Python strings (vs. Java strings)

Python strings are more or less similar to Java strings. A difference is the formatting of Python strings are done in the strings themselves. Also Python strings have more methods than their Java counterparts.

Methods:
The Python methods, find (the same as index) and rfind (rindex) have their Java opposite, indexOf and lastIndexOf. So does lower and upper in the Java methods toLowerCase and toUpperCase. split, replace, startsWith and endsWith are common to Python and Java.

join, the opposite of split, does not have a Java equivalent. The join method concatenates the members of a string sequence together with a specified divider. Neither do these methods: count, isalpha, isalnum, isdigit, islower, capitalize, isupper, title, istitle, swapcase, expandtabs and translate.

Formatting:
The string formatting operator, the percent (%) sign, does all the work as an example from the Beginning Python: From Novice to Professional book shows:

>>> format = "Hello, %s. %s enough for ya?"
>>> values = ('world', 'Hot')
>>> print format % values
Hello, world. Hot enough for ya?

Templates strings are another way of formatting. Basically these are strings with variables that are substituted with the actual value. Below are two examples from the book:

>>> from string import Template
>>> s = Template('$x, glorious $x!')
>>> s.substitute(x='slurm')
'slurm, glorious slurm!'

>>> s = Template("It's ${x}tastic!")
>>> s.substitute(x='slurm')
"It's slurmtastic!"

A third example uses a dictionary for substitution with value-name pairs:

>>> s = Template('A $thing must never $action.')
>>> d = {}
>>> d['thing'] = 'gentleman'
>>> d['action'] = 'show his socks'
>>> s.substitute(d)
'A gentleman must never show his socks.'

Creating a Drupal module

First, went to the module developer's guide page and did the tutorial for Drupal 5.x. The block module in the tutorial, when completed, is full of code that integrates the module into the Drupal CMS. We don't need much of that code for now.

We want a quick and dirty email notifier module. First we create the info file that contains information which the CMS will display. The module's name is Messenger so the file will be messenger.info:

; $Id$
name = Messenger
description = "Sends out an email whenever new content has been created."

Then we have the module file, messenger.module. We add the hook_help and hook_perm functions from the tutorial. Through the Hooks API, we use the hook_nodeapi function which will run itself whenever there is node activity. This function is where we put in the mail command:

function messenger_nodeapi(&$node, $op, $a3 = NULL, $a4 = NULL)
{
 switch($op)
 {
   case 'insert':
     $query = "SELECT mail FROM users ".
              "WHERE name = 'admin'";
     $queryResult =  db_query($query);

     $user = db_fetch_object($queryResult);
   
     $to = $user->mail;
     $subject = "New content available!";
     $body = "Someone's been adding new content! To ensure it's nothing illegal, please go check it out.";
     $from = "drupalcares@whocares.com";
     $headers = array();

     $mail_success = drupal_mail('messenger', $to, $subject, $body, $from);
     if(!$mail_success)
     {
       drupal_set_message(t('There has been an error.\\nTo: '.$to.'\/nSubject: '.$subject.'\rBody: '.$body.'\nFrom: '.$from.'\nHeaders: '.$headers));
     }
     else
     {
       drupal_set_message(t('A mail has been sent to the admin. Prepare yourself! :)'));
     }
     drupal_set_message(t('Yay, you just inserted something! :)'));
     break;
 }
}

One thing to check is whether sendmail is available on the Ubuntu system. If sendmail is not working then the module will not work.

The module is functional now. Further improvements can be done; sending the mail to more than one admin or even to users, restricting the notification to just pages or blog entries and making it configurable through the CMS.