add the ability to get attributes rather than just objects

chide/collection.py

@@ -19,7 +19,7 @@ def _attrs(self, type_, attrs, nest):
         computed_attrs.update(attrs)
         return computed_attrs
 
-    def make(self, type_, **attrs):
+    def attributes(self, type_, **attrs):
         """
         Make a sample object of the specified ``type_`` using the default
         attributes for that type in this :class:`Collection`.
@@ -28,4 +28,14 @@ def make(self, type_, **attrs):
         before being used with ``type_`` to instantiate and return a new
         sample object.
         """
-        return type_(**self._attrs(type_, attrs, self.make))
+        return self._attrs(type_, attrs, self.make)
+
+    def make(self, type_, **attrs):
+        """
+        Make the attributes for a sample object of the specified ``type_``
+        using the default attributes for that type in this :class:`Collection`.
+
+        The ``attrs`` mapping will be overlayed onto the sample attributes
+        and returned as a :class:`dict`.
+        """
+        return type_(**self.attributes(type_, **attrs))

docs/use.rst

@@ -149,3 +149,31 @@ This because the :func:`identify` function above returns ``None`` for all types
 other than :class:`Address`. Returning ``None`` from :func:`identify` is the
 way to indicate that a new object should be returned, regardless of the
 attributes it has.
+
+Creating attributes for objects
+--------------------------------
+
+Given this collection:
+
+.. code-block:: python
+
+  from chide import Collection
+
+  samples = Collection({
+      ClassOne: {'x': 1, 'y': 2},
+      ClassTwo: {'a': 1, 'b': ClassOne},
+  })
+
+We can also create attributes to make a sample object:
+
+>>> attrs = samples.attributes(ClassOne)
+>>> attrs['x']
+1
+>>> attrs['y']
+2
+
+>>> attrs = samples.attributes(ClassTwo)
+>>> attrs['a']
+1
+>>> attrs['b']
+<ClassOne object at ...>