python-tent-client

A command-line client for talking to Tent servers such as tent.is.

This only speaks Tent protocol v0.1.

Current Status

We're in the "move fast and break things" phase right now.

What works:

• Discovery of the tent server's API root using link headers
• Registering an app with the server and requesting permissions using OAuth
• Auth keys are saved to a local config file for use next time
• API methods (both public ones and auth-requiring ones)

It should be possible to register a notification URL using this code, but since it's not necessarily running a webserver it won't be able to be notified of incoming posts. In that case it can poll for new updates.

What needs attention:

• Some API methods have not been written yet. Most of them should be quick to write by starting with copies of the methods that are already done.
• Write tests
• Error handling. Should add a few exception types and also pay closer attention to errors from the requests module.
• Documentation
• Find elegant ways to deal with the JSON we get back from the Tent server. Maybe add some classes representing posts, profiles, etc.
• Package this up as a real Python module that can be installed in the usual way

Dependencies

• requests

Installation of dependencies:

# get requests using pip
pip install requests

# you might already have an old version of requests that's missing the link headers feature.  If so:
pip install --update requests

Quick Start

Run example.py and it will launch your browser, have the Tent server ask you to approve the app, and then post a hello world message. The OAuth process is awkward when run from a command line, so read the prompt when it asks you to copy and paste things from your browser. You only have to do this once; after that your auth details are saved in 'auth.cfg' and reused in future runs.

example_dashboard.py will get your latest posts and followings' posts and print them to the shell.

Here's a quick overview:

import tentapp
tentapp.debug = False  # Turn this on if you want to see verbose debugging info while
                       # the app is running.  Defaults to False.


# "entity" is the Tent version of a username.  It's a full URL.
entityUrl = 'https://pythonclienttest.tent.is'
app = tentapp.TentApp(entityUrl)

# Get your profile info as a JSON-style Python dictionary
print app.getProfile()

# Send the user to their tent server to approve this app
# and save the resulting keys in a local file
app.authorizeFromCommandLine('keystore.js')

# Post a new post.  For now you need to supply the JSON dictionary yourself.
app.putPost(yourPostJsonHere)

You'll need to work directly with the JSON types described here: http://tent.io/docs/app-server