The value you're after is stored in the 'environ' section of the request. Unlike 'other' and 'cookies' keys, 'environ' keys can't generally be fetched as attributes or keys of REQUEST. You need to access them as REQUEST.environ['keyname']. Cheers, Evan @ digicool & 4-am

Chris Withers wrote:

Evan Simpson wrote:

...

The value you're after is stored in the 'environ' section of the request. Unlike 'other' and 'cookies' keys, 'environ' keys can't generally be fetched as attributes or keys of REQUEST. You need to access them as REQUEST.environ['keyname'].

Heh, I thought so, I presume REQUEST.get won't get out of environ either?

I posted this in the collector and was told it behaved as expected (and would suck the key out of any of the sub-dictionaries)

What's the real story? ;-)

I'm looking at 2.2.0final.

From the comments in the code, it *ought* to look in the environment first.

def __getitem__/__getattr__ from HTTPRequest.py: """Get a variable value Return a value for the required variable name. The value will be looked up from one of the request data categories. The search order is environment variables, other variables, form data, and then cookies. """ However, looking in the code, it starts off by looking in "other", and doesn't look in "environ" at all. I suggest a patch to go right after the method's docstring: def __getitem__(self,key, default=_marker, # Any special internal marker will do URLmatch=regex.compile('URL[0-9]+$').match, BASEmatch=regex.compile('BASE[0-9]+$').match, ): """Get a variable value Return a value for the required variable name. The value will be looked up from one of the request data categories. The search order is environment variables, other variables, form data, and then cookies. """ #" + environ=self.environ + if environ.has_key(key): + return environ[key] other=self.other if other.has_key(key): if key=='REQUEST': return self return other[key] -- Steve Alexander Software Engineer Cat-Box limited http://www.cat-box.net

Steve Alexander wrote:

My question is "why was __getitem__ of HTTPRequest.py designed this way?".

Is there a good reason that it filters the keys according to membership of a standard-cgi-keys list, or whether they start with 'HTTP_' ? Would there be any disadvantage to altering __getitem__ so that it behaves according to its docstring?

...although the class docstring says that the environment variable names are as in the CGI specification (http://hoohoo.ncsa.uiuc.edu/cgi/env.html). It doesn't say that they should **only** be from the CGI specification, though. -- Steve Alexander Software Engineer Cat-Box limited http://www.cat-box.net

Steve Alexander wrote:

def __getitem__/__getattr__ from HTTPRequest.py:

"""Get a variable value

Return a value for the required variable name. The value will be looked up from one of the request data categories. The search order is environment variables, other variables, form data, and then cookies.

Doesn't mention URL parameters on there, does it ;-) I wonder where they figure in?

The code certainly doesn't stick exactly to its docstring. The "other" dictionary is seached first, then URLx where x is a number. Then "environ" is searched, but *only* if the key begins with 'HTTP_' or is in the following list:

This looks really messy. I bet it tallies up with what's in the Zope DTML Reference near the REQUEST description in more ways than with the docstring... Shane wrote:

I think the issue is that environ may include the Zope process environment variables, such as PATH, LD_LIBRARY_PATH, CVSROOT, USER, etc. Publish.publish_module() appears to pass in os.environ . That's just a quick analysis, though.

Hurm, there's still the order issue. And that fact that they're visible if you do <dtml-var REQUEST>. Wow, should this go in dev.zope.org or the Collector (phrased for collector, but that can change): The handling of variable in REQUEST is a bit messy. The following should all behave the same, in terms of the order variables are searched and what variables are included: - <dtml-var REQUEST> - __getitem__ in HTTPRequest.py - variables that appear in the DTML/other type of method namespace Should the patch to HTTPRequest.py below be included into Zope? """ #" + environ=self.environ + if environ.has_key(key) and (not hide_key(key)): + return environ[key] other=self.other if other.has_key(key): if key=='REQUEST': return self return other[key] if key[:1]=='U' and URLmatch(key) >= 0: path = self._script + self._steps n = len(path) - atoi(key[3:]) if n < 0: raise KeyError, key URL=join([other['SERVER_URL']] + path[:n], '/') other[key]=URL self._urls = self._urls + (key,) return URL - if isCGI_NAME(key) or key[:5] == 'HTTP_': - environ=self.environ - if environ.has_key(key) and (not hide_key(key)): - return environ[key] - return ''