#ConfValidator ConfValidator is a python3 package to easily parse INI style configuration files.

You can create a ConfValidator object and add the expected options that the configuration file have, then validate the configuration file and it will produce a dictionary with the configuration you expect.

##Getting started:

###Installation

pip install ConfValidator

or

easy_install ConfValidator

###Basic Validation

# Expamle

import ConfValidator

# Create the object
my_config  = ConfValidator.ConfValidator('/Path/to/my/configFile.cfg')

# Add simple option to the expected configuration.
my_config.add_option(option='username', required=True)

# Add a selction to the expected configuration.
my_config.add_selection(options=['password','ssk-key'], required=True)

# Validate the configuration
my_config.validate()

# If no errors parsing and validating the configuration file, get resultant dictionary.
my_config.config

###add_option() This operation allows to add an expected option to the ConfValidator object.

As an example assume you need the user name in the configuration file, so you can use add_option() as follows.

# Expamle

my_config.option(option='user', required=True)

#####Params

:param option: <String> <required> Name of the option.
:param required: <bool> If True the option must be present in the configuration file. Default: False
:param valid_values: <list> If specified, the option must contain some of these values.
:param default_value: <String> If value or option are not present this is the default value. Default: None

###add_selection() Some times is needed to have one of many of options in the configuration file, this operation allows to add a selection of options to the ConfValidator object.

As an example assume you need an authentication method for your app, it can be ssh-key, password or token. You need only one of them, so you can use add_selection() as follows.

# Expamle

my_config.selection(options=['ssh-key', 'password', 'token'], required=True)

#####Params

:param options: <list> <required> A list of valid option in the configuration file, one of this options must be present in the configuration file.
:param required: <bool> If True the option must be present in the configuration file. Default: False
:param valid_values: :param valid_values: <list> If specified the option must contain some of these values.
:param default_value:  <String> If value is not present this is the default value. Default: None
:param default_option:  <String> If option is not present this is the default value. Default: None

###validate() Method to validate the INI configuration. This method parse and evaluate each section and option to always return a valid dictionary with a valid configuration. No argument need. No value is returned by this method.

# Usage

# Validate configuration
my_config.validate()

# Get configuration
print(my_config.conf)

###get_conf() This method parse validate and returns the configuration dictionary. The difference between get_conf() and validate() is that validate() only parse and validate the configuration, get_conf() parse validate and returns the configuration dictionary in one statement.

# Usage
my_config.get_conf()

###valid_values argument Can limit the value in the configuration to allow only one of the specified values.

# Expamle

# Any other value than user or user2 is not allowed
my_config.option(option='user', required=True, valid_values=['user1', 'user2'])

###default_value argument If the specified option is not present this will be the default value.

# Expamle

# If option is not present the value will be Administrator
my_config.option(option='user', required=True, default_value='Administrator')

Default section [DEFAULT]

The default section is designed to put the default values for options in case they are not defined on specific sections.

• The values in the DEFAULT section overrides the "default_value" and "default_options" in add_option() or add_selection() methods.
• The values in sections overrides all the DEFAULT values.

Example:

[DEFAULT]
# This will be used when no authentication is defined
authentication = ldap

[section1]
# This section will use the default values ("ldap") because no authentication was specified.
password = 12345678
user = test_user

[section2]
# This authentication explicity speficy the authentication method, so no default authentication will be used.
authentication = local
password = 87654321
user = user_test