UserManager

The abstract UserManager class.

class UserKit.UserManager.UserManager(userClass=None)

Bases: object

The base class for all user manager classes.

A UserManager manages a set of users including authentication, indexing and persistence. Keep in mind that UserManager is abstract; you must always use a concrete subclasses like UserManagerToFile (but please read the rest of this docstring).

You can create a user through the manager (preferred):

user = manager.createUser(name, password)

Or directly through the user class:

user = RoleUser(manager, name, password)
manager.addUser(user)

The manager tracks users by whether or not they are “active” (e.g., logged in) and indexes them by:

• user serial number

• external user id

• user name

These methods provide access to the users by these keys:

def userForSerialNum(self, serialNum, default=NoDefault)
def userForExternalId(self, extId, default=NoDefault)
def userForName(self, name, default=NoDefault)

UserManager provides convenient methods for iterating through the various users. Each method returns an object that can be used in a for loop and asked for its len():

def users(self)
def activeUsers(self)
def inactiveUsers(self)

You can authenticate a user by passing the user object and attempted password to login(). If the authentication is successful, then login() returns the User, otherwise it returns None:

user = mgr.userForExternalId(externalId)
if mgr.login(user, password):
    self.doSomething()

As a convenience, you can authenticate by passing the serialNum, externalId or name of the user:

def loginSerialNum(self, serialNum, password):
def loginExternalId(self, externalId, password):
def loginName(self, userName, password):

The user will automatically log out after a period of inactivity (see below), or you can make it happen with:

def logout(self, user):

There are three user states that are important to the manager:

• modified

• cached

• authenticated or “active”

A modified user is one whose data has changed and eventually requires storage to a persistent location. A cached user is a user whose data resides in memory (regardless of the other states). An active user has been authenticated (e.g., their username and password were checked) and has not yet logged out or timed out.

The manager keeps three timeouts, expressed in minutes, to:

• save modified users after a period of time following the first unsaved modification

• push users out of memory after a period of inactivity

• deactivate (e.g., log out) users after a period of inactivity

The methods for managing these values deal with the timeouts as number-of-minutes. The default values and the methods are:

• 20 modifiedUserTimeout() setModifiedUserTimeout()

• 20 cachedUserTimeout() setCachedUserTimeout()

• 20 activeUserTimeout() setActiveUserTimeout()

Subclasses of UserManager provide persistence such as to the file system or a MiddleKit store. Subclasses must implement all methods that raise AbstractErrors. Subclasses typically override (while still invoking super) addUser().

Subclasses should ensure “uniqueness” of users. For example, invoking any of the userForSomething() methods repeatedly should always return the same user instance for a given key. Without uniqueness, consistency issues could arise with users that are modified.

Please read the method docstrings and other class documentation to fully understand UserKit.

__init__(userClass=None)

activeUserTimeout()

activeUsers()

Return a list of all active users.

addUser(user)

cachedUserTimeout()

clearCache()

Clear the cache of the manager.

Use with extreme caution. If your program maintains a reference to a user object, but the manager loads in a new copy later on, then consistency problems could occur.

The most popular use of this method is in the regression test suite.

createUser(name, password, userClass=None)

Return a newly created user that is added to the manager.

If userClass is not specified, the manager’s default user class is instantiated. This not imply that the user is logged in. This method invokes self.addUser().

See also: userClass(), setUserClass()

inactiveUsers()

login(user, password)

Return the user if login is successful, otherwise return None.

loginExternalId(externalId, password)

loginName(userName, password)

loginSerialNum(serialNum, password)

logout(user)

modifiedUserTimeout()

numActiveUsers()

Return the number of active users (e.g. the logged in users).

setActiveUserTimeout(value)

setCachedUserTimeout(value)

setModifiedUserTimeout(value)

setUserClass(userClass)

Set the userClass, which cannot be None and must inherit from User.

See also: userClass().

shutDown()

Perform any tasks necessary to shut down the user manager.

Subclasses may override and must invoke super as their last step.

userClass()

Return the userClass, which is used by createUser.

The default value is UserKit.User.User.

userForExternalId(externalId, default=<class 'MiscUtils.NoDefault'>)

Return the user with the given external id.

The user record is pulled into memory if needed.

userForName(name, default=<class 'MiscUtils.NoDefault'>)

Return the user with the given name.

The user record is pulled into memory if needed.

userForSerialNum(serialNum, default=<class 'MiscUtils.NoDefault'>)

Return the user with the given serialNum.

The user record is pulled into memory if needed.

users()

Return a list of all users (regardless of login status).