Adds (fake) auto completion and hints to web2py global objects (such as db, request etc...) when working with an editor which provides Python code completion (such as PyScripter).
Because auto completion and hints makes writing code so much faster!
Unfortunately in web2py what we really want code completion on are the models (db.my_table.my_field etc...) But these are built up dynamically at every request (as opposed to in django where they are class definitions) so that's just not possible.
Unless we cheat :)
Using a live instance of db object, we can generate a python file which contains dummy class definitions which mimick those tables & fields.
We can then fake import that generated file:
if 0:
import autocomplete_fakes.py
Which is usually enough to trick an editor into importing the definitions without actually importing that into running code.
We then get code completion on the db object all the way down to table's field's attributes:
db.
db.my_table.
db.my_table.my_field.
db.my_table.my_field.represent
The generated file also creates other global variables like "response" and "request" but just intsantiates them to an empty object.
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Copy the file auto_completion_support.py into the modules folder of a web2py application.
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Import the module and call generate_auto_completion_file(db, file) from any place in your web2py app so long as the models have all been processed. (I call it from a function in a test controller in which I have imported the module)
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The file parameter is where you want the dummy classes to be written to (file contents will be overwritten).
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You will need to re-run this every time you change your models. If you want it to run at every request while in dev mode, you can always add a model file that executes last ('zzz.py' should do) and call it from there.
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Fake import that file into any source file (controller, module) in which you want auto completion, like so:
if 0: import autocomplete_fakes.py from ide_code_completion import *
I add that second line to get code completion and hints on things like SQLForm which is useful.
You may need to adjust your IDE settings to include an extra python path to point to the file's location, and also include the path to web2py source.
This has only been tested on PyScripter on Windows, should work for other IDEs, but that's up to you to figure out as each one is different.
Feel free to improve and send me a pull request!