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<title>11.26 asynchat -- Asynchronous socket command/response handler</title>
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<H1><A NAME="SECTION00132600000000000000000">
11.26 <tt class="module">asynchat</tt> --
Asynchronous socket command/response handler</A>
</H1>
<P>
<A NAME="module-asynchat"></A>
<P>
This module builds on the <tt class="module"><a href="module-asyncore.html">asyncore</a></tt> infrastructure,
simplifying asynchronous clients and servers and making it easier to
handle protocols whose elements are terminated by arbitrary strings, or
are of variable length. <tt class="module"><a href="module-asynchat.html">asynchat</a></tt> defines the abstract class
<tt class="class">async_chat</tt> that you subclass, providing implementations of the
<tt class="method">collect_incoming_data()</tt> and <tt class="method">found_terminator()</tt>
methods. It uses the same asynchronous loop as <tt class="module"><a href="module-asyncore.html">asyncore</a></tt>, and
the two types of channel, <tt class="class">asyncore.dispatcher</tt> and
<tt class="class">asynchat.async_chat</tt>, can freely be mixed in the channel map.
Typically an <tt class="class">asyncore.dispatcher</tt> server channel generates new
<tt class="class">asynchat.async_chat</tt> channel objects as it receives incoming
connection requests.
<P>
<dl><dt><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tr valign="baseline">
<td><nobr><b><span class="typelabel">class</span> <tt id='l2h-3765' xml:id='l2h-3765' class="class">async_chat</tt></b>(</nobr></td>
<td><var></var>)</td></tr></table></dt>
<dd>
This class is an abstract subclass of <tt class="class">asyncore.dispatcher</tt>. To make
practical use of the code you must subclass <tt class="class">async_chat</tt>, providing
meaningful <tt class="method">collect_incoming_data()</tt> and <tt class="method">found_terminator()</tt>
methods. The <tt class="class">asyncore.dispatcher</tt> methods can be
used, although not all make sense in a message/response context.
<P>
Like <tt class="class">asyncore.dispatcher</tt>, <tt class="class">async_chat</tt> defines a set of events
that are generated by an analysis of socket conditions after a
<tt class="cfunction">select()</tt> call. Once the polling loop has been started the
<tt class="class">async_chat</tt> object's methods are called by the event-processing
framework with no action on the part of the programmer.
<P>
Unlike <tt class="class">asyncore.dispatcher</tt>, <tt class="class">async_chat</tt> allows you to define
a first-in-first-out queue (fifo) of <em>producers</em>. A producer need have
only one method, <tt class="method">more()</tt>, which should return data to be transmitted
on the channel. The producer indicates exhaustion (<em>i.e.</em> that it contains
no more data) by having its <tt class="method">more()</tt> method return the empty string. At
this point the <tt class="class">async_chat</tt> object removes the producer from the fifo
and starts using the next producer, if any. When the producer fifo is empty
the <tt class="method">handle_write()</tt> method does nothing. You use the channel object's
<tt class="method">set_terminator()</tt> method to describe how to recognize the end
of, or an important breakpoint in, an incoming transmission from the
remote endpoint.
<P>
To build a functioning <tt class="class">async_chat</tt> subclass your
input methods <tt class="method">collect_incoming_data()</tt> and
<tt class="method">found_terminator()</tt> must handle the data that the channel receives
asynchronously. The methods are described below.
</dl>
<P>
<dl><dt><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tr valign="baseline">
<td><nobr><b><tt id='l2h-3766' xml:id='l2h-3766' class="method">close_when_done</tt></b>(</nobr></td>
<td><var></var>)</td></tr></table></dt>
<dd>
Pushes a <code>None</code> on to the producer fifo. When this producer is
popped off the fifo it causes the channel to be closed.
</dl>
<P>
<dl><dt><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tr valign="baseline">
<td><nobr><b><tt id='l2h-3767' xml:id='l2h-3767' class="method">collect_incoming_data</tt></b>(</nobr></td>
<td><var>data</var>)</td></tr></table></dt>
<dd>
Called with <var>data</var> holding an arbitrary amount of received data.
The default method, which must be overridden, raises a <tt class="exception">NotImplementedError</tt> exception.
</dl>
<P>
<dl><dt><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tr valign="baseline">
<td><nobr><b><tt id='l2h-3768' xml:id='l2h-3768' class="method">discard_buffers</tt></b>(</nobr></td>
<td><var></var>)</td></tr></table></dt>
<dd>
In emergencies this method will discard any data held in the input and/or
output buffers and the producer fifo.
</dl>
<P>
<dl><dt><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tr valign="baseline">
<td><nobr><b><tt id='l2h-3769' xml:id='l2h-3769' class="method">found_terminator</tt></b>(</nobr></td>
<td><var></var>)</td></tr></table></dt>
<dd>
Called when the incoming data stream matches the termination condition
set by <tt class="method">set_terminator</tt>. The default method, which must be overridden,
raises a <tt class="exception">NotImplementedError</tt> exception. The buffered input data should
be available via an instance attribute.
</dl>
<P>
<dl><dt><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tr valign="baseline">
<td><nobr><b><tt id='l2h-3770' xml:id='l2h-3770' class="method">get_terminator</tt></b>(</nobr></td>
<td><var></var>)</td></tr></table></dt>
<dd>
Returns the current terminator for the channel.
