Simple motds

Simple module to get the message of the day (motd), every motd should be in a separate file inside (by default) messages/ folder.

The module returns a different motd every day, month, week, hour or minute, the time period which the message should be changed is defined in the simple configuration file config.json.

Initialization

pip install simplemotds

A SimpleMotd object should be created and use its attributes.

from simple_motd import SimpleMotd
simplemotd = SimpleMotd() # To use default config.json (placed on the package root)
simplemotd = SimpleMotd(external_config_json_file="another.json") # To use different configuration file (placed anywhere you want)

• external_config_json_file: See configuration file details.

SimpleMotd methods

• getMotdContent(): returns the contents of the current message by reading it's file inside the messages folder. Contents are returned as a python string using utf-8 enconding by default.
• getMotdFile(): returns a python file object (opened) to the current message.
• getMotdFileName(): returns the file name of the current message.
• ForceNextMessage(): Forces to change the message by selecting another file inside messages or other configured folder, returns the new filename.

Modifying configuration file

All is done in the file config.json, defaults:

{
   "time-period": "day",
   "folder": "./messages",
   "selection-type": "random"
}

• time-period: Specifies the time period to change the message returned. Valid values:

• month

• week

• hour

• day

• minute

• folder: The folder where to look for the messages, every message must be in a separate file of any extension, for instance create a "motds" and place there all messages in separete files, then put "motds" on the .json file.

• selection-type: How to get the messages, it can be:

• random

• alphabetically-desc

• alphabetically-asc

• modification-asc

• modification-desc

• formula (not implemented yet)

alphabetically-desc gets files by its name in a descendent order (a first and z last), alphabetically-asc (z first, a last). modification-asc/desc considers the last time of modification of the files as ordering rule.