#! /usr/bin/python

import re

class NetMapObject:
    '''    This is the base class for all other object classes in this program.
    It defines basic functions for setting object attributes and defines an
    interface for other classes.'''
    def __init__( self ):
        # The attribute map stores all of the valid attribute names
        # and validation patterns
        self.attribute_map = {}
        self.attrs = {}

    def __getitem__( self, key ):
        try:
            return self.attrs[ key ]
        except:
            return ''

    def __setitem__( self, key, value ):
        # Raises AttributeError if the key isn't in the attribute_map.
        # Raises ValueError if the value doesn't match the validation regex.
        if not self.attribute_map.has_key( key ):
            raise AttributeError, \
                  '"%s" isn\'t a valid attribute for this object.' \
                  % cgi.escape( key )
        if not re.compile( self.attribute_map[key] ).search( value ):
            raise ValueError, \
                  '"%s" isn\'t valid for %s' % (cgi.escape( value ),
                                                cgi.escape( key ))
        self.attrs[ key ] = value

    def __delitem__( self, key ):
        del( self.attrs[ key ] )

    def commit( self ):
        return 'This object can\'t be commited to storage'