Mapping Classes

A mapping is a utility class that defines how data is mapped between objects, these objects are typically odin.Resource but other Python objects can be supported.

The basics:
  • Each mapping is a Python class that subclasses odin.Mapping.
  • Each mapping defines a from_obj and a to_obj
  • Parameters and decorated methods define rules for mapping between objects.

Defining a Mapping

from_obj and to_obj

These attributes specify the source and destination of the mapping operation and must be defined to for a mapping to be considered valid.

Note

For an object to be successfully mapped it’s fields need to be known. This is handled by a FieldResolver instance.

Example:

class AuthorToNewAuthor(odin.Mapping):
    from_obj = Author
    to_obj = NewAuthor

Auto generated mappings

When a field of the same name exists on both the from and to objects an automatic mapping is created. If no data transformation or data type conversion is needed no further work is required. The mappings will be automatically created.

You can exclude fields from automatic generation by; including the field in the exclude_fields list() (or tuple()). Fields are also excluded from automatic generation when they are specified as a target by any other mapping rule.

Fields that defined relationships (eg DictAs and ArrayOf) are also handled by the auto generated mapping process, provided that a mapping has been defined previously for the Resource types that these relations refer to. There is one special case however, this is where Resource types match; in this situation the odin.mapping.helpers.NoOpMapper is used to transparently copy the items.

Applying transformations to data

Complex data manipulation can be achieved by passing a field value through a mapping function.

The simplest way to apply a transformation action is to use the map_field() decorator.

Example:

class AuthorToNewAuthor(odin.Mapping):
    from_obj = Author
    to_obj = NewAuthor

    @odin.map_field
    def title(self, value):
        return value.title()

In this simple example we are specifying a mapping of the title field that ensures that the title value is title case.

But what about if we want to split a field into multiple outputs or combine multiple values into a single field? Not a problem, transformation actions can accept and return multiple values. These values just need to specified:

class AuthorToNewAuthor(odin.Mapping):
    from_obj = Author
    to_obj = NewAuthor

    @odin.map_field(from_field='name', to_field=('first_name', 'last_name'))
    def split_author_name(self, value):
        first_name, last_name = value.split(' ', 1)
        return first_name, last_name

Conversely we could combine these fields:

class AuthorToNewAuthor(odin.Mapping):
    from_obj = Author
    to_obj = NewAuthor

    @odin.map_field(from_field=('first_name', 'last_name'))
    def name(self, first_name, last_name):
        return "%s %s" % (first_name, last_name)

While this example is extremely simplistic it does demonstrate the flexibility of mapping rules. Not also that a value for the to_field is not specified, the mapping decorators will default to using the method name as the to or from field if it is not specified.

Odin includes several decorators that preform handle different mapping scenarios.

map_field

Decorate a mapping class method to mark it as a mapping rule.

from_field
The string name or a tuple of names of the field(s) to map from. The function that is being decorated must accept the same number of parameters as fields specified.
to_field
The string name or tuple of names of the field(s) to map to. The function that is being decorated must return a tuple with the same number of parameters as fields specified.

map_list_field

Decorate a mapping class method to mark it as a mapping rule. This decorator works in much the same way as the basic map_field except rather than treating the response as a set of fields it treats it as a list result. This allows you to map list of objects.

from_field
The string name or a tuple of names of the field(s) to map from. The function that is being decorated must accept the same number of parameters as fields specified.
to_field
The string name of tuple of names of the field(s) to map to. The function that is being decorated must return a tuple with the same number of parameters as fields specified.

assign_field

This is a special decorator that allows you to generate a value that is assigned to the resulting field.

to_field
The string name or tuple of names of the field(s) to map to. The function that is being decorated must return a tuple with the same number of parameters as fields specified.

Low level mapping

The final way to specify a mapping is by generating the actual mapping rules directly. A basic mapping rule is a three part tuple that contains the name of the from field (or tuple of multiple source fields) a transform action or None if there is no transform required and finally the name of the two field (or tuple of multiple destination fields).

Note

The number of input parameters and number of parameters returned by the action methods must much the number defined in the mapping. A odin.exceptions.MappingExecutionError will be raised if an incorrect number of parameters is specified.

A list of mapping rules:

class AuthorToNewAuthor(odin.Mapping):
    from_obj = Author
    to_obj = NewAuthor

    mappings = (
        ('dob', None, 'date_of_birth'),
    )

Tip

Use the define() and assign() methods to simplify the definition of mappings. They provides many sensible defaults.

While the basic mapping only includes and source, action and destination definitions the mappings structure actually supports three additional boolean parameters. These are to_list, bind and skip_if_none.

to_list

The two list option is what the map_list_field decorator uses to indicate the the returned object is a list value.

bind

For use with action methods defined outside the mapping class, if bind is set to True the mapping instance is passed to the action method as the first parameter.

skip_if_none

This flag changes the way that values that are None are handled. If set to True if the from value is None the value will not be supplied to the destination object allowing the destination objects defaulting process to handle the value.

Mapping Instances

Mapping instances provide various methods to aid in the mapping process.

Initialisation

The init method accepts a source object and an optional context. The context is a defaults to a dict() and allows any value to be stored or supplied to the mapping.

When using the apply class method to map a list of objects the context is used to track the index count.

convert

Method that starts the mapping process and returns a populated to_obj.

update

Update an existing object with fields from the provided by the source_obj.

diff

Compare the field values from the source_obj with a supplied destination and return all the fields that differ.

loop_idx

A convenience property gives access to the current loop index when converting a list of objects.

loop_depth

A convenience property that provides the nested loop depth of the current mapping operation.

in_loop

A convenience property that indicates if the current mapping operation is in a loop.

Mapping Factories

When mapping between two objects that are similar eg between a Django model and a resource, or between versions of resources.

odin.mapping.mapping_factory(from_obj, to_obj, base_mapping=<class 'odin.mapping.Mapping'>, generate_reverse=True, mappings=None, reverse_mappings=None, exclude_fields=None, reverse_exclude_fields=None)[source]

Factory method for generating simple mappings between objects.

A common use-case for this method is in generating mappings in baldr’s model_resource_factory method that auto-generates resources from Django models.

Parameters:
  • from_obj – Object to map from.
  • to_obj – Object to map to.
  • base_mapping – Base mapping class; default is odin.Mapping.
  • generate_reverse – Generate the reverse of the mapping ie swap from_obj and to_obj.
  • mappings – User provided mappings (this is equivalent ot odin.Mapping.mappings)
  • reverse_mappings – User provided reverse mappings (this is equivalent ot odin.Mapping.mappings). Only used if generate_reverse is True.
  • exclude_fields – Fields to exclude from auto-generated mappings
  • reverse_exclude_fields – Fields to exclude from auto-generated reverse mappings.
Returns:

if generate_reverse is True a tuple(forward_mapping, reverse_mapping); else just the forward_mapping.

There is also the simpler method when only a forward mapping is desired.

odin.mapping.forward_mapping_factory(from_obj, to_obj, base_mapping=<class 'odin.mapping.Mapping'>, mappings=None, exclude_fields=None)[source]

Factory method for generating simple forward mappings between objects.

Parameters:
  • from_obj – Object to map from.
  • to_obj – Object to map to.
  • base_mapping – Base mapping class; default is odin.Mapping.
  • mappings – User provided mappings (this is equivalent ot odin.Mapping.mappings)
  • exclude_fields – Fields to exclude from auto-generated mappings
Returns:

Forward_mapping object.