🎉 File Path Validator (FPV) Library Documentation

Overview

The File Path Validator (FPV) library is a robust solution for validating and cleaning file paths to ensure compliance with platform-specific naming restrictions and length limits. FPV supports both operating systems and cloud storage providers, enabling seamless path validation across diverse environments.

Many cloud storage providers strive to enforce compliance with OS-specific rules, but not all do so reliably. For instance, Google Drive syncs with Windows, requiring paths to meet Windows-specific rules, yet lacks strict enforcement on its end. FPV can bridge this gap, offering cross-platform path validation ahead of time to avoid runtime failures.

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Why Choose FPV?

(From Logan - Creator of FPV):
"At my company, we often generate file paths for clients from a mix of disjointed data sources. This can result in messy file path strings that may fail at the storage provider or OS level. FPV ensures our paths are flagged with actionable error messages early on.

For those who prefer automation, FPV’s cleaning functionality can attempt to fix paths proactively. Whether you're debugging paths manually or streamlining cleanup, FPV has been a game-changer for us. I hope you find it equally helpful!"

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🚀 Installation

Install the FPV library via pip:

pip install file-path-validator

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Supported Platforms & Providers 🌐

🖥️ Operating Systems

• Windows
• macOS
• Linux

☁️ Cloud Storage Providers

• Dropbox
• Box
• Egnyte
• OneDrive
• SharePoint
• ShareFile

Each class inherits from FPV_Base, defining unique validation and cleaning rules tailored to the platform or provider while leveraging the library’s core functionality.

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🛠️ Key Features and Usage Examples

Core Arguments

FPV provides several configuration options for fine-grained control:

• auto_clean: Attempts to clean paths before validation. If issues remain unresolved after cleaning, an error is raised. Defaults to False.
• auto_validate: Automatically validates the path or parts upon modification. Defaults to True.
• relative: Determines if the path is treated as relative (True) or absolute (False). Some service classes enforce a specific behavior (e.g., macOS paths are always relative).
• file_added: Explicitly specify if the path includes a file. The library avoids assumptions about the last path part, requiring this flag for clarity.
• sep: Specifies the path separator (e.g., "/" for POSIX, "\\" for Windows). Service classes provide defaults but allow overrides.

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Dynamic Path Building Example

from FPV import FPV_Windows

def dynamic_path_demo():
    # Instantiate the validator
    validator = FPV_Windows("C:\\", relative=False)

    # Add parts dynamically
    validator.add_part("NewFolder")
    validator.add_part("AnotherFolder")
    validator.add_part("file.txt", is_file=True)

    # Validate the dynamic path
    try:
        validator.validate()
        print("Path is valid:", validator.get_full_path())
    except ValueError as e:
        print("Validation Error:", e)

    # Review issues and actions
    print("Issues Log:", validator.get_logs()["issues"])
    print("Actions Log:", validator.get_logs()["actions"])

dynamic_path_demo()

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Logs and Action Handling

• Issues Log: Tracks path non-compliance (e.g., invalid characters, excessive length). Use get_logs()["issues"] or methods like get_issues_for_part(index) for targeted inspection.
• Actions Log: Suggests fixes (e.g., truncations, character removals). Use get_logs()["actions"] or get_pending_actions_for_part(index) for a step-by-step cleaning recipe.

Example:

issues = validator.get_logs()["issues"]
actions = validator.get_logs()["actions"]

# Apply actions manually if needed
for action in actions:
    print(f"Action: {action['reason']} - Details: {action['details']}")

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Basic Example

from FPV import FPV_Windows

example_path = "C:/ Broken/ **path/to/||file . txt"
validator = FPV_Windows(example_path, relative=True, sep='/')

try:
    # Validate the path
    validator.validate()
    print("Path is valid!")
except ValueError as e:
    print("Validation Error:", e)

# Clean the path
cleaned_path = validator.clean()
print("Cleaned Path:", cleaned_path)

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Recommendations for Error Handling

Wrap cleaning and validation calls in a try-except block to gracefully handle exceptions:

try:
    cleaned_path = validator.clean()
    print("Cleaned Path:", cleaned_path)
except ValueError as e:
    print("Cleaning Error:", e)

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⚙️ Key Methods

• validate(): Validates the entire path. Raises ValueError if issues are found unless raise_error=False is explicitly set.
• clean(): Cleans the path to meet compliance rules, applying fixes from the action log. Raises errors for unresolved issues if raise_error=True.

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Limitations and Future Plans

• Missing Features: SharePoint site URLs and encoded paths are not yet supported.
• Network Drives: Windows network drive root validation is not supported (though non-root parts are fully validated).
• User-Defined Order: Cleaning/validation order cannot yet be customized but can be manually controlled.

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🤝 Contributing Guidelines

We welcome contributions! Please adhere to the following:

• Testing: Include unit tests for all new features or bug fixes.
• Standards: Ensure code follows PEP-8 standards or run a linter before submission.
• Pull Requests: Clearly describe your changes and their purpose.

Thank you for helping improve FPV! 🎉