README.md

pymangal

pymangal is a python module to interact with the mangal API. The documentation is here: http://pymangal.readthedocs.org/en/latest/

ALL numbered versions are pushed to PyPI, so you can at all time install with pip install pymangal.

TODO list

In no particular order

• networkx export
• Automated handling of related fields (append prefix)
• signUp method

Versionning

Follows semantic versioning. The version is given in the __version__ variable of pymangal. Most important releases are tagged.

Short tutorial

Contrary to the rmangal package, this module focuses on implementing a minimal set of functions. it's a little less user-friendly, but easier to maintain (and learn).

Dialogue with the API is handled by an instance of the mangal class. The four most important functions are List, Get, Post, and Patch (to, respectively, see a list of data, get a particular record, add new data, and patch them).

Unlike in the R package, there is a validation of the data done automatically before the data are either posted or patched.

Setting up

import pymangal
# We create an instance of the mangal class
db = pymangal.mangal()
# Arguments: url, usr, pwd

Reading data

# Returns the first 20 datasets
db.List('dataset')

# Returns all datasets
db.List('dataset', page='all')

# Returns all taxa matching *vulgaris
db.List('taxa', filters='name__endswith=vulgaris', page='all')

# Get the first network
db.get('network', 1)

Uploading data

# Objects are represented as dict
taxa = {'name': 'Pisaster ochraceus', 'vernacular': 'purple sea star',
        'status': 'confirmed', 'eol': '598469'}
# You need to have a username/API key to add and patch objects
db_auth = pymangal.mangal(usr='test', key='dsdsdsdsdsds')
taxa = db_auth.Post('taxa', taxa)
print taxa['id']