option',
                'dest' : 'foo' } ),
        ]

    @ex(hide=True)
    def _default(self):
        print('Inside BaseController._default()')

        # do something with parsed arguments
        if self.app.pargs.foo is not None:
            print("Foo Argument => %s" % self.app.pargs.foo)


class MyApp(App):
    class Meta:
        label = 'myapp'
        handlers = [Base]


with MyApp() as app:
    app.run()

Logging

Logging is based on the standard Logging library, with the same usage you're familiar with. The logging facility is customizable via the [log.logging] section of an applications configuration:

  • level - The level at which to start logging (INFO, WARNING, ERROR,

    FATAL, DEBUG, etc).

  • file (path) - File path to log to.

  • to_console (bool) - Whether or not to log to console.

  • rotate (bool) - Whether or not to rotate the log file when it hits

    max_bytes

  • max_bytes (int) - Maximum file size in bytes before file gets rotated

  • max_files (int) - Maximum number of log files to keep after rotating

Cement also includes the following optional extensions that provide drop-in replacements for the default log handler:

Ex: Logging Example

from cement import App

with App('myapp') as app:
    app.run()

    # log messages to console and file
    app.log.info('this is an info message')
    app.log.warning('this is an warning message')
    app.log.error('this is an error message')
    app.log.fatal('this is an fatal message')
    app.log.debug('this is an debug message')

Output

By default, Cement does not define any output handlers. Just like any other app, you are free to print() to console all you like or use the builtin logging facility. That said, more complex applications will benefit greatly by separating the output from the logic. Think of output handling as the view in a traditional MVC Framework.

Cement ships with several types of extensions that produce output in different forms, including the following:

  • Text Rendered From Template Files

  • Programatic Structures (JSON, Yaml, etc)

  • Tabulated (like MySQL, etc)

  • Etc

The following output handlers ship with Cement:

Multiple Output Handler Support

One of the unique features of Cement is that you can build your application to support multiple output handlers and formats. Output handlers have a special attribute that optionally allows them to be exposed via the CLI option -o (configurable via Handler.Meta.overridable and App.Meta.core_handler_override_options). Therefore, you might have default text based output rendered from Mustache templates, but optionally output programatic structures from the same code when necessary (i.e.$ myapp -o json).

Ex: Mixed Template/JSON Output Example

from cement import App, init_defaults

META = init_defaults('output.json')
META['output.json']['overridable'] = True

class MyApp(App):
    class Meta:
        label = 'myapp'

        ### override default handler meta options
        meta_defaults = META

        ### add optional extensions
        extensions = ['json', 'mustache']

        ### set the default output handler
        output_handler = 'mustache'

        ### external template directory
        template_dir = '/path/to/templates'

        ### internal template module (shipped with app code)
        template_module = 'myapp.templates'


with MyApp() as app:
    app.run()

    ### create some data
    data = {
        'foo' : 'bar',
    }

    ### render data using mustache template (by default)
    app.render(data, 'example.m')

Controllers

Controllers provide a common means of organizing application logic into relevant chunks of code, as well as the ability for plugins and extensions to extend an applications capabilities. It is the Controller piece of the traditional MVC Framework.

The first controller is called base, and if registered will take over runtime control when app.run() is called. What this means is, instead of Cement calling app.args.parse_arguments() directly, the runtime dispatch is handed over to the base controller, that is then responsible for parsing and handling arguments.

The most notable action of runtime dispatch is mapping arguments and sub-commands to their respective controllers and functions. For example, the default action when running $ myapp without any arguments or sub-commands is to execute the Base._default() function.

Ex: Application Base Controller

from cement import App, Controller, ex


class Base(Controller):
    class Meta:
        label = 'base'

        arguments = [
            # list of tuples in the format `( [], {} )`
            ( [ '-a' ],
              { 'help' : 'example a option',
                'dest' : 'a' } ),
        ]

    def _default(self):
        print('Inside Base._default()')
        if self.app.pargs.a:
            print('Received Option: -a')

    @ex(
        help='sub-command under base controller',
        arguments=[
            ( [ '-b' ],
              { 'help' : 'cmd1 b option' } ),
        ]
    )
    def cmd1(self):
        print('Inside Base.cmd1()')
        if self.app.pargs.b:
            print('Recieved Option: -b')


class MyApp(App):
    class Meta:
        label = 'myapp'
        handlers = [
            Base,
        ]


with MyApp() as app:
    app.run()

Nested / Embedded Controllers

Cement supports two types of controller stacking:

  • nested - The arguments and commands are nested under a sub-parser whose label is that of the controller. For example, a nested controller with a label of my-nested-controller would be called as $ myapp my-nested-controller sub-command.

