Question

I’m fairly new to Python. And this is my first class:

import config   # Ficheiro de configuracao
import twitter
import random
import sqlite3
import time
import bitly_api #https://github.com/bitly/bitly-api-python

class TwitterC:
    def logToDatabase(self, tweet, timestamp):
        # Will log to the database
        database      = sqlite3.connect('database.db') # Create a database file
        cursor        = database.cursor() # Create a cursor
        cursor.execute("CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS twitter(id_tweet INTEGER AUTO_INCREMENT PRIMARY KEY, tweet TEXT, timestamp TEXT);") # Make a table
        # Assign the values for the insert into
        msg_ins       = tweet
        timestamp_ins = timestamp
        values        = [msg_ins, timestamp_ins]
        # Insert data into the table
        cursor.execute("INSERT INTO twitter(tweet, timestamp) VALUES(?, ?)", values)
        database.commit() # Save our changes
        database.close() # Close the connection to the database

    def shortUrl(self, url):
        bit = bitly_api.Connection(config.bitly_username, config.bitly_key) # Instanciar a API
        return bit.shorten(url) # Encurtar o URL

    def updateTwitterStatus(self, update): 
        short   = self.shortUrl(update["url"]) # Vou encurtar o URL
        update  = update["msg"] + short['url']
        # Will post to twitter and print the posted text
        api     = twitter.Api(consumer_key=config.consumer_key, 
                                   consumer_secret=config.consumer_secret, 
                                   access_token_key=config.access_token_key, 
                                   access_token_secret=config.access_token_secret)
        status  = api.PostUpdate(update) # Fazer o update
        msg     = status.text # Vou gravar o texto enviado para a variavel 'msg'
        # Vou gravar p a Base de Dados
        self.logToDatabase(msg, time.time())
        print msg # So p mostrar o texto enviado. Comentar esta linha de futuro.

x = TwitterC()
x.updateTwitterStatus({"url": "http://xxxx.com/?cat=49", "msg": "Searching for some ....? "})

My question. What should I refactor in this ugly code(I think)?

For example. When I try do duplicate a Twitter Update I got this error:

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "C:\Users\anlopes\workspace\redes_sociais\src\twitterC.py", line 42, in <module>
    x.updateTwitterStatus({"url": "http://xxx.com/?cat=49", "msg": "Searching for some ...? "})
  File "C:\Users\anlopes\workspace\redes_sociais\src\twitterC.py", line 35, in updateTwitterStatus
    status  = api.PostUpdate(update) # Fazer o update
  File "C:\home_python\python_virtualenv\lib\site-packages\twitter.py", line 2549, in PostUpdate
    self._CheckForTwitterError(data)
  File "C:\home_python\python_virtualenv\lib\site-packages\twitter.py", line 3484, in _CheckForTwitterError
    raise TwitterError(data['error'])
twitter.TwitterError: Status is a duplicate.

How can I for example catch this error in Python?

Some clues needed.

Best Regards,

Answer 1

One possibility would be to write a function that connects to and disconnects from the database and during the connection time does some stuff. It could look something like this:

class DBFactory(object):
    def DBConnection(self, Func, args):
        database      = sqlite3.connect('database.db') # Create a database file
        cursor        = database.cursor() # Create a cursor

        Func(cursor, args)

        database.commit() # Save our changes
        database.close() # Close the connection to the database

Now the Func and args parameter actually do the interaction to the database. For example something like this:

def CreateTable(cursor, args):
    cursor.execute("CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS {0};".format(args)) # Make a table

Now if you wish to create a table you simple have to make this call:

f = DBFactory()
f.DBConnection(CreateTable, "twitter(id_tweet INTEGER AUTO_INCREMENT PRIMARY KEY, tweet TEXT, timestamp TEXT)"

You can proceed similarly with other interactions to the database for example inserting or deleting entries. Each time calling the DBConnection method. This should modularize your class a little better. At least in my opinion.

Please note that I did not give this code above a try, so there might be a typo in there, but I hope you get the idea. I hope this helped ya

Cherio
Woltan