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Pingbacks

plugin_h_pingback consists of a module and a model for web2py. (I prefix my plugins with h_ in the hope that soon there will be tons of w2p plugins to somewhat lessen the risk of namespace collisions). See the Pingback 1.0 specification at http://www.hixie.ch/specs/pingback/pingback (quick, easy read to get you up to speed).

Sample usage

""" 
/controllers/blog.py 
A simple blog system, which you will still have to implement yourself :)

"""

pingback = local_import('plugin_h_pingback')

def on_pingback(source_url, target_url, source_html):
    " Extract source title and some snippet and store as comment. " 
    ...

@pingback.listen(globals(), on_pingback)
def viewpost():
    " Show post and comments "
    ...

def addpost():
    " Admin function to add new post "
    ...
    pingback.ping(globals(), 
        source=new_post_url,
        targets=[linked_to_post_url_A, linked_to_post_url_B]
        )
    ...

Source

Model (plugin_h_pingback.py)

# coding: utf8
__pb = local_import('plugin_h_pingback')

db.define_table(__pb.TABLE_PINGBACKS,
    Field('source', required=True),
    Field('target', required=True),
    Field('direction', required=True, 
        requires=IS_IN_SET(('inbound', 'outbound'))),
    Field('status'), # only relevant for outbound pingbacks
    Field('datetime', 'datetime', default=request.now)
    )

Module (plugin_h_pingback.py)

#!/usr/bin/env python 
# coding: utf8

""" plugin_h_pingback.py

Author:  Hans Christian v. Stockhausen <hc at vst.io>
Date:    2010-12-19

This module provides the core functionality of the plugin_h_pingback plugin for
web2py.

The class PingbackServer handles incomming pingbacks, the class PingbackClient
is used to notify external sites of backlinks. In your code you should not have
to use these classes directly. Instead use the module functions listen() and
ping().

listen() is a decorator to use with controller functions you want to pingback-
enable. Under the hood it uses the PingbackServer. This decorator expects w2p
globals() as first parameter and optionally a second callback parameter.
The callback signature is foo(source, target, html), where source is the ping-
back source URI, target the target URI and html the source page contents.

ping() is used to notify external sites of backlinks using the PingbackClient.
The first parameter is, as for listen(), the w2p globals() environment, the
second the source page URI, the third either a string or a list of target URIs
and finally the commit parameter (defaults to True). A DB commit is likely to
be required at this point as the controller function containing the ping() is
probably generating the source page. If the source page is not commited the
pingback system of the target page will not be able to find it and thus reject
the pingback request.

See also:
http://www.hixie.ch/specs/pingback/pingback - Pingback 1.0 specification

"""

# TODO
# - Check entity expansion requirements (e.g. &lt;) as per Pingback spec page 7
# - make try-except-finally in PingbackClient.ping robust

import httplib
import logging
import urllib2
import xmlrpclib
from gluon.html import URL

__author__ = 'H.C. v. Stockhausen <hc at vst.io>'
__version__ = '0.1'

# we2py specific constants
TABLE_PINGBACKS = 'plugin_h_pingback_pingbacks'

# Pingback protocol faults
FAULT_GENERIC = 0
FAULT_UNKNOWN_SOURCE = 16
FAULT_NO_BACKLINK = 17
FAULT_UNKNOWN_TARGET = 32
FAULT_INVALID_TARGET = 33
FAULT_ALREADY_REGISTERED = 48
FAULT_ACCESS_DENIED = 49
FAULT_UPSTREAM_ERROR = 50


class PingbackServerError(Exception):
    pass


class PingbackClientError(Exception):
    pass


class PingbackServer(object):
    " Handles incomming pingbacks from other sites. "

    def __init__(self, db, request, callback=None):
        self.db = db
        self.request = request
        self.callback = callback

    def __call__(self):
        """
        Invoked instead of the decorated function if the request is a pingback
        request from some external site.
        """

        try:
            self._process_request()
        except PingbackServerError, e:
            resp = str(e.message)
        else:
            resp = 'Pingback registered'
        return xmlrpclib.dumps((resp,))

    def _process_request(self):
        " Decode xmlrpc pingback request and process it "