  • embedded - The arguments and commands are embedded within it's parent controller, therefore appearing as if they were defined by the parent itself. A sub-command under an embedded controller would be called as $ myapp sub-command.

Controllers can be stacked on other controllers as many levels deep as necessary. An embedded controller can be stacked on top of a nested controller, and vice versa. There is little, if any, limitation.

Controller Arguments vs Command Arguments

Both Controllers and their sub-commands can have arguments defined. Think of controllers as the primary namespace. It's arguments should be globally relevant within that namespace. A sub-command within the namespace can have it's own arguments, but are only relevant to that sub-command.

Ex: $ myapp -a my-controller -b my-sub-command -c

In the above example, -a is relevant to the global scope of the entire application because it is defined on the base controller. Option -b is relevant to the scope of my-controller and all sub-commands under it. Finally, -c is only relevant to the my-sub-command and has no use elsewhere.

Exposing Sub-Commands

By default, no commands are exposed to the CLI except that a _default() function will be called if no sub-command is passed (configurable by Controller.Meta.default_func).

To expose a function as a sub-command, you must decorate it with @ex(). It's usage is simple, and supports the following parameters:

  • hide (bool) - Whether or not to display in --help output.

  • arguments (list) - Argument list of tuples in the format ( [], {} ), that are passed to Argparse.add_argument(*args, **kwargs).

  • **kwargs - Additional keyword arguments are passed directly to Argparse when creating the sub-parser for this command.

The term ex is short for expose, and allows for shorter reference and also four character indentation/alignment with functions to be easier on the eyes.

Framework Extensions

Cement's Interfaces and Handlers system makes extending the framework easy, and limitless. Cement ships with dozens of extensions that either alter existing functionality, or add to it. For example, the default logging facility provides basic logging capabilities, however with a single line of code an application can instead use the Colorlog extension to enable colorized console logging.

The following example provides a quick look at using the Alarm extension to handle application timeouts of long running operations

Ex: Using Framework Extensions:

from time import sleep
from cement import App


class MyApp(App):
    class Meta:
        label = 'myapp'
        extensions = ['alarm']


with MyApp() as app:
    app.run()

    ### set an alarm for max allowed run time
    app.alarm.set(3, "The operation timed out after 3 seconds!")

    ### do something that takes time to operate
    sleep(5)

    ### stop the alarm if it ran within the time frame
    app.alarm.stop()

See the Extensions Documentation to learn more about the extended capabilities of the framework.

Application Plugins

Cement provides an interface that automatically handles the management, configuration, and loading of Application Plugins. A Plugin is essentially the same as a Framework Extension, but is application specific where extensions are agnostic (can be used by any application).

A plugin can be anything, and provide any kind of functionality from defining runtime hooks, to extending an applications capabilities by adding nested/embedded controllers. The only thing that a plugin must provide is a load() function that is called when the plugin is imported.

Ex: Basic Application

from cement import App, Controller, ex


class Base(Controller):
    class Meta:
        label = 'base'


class MyApp(App):
    class Meta:
        label = 'myapp'
        handlers = [
            Base,
        ]


with MyApp() as app:
    app.run()

Using the same application, we can create a plugin to extend functionality:

Ex: Application Plugin

from cement import Controller, ex


class MyPlugin(Controller):
    class Meta:
        label = 'myplugin'
        stacked_on = 'base'
        stacked_type = 'embedded'

    @ex()
    def cmd1(self):
        print('Inside MyPlugin.cmd1()')


def load(app):
    app.handler.register(MyPlugin)

Hooks

Hooks provide developers the ability to tie into the framework, and applications without direct access to the runtime. For example, a plugin might need to execute some code after arguments have been parsed, but before controller sub-commands are dispatched. As a plugin developer, you don't have direct access to the applications runtime code but you can still tie into it with the builtin post_argument_parsing hook.

Cement defines several hooks that tie in to specific points throughout the application life cycle, however application developers can also define their own hooks allowing others to tie elsewhere, when needed.

Ex: Executing Code Via Hooks

from cement import App


def my_example_hook(app):
    print('Inside my_example_hook()')


class MyApp(App):
    class Meta:
        label = 'myapp'
        hooks = [
            ('post_argument_parsing', my_example_hook),
        ]


with MyApp() as app:
    app.run()
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