Code Caveats

This section's aim is to log some tricks and caveats that you should take into consideration while developing for Indico.

1. Usage of .getUser() within a management area

Don't assume that a user is always logged in just because he is in the management area of an event. getUser() can return None because the user could have used a modification key to login. So, always check that getUser() is not None.

2. Do not use Python built-ins as variable names

This is more a general Python programming tip, but most people fall into it some time or another.

Try not to use Python built-in keywords, such as "type", "list", "dict", "vars", etc. as variable names.

Example of problem:

def mymethod(self, value, type):
    self._type = type
    ...
    if type(value) is int: #we try to use Python's built-in type function to check the type of an object
        ...

This will fail because we have redefined type when using it as a function argument; so the built-in "type" function is no longer available.

Using PyLint helps detect these problems.