</dl>
<P>
<dl><dt><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tr valign="baseline">
<td><nobr><b><tt id='l2h-3771' xml:id='l2h-3771' class="method">handle_close</tt></b>(</nobr></td>
<td><var></var>)</td></tr></table></dt>
<dd>
Called when the channel is closed. The default method silently closes
the channel's socket.
</dl>
<P>
<dl><dt><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tr valign="baseline">
<td><nobr><b><tt id='l2h-3772' xml:id='l2h-3772' class="method">handle_read</tt></b>(</nobr></td>
<td><var></var>)</td></tr></table></dt>
<dd>
Called when a read event fires on the channel's socket in the
asynchronous loop. The default method checks for the termination
condition established by <tt class="method">set_terminator()</tt>, which can be either
the appearance of a particular string in the input stream or the receipt
of a particular number of characters. When the terminator is found,
<tt class="method">handle_read</tt> calls the <tt class="method">found_terminator()</tt> method after
calling <tt class="method">collect_incoming_data()</tt> with any data preceding the
terminating condition.
</dl>
<P>
<dl><dt><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tr valign="baseline">
<td><nobr><b><tt id='l2h-3773' xml:id='l2h-3773' class="method">handle_write</tt></b>(</nobr></td>
<td><var></var>)</td></tr></table></dt>
<dd>
Called when the application may write data to the channel.
The default method calls the <tt class="method">initiate_send()</tt> method, which in turn
will call <tt class="method">refill_buffer()</tt> to collect data from the producer
fifo associated with the channel.
</dl>
<P>
<dl><dt><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tr valign="baseline">
<td><nobr><b><tt id='l2h-3774' xml:id='l2h-3774' class="method">push</tt></b>(</nobr></td>
<td><var>data</var>)</td></tr></table></dt>
<dd>
Creates a <tt class="class">simple_producer</tt> object (<em>see below</em>) containing the data and
pushes it on to the channel's <code>producer_fifo</code> to ensure its
transmission. This is all you need to do to have the channel write
the data out to the network, although it is possible to use your
own producers in more complex schemes to implement encryption and
chunking, for example.
</dl>
<P>
<dl><dt><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tr valign="baseline">
<td><nobr><b><tt id='l2h-3775' xml:id='l2h-3775' class="method">push_with_producer</tt></b>(</nobr></td>
<td><var>producer</var>)</td></tr></table></dt>
<dd>
Takes a producer object and adds it to the producer fifo associated with
the channel. When all currently-pushed producers have been exhausted
the channel will consume this producer's data by calling its
<tt class="method">more()</tt> method and send the data to the remote endpoint.
</dl>
<P>
<dl><dt><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tr valign="baseline">
<td><nobr><b><tt id='l2h-3776' xml:id='l2h-3776' class="method">readable</tt></b>(</nobr></td>
<td><var></var>)</td></tr></table></dt>
<dd>
Should return <code>True</code> for the channel to be included in the set of
channels tested by the <tt class="cfunction">select()</tt> loop for readability.
</dl>
<P>
<dl><dt><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tr valign="baseline">
<td><nobr><b><tt id='l2h-3777' xml:id='l2h-3777' class="method">refill_buffer</tt></b>(</nobr></td>
<td><var></var>)</td></tr></table></dt>
<dd>
Refills the output buffer by calling the <tt class="method">more()</tt> method of the
producer at the head of the fifo. If it is exhausted then the
producer is popped off the fifo and the next producer is activated.
If the current producer is, or becomes, <code>None</code> then the channel
is closed.
</dl>
<P>
<dl><dt><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tr valign="baseline">
<td><nobr><b><tt id='l2h-3778' xml:id='l2h-3778' class="method">set_terminator</tt></b>(</nobr></td>
<td><var>term</var>)</td></tr></table></dt>
<dd>
Sets the terminating condition to be recognised on the channel. <code>term</code>
may be any of three types of value, corresponding to three different ways
to handle incoming protocol data.
<P>
<div class="center"><table class="realtable">
<thead>
<tr>
<th class="left" >term</th>
<th class="left" >Description</th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tbody>
<tr><td class="left" valign="baseline"><em>string</em></td>
<td class="left" >Will call <tt class="method">found_terminator()</tt> when the
string is found in the input stream</td></tr>
<tr><td class="left" valign="baseline"><em>integer</em></td>
<td class="left" >Will call <tt class="method">found_terminator()</tt> when the
indicated number of characters have been received</td></tr>
<tr><td class="left" valign="baseline"><code>None</code></td>
<td class="left" >The channel continues to collect data forever</td></tr></tbody>
</table></div>
<P>
Note that any data following the terminator will be available for reading by
the channel after <tt class="method">found_terminator()</tt> is called.
</dl>
<P>
<dl><dt><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tr valign="baseline">
<td><nobr><b><tt id='l2h-3779' xml:id='l2h-3779' class="method">writable</tt></b>(</nobr></td>
<td><var></var>)</td></tr></table></dt>
<dd>
Should return <code>True</code> as long as items remain on the producer fifo,
or the channel is connected and the channel's output buffer is non-empty.
</dl>
<P>
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<LI><A href="node571.html">11.26.1 asynchat - Auxiliary Classes and Functions</a>
<LI><A href="asynchat-example.html">11.26.2 asynchat Example</a>
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<span class="release-info">Release 2.4.3, documentation updated on 29 March 2006.</span>
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