        (self.source, self.target), method = xmlrpclib.loads(
            self.request.body.read())
        if method != 'pingback.ping':
            raise PingbackServerError(FAULT_GENERIC)
        self._check_duplicates()
        self._check_target()
        self._check_source()
        if self.callback:
            self.callback(self.source, self.target, self.html)
        self._store_pingback()

    def _check_duplicates(self):
        " Check db whether the pingback request was previously processed "

        db = self.db
        table = db[TABLE_PINGBACKS]
        query = (table.source==self.source) & (table.target==self.target)
        if db(query).select():
            raise PingbackServerError(FAULT_ALREADY_REGISTERED)

    def _check_target(self):
        " Check that the target URI exists and supports pingbacks "

        try:
            page = urllib2.urlopen(self.target)
        except:
            raise PingbackServerError(FAULT_UNKNOWN_TARGET)
        if not page.info().has_key('X-Pingback'):
            raise PingbackServerError(FAULT_INVALID_TARGET)

    def _check_source(self):
        " Check that the source URI exists and contains the target link "

        try:
            page = urllib2.urlopen(self.source)
        except:
            raise PingbackServerError(FAULT_UNKNOWN_SOURCE)
        html = self.html = page.read()
        target = self.target
        try:
            import BeautifulSoup2
            soup = BeautifulSoup.BeautifulSoup(html)
            exists = any([a.get('href')==target for a in soup.findAll('a')])
        except ImportError:
            import re
            logging.warn('plugin_h_pingback: Could not import BeautifulSoup,' \
                ' using re instead (higher risk of pingback spam).')
            pattern = r'<a.+href=[\'"]?%s[\'"]?.*>' % target
            exists = re.search(pattern, html) != None
        if not exists:
            raise PingbackServerError(FAULT_NO_BACKLINK)

    def _store_pingback(self):
        " Companion method for _check_duplicates to suppress duplicates. "

        self.db[TABLE_PINGBACKS].insert(
            source=self.source,
            target=self.target,
            direction='inbound')        


class PingbackClient(object):
    " Notifies other sites about backlinks. "

    def __init__(self, globals_, source, targets, commit):
        self.globals_ = globals_
        self.source = source
        self.targets = targets
        self.commit = commit

    def ping(self):
        status = 'FIXME'
        db = self.globals_['db']
        session = self.globals_['session']
        response = self.globals_['response']
        table = db[TABLE_PINGBACKS]
        targets = self.targets
        if isinstance(targets, str):
            targets = [targets]
        for target in targets:
            query = (table.source==self.source) & (table.target==target)
            if not db(query).select(): # check for duplicates
                id_ = table.insert(
                    source=self.source,
                    target=target,
                    direction='outbound')
                if self.commit:
                    db.commit()
                try:
                    server_url = self._get_pingback_server(target)
                except PingbackClientError, e:
                    status = e.message
                else:
                    try:
                        session.forget()
                        session._unlock(response)
                        server = xmlrpclib.ServerProxy(server_url)
                        status = server.pingback.ping(self.source, target)
                    except xmlrpclib.Fault, e:
                        status = e
                finally:
                    db(table.id==id_).update(status=status)         

    def _get_pingback_server(self, target):
        " Try to find the target's pingback xmlrpc server address "

        # first try to find the pingback server in the HTTP header
        try:
            host, path = urllib2.splithost(urllib2.splittype(target)[1])
            conn = httplib.HTTPConnection(host)
            conn.request('HEAD', path)
            res = conn.getresponse()  
            server = dict(res.getheaders()).get('x-pingback')
        except Exception, e:
            raise PingbackClientError(e.message)
        # next try the header with urllib in case of redirects
        if not server:
            page = urllib2.urlopen(target)
            server = page.info().get('X-Pingback')
        # next search page body for link element
        if not server:
            import re
            html = page.read()
            # pattern as per Pingback 1.0 specification, page 7
            pattern = r'<link rel="pingback" href=(P<url>[^"])" ?/?>'
            match = re.search(pattern, html)
            if match:
                server = match.groupdict()['url']
        if not server:
            raise PingbackClientError('No pingback server found.')
        return server   


def listen(globals_, callback=None):
    """ 
    Decorator for page controller functions that want to support pingbacks.
    The optional callback parameter is a fuction with the following signature.
    callback(source_uri, target_uri, source_html)
    """

    request = globals_['request']
    response = globals_['response']
    db = globals_['db']

    def pingback_request_decorator(_):
        return PingbackServer(db, request, callback)

    def standard_request_decorator(controller):
        def wrapper():
            " Add X-Pingback HTTP Header to decorated function's response "

            url_base = '%(wsgi_url_scheme)s://%(http_host)s' % request.env
            url_path = URL(r=request, args=['x-pingback'])
            response.headers['X-Pingback'] = url_base + url_path
            return controller()
        return wrapper

    if request.args(0) == 'x-pingback':
        return pingback_request_decorator
    else:
        return standard_request_decorator

def ping(globals_, source, targets, commit=True):
    " Notify other sites of backlink "

    client = PingbackClient(globals_, source, targets, commit)
    client.ping()

License

MIT

Issues

  • The default w2p template is too big for some systems that check backlink existence. The link is too far down the page or the connection times out. Smaller layouts work.
  • try-except-finally in PingbackClient.ping not robust yet (see http://stackoverflow.com/questions/4477332/python-try-except-finally)
  • Watch out! PingbackClient.ping uses xmlrpc. To avoid deadlocks it has to 'forget' and '_unlock' the session.

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