[pygame] setting user variables in a config or preferences file

[Shandy Brown <sjbrown@xxxxxxxxx>]

Hi guys.

I just coded up a handy utility to save user-specific preferences (things
like keyboard controls, username, difficulty settings, etc).  I thought
I'd share it with the list and ask if anyone could test it on other
platforms (I've tested it out on linux)

To test it, run `python userprofile.py -w`.  That should put a preferences
folder and file in your $HOME/.glarf/ directory.

Any interest in including something like this into Pygame itself?

Shandy

"""
A way to get access to a userProfile that can be stored for future invocations
of the program.

Original Authour: Shandy Brown
License: Public Domain
"""
import os
import ConfigParser


projectName = "glarf"
section = 'global'
userProfile = {}

#------------------------------------------------------------------------------
# Functions to write preferences file 
#------------------------------------------------------------------------------
def Dict2ConfigParser( theDict, theParser, sectionName, ignoreList ):
	"""Recursive function to convert a dict into a ConfigParser object"""
	theParser.add_section( section )
	for key in theDict.keys():
		if key in ignoreList:
			continue
		if type(theDict[key]) == str:
			theParser.set( sectionName, key, theDict[key] )
		elif type(theDict[key]) == dict:
			Dict2ConfigParser( theDict[key], theParser, 
			                   key, ignoreList )
		else:
			raise "Dict contains something other than strings"

def WriteProfile( userProfile, section ):
	"""function to write the preferences to a ConfigParser-compatible file
	"""
	#TODO: catch exceptions (perhaps outside)

	#don't write these locations.  They're decided when the userprofile 
	#module is loaded
	ignores = 'homeDir', 'prefDir', 'prefFile'

	parser = ConfigParser.SafeConfigParser()
	Dict2ConfigParser( userProfile, parser, section, ignores )

	if not os.path.isdir( userProfile['prefDir'] ):
		os.mkdir( userProfile['prefDir'], 0755 )
	fp = file( userProfile['prefFile'], 'w' )
	try:
		parser.write( fp )
	finally:
		fp.close()
#------------------------------------------------------------------------------


if os.path.exists( os.path.expanduser('~') ):
	userProfile['homeDir'] = os.path.expanduser('~')
elif os.path.exists( os.getenv( 'HOME' ) ):
	userProfile['homeDir'] = os.getenv( 'HOME' )
elif os.path.exists( os.getenv( 'USERPROFILE' ) ):
	userProfile['homeDir'] = os.getenv( 'USERPROFILE' ) 
else:
	userProfile['homeDir'] = os.getcwd()

userProfile['prefDir'] = os.path.join(userProfile['homeDir'], '.'+ projectName)
userProfile['prefFile'] = os.path.join(userProfile['prefDir'], 'preferences' )


parser = ConfigParser.SafeConfigParser()
parser.read( userProfile['prefFile'] )
	
try:
	userProfile['username'] = parser.get( section, 'username' )
except:
	try:
		userProfile['username'] = os.getenv('USER')
	except:
		try:
			userProfile['username'] = os.getenv('USERNAME')
		except:
			userProfile['username'] = 'anonymous'




#------------------------------------------------------------------------------
# Call it from the command line to test it
#------------------------------------------------------------------------------
if __name__ == "__main__":
	import sys
	from pprint import pprint
	pprint( userProfile )
	try:
		if sys.argv[1] == '-w':
			WriteProfile( userProfile, section )
	except:
		print 'use the -w flag to test writing'