[Patches] [ python-Patches-1070046 ] xmlrpclib - marshalling new-style classes.

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Patches item #1070046, was opened at 2004-11-20 16:36
Message generated for change (Comment added) made by loewis
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Category: Modules
Group: None
>Status: Closed
>Resolution: Accepted
Priority: 5
Private: No
Submitted By: Gabriel Pastor (gabrielpastor)
Assigned to: Nobody/Anonymous (nobody)
Summary: xmlrpclib - marshalling new-style classes.

Initial Comment:
This bug is linked to bug 469972.
Tested with python 2.3.4

Bug desciption:
Using xmlrpclib today (version 1.0.1) we can marshall
old-style classes, but new style classes cannot be
marshalled.
E.g.
import xmlrpclib
class NewObject(object):
    def __init__(self):
        self.mytype = 'new'

class OldObject:
    def __init__(self):
        self.mytype = 'old'

print xmlrpclib.dumps((OldObject(),))
# result OK, marshalled as a struct

print xmlrpclib.dumps((NewObject(),))   
# TypeError: cannot marshal <class '__main__.NewObject'> 
# objects
				       
So the module doesn't behave in the same way with
new-style classes.

Bug analysis:
The problem is that xmlrpclib try to guess how to
marshall an object using the type() method (see line
612), but old-style classes have type 'InstanceType' 
whereas new-style classes are of type 'ObjectType'.

Furthermore as described in bug 469972 we don't know
how to marshal class sub-classing builtin types
(string, int, etc)

Patch proposed:
The problem is in the _dump method,. We have this code :
try:
 f = self.dispatch[type(value)]
except KeyError:
 # here goes the patch !

Currently with new-style classes we have a KeyError
exception since the ObjectType is not in the key list
of self.dispatch.
As all objects(string , dict, user defined classes...)
in Python now have type 'ObjectType' we cannot just add
a line:
dispatch[ObjectType] = dump_instance

In the KeyError, the patch checks if the object has a
dictionnary. Because in this case it is probably a good
candidate for being marshalled as a struct.
And then the patch checks that the object doesn't
inherit from a basic type (int, string etc.. : in fact
all the types that are 'normally' marshalled).
And if these 2 conditions are OK, this object is
marshalled like old-style classes.

The proposed patch doesn't change xmlrpclib behaviour
for all basic types,  and old-style classes since only
the 'except KeyError' was changed.

Gabriel Pastor

----------------------------------------------------------------------

>Comment By: Martin v. Löwis (loewis)
Date: 2006-11-19 19:55

Message:
Logged In: YES 
user_id=21627
Originator: NO

Thanks for the patch. Committed (with modifications) as r52790.

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