MVC Blasphemy
I just put HTML code into my data model. I have a list-of-objects page. Each object is an instance of an object defined in my data model, derived from a row in a database. Each object needs a pretty link drawn that object’s detailed-view page. So I added a property on my object:
class Message(SQLObject):
def _get_view(self):
"Draw a link to the view page for this message."
return cElementTree.XML("""<a href="/details/%d">VIEW</a>""" % self.id)
# Lots of other stuff snipped out.
This is now what my kid template looks like:
<tr py:for="m in messages">
<td py:for="col in columns" py:content="getattr(m, col)">MESSAGE STUFF</td>
I pass in messages and columns; messages is a list of objects and columns is a tuple of strings that map to attributes or properties, like “view”.
I’m happy with this decision. I know I could have manipulated the messages or created some new classes in my controller, but I couldn’t really see any advantage. This way works.
I just don’t want anyone else doing this 
Kevin Dangoor said,
December 20, 2007 @ 9:12 am
This is certainly the quickest and easiest way to do it. No question… I will say that it doesn’t have to be much harder to have it separate though… consider a function like this:
@dispatch.generic()
def get_view(obj):
pass
@get_view.when(”isinstance(obj, Message)”)
def message_view(obj):
return “”
You have the added overhead of the generic function, but then everything else is just a function with a decorator that says when to apply that function. And this approach can be extended as much as you want…
Python provides a great many ways to do things succinctly, no?
matt said,
December 20, 2007 @ 10:01 am
I’ll study that until it makes more sense. I’m not familar with generic functions in python. I love them in common lisp though.
I posted this entry hoping that I would get some feedback on the right way to do it. Thanks!