[python-win32] need help in creating a username generator

[d.w. harks]

I do this, but not in nearly so flexible a manner. Guess I'm lazy. :-)

I just have the function generate three different possible usernames,
based on the user's first, middle and last names, and append the results
to a list. I've never had the situation come up where I can't get a unique
username...but I work for a small university, and we only have about 1500
users.

Then, it checks each one against AD, and the first one that is not already
taken gets assigned to the user.

I could see this working with a list of function references which could be
selected at runtime from a pool of available username-generation
functions...i.e.:

def stuOne(name):
  <code>

def stuTwo(name):
  <code>

def genUserName(name):
     funcList = [ stuOne, stuTwo, ...] # generate this with your setup code
     optionList = []
     for func in funcList:
          optionList.append(func(name))

Just a thought.

dave

Brian Jarrett said:

> Hello all.
>
> I'm new to Python and I've been working on some scripts to automate the
> creation of user accounts on our network.  I work in a school district, so
> I want the school secretaries to use a webpage to create student user
> accounts and I will have the administrations staff create employee user
> accounts and email boxes.
>
> What I want to do is create some sort of object or function that would
> take a variable number of "rules" and apply them to information specified
> (firstname, lastname, middle initial, graduation year) to come up with a
> username for the individual.  If the first username is already used, then
> it would try applying the next "rule" until it came up with a unique name.
>  Since I have two classes of users (Employees and Students) I will have
> two separate sets of rules.
>
> I already have code that checks my Active Directory to see if a username
> has not been used.  I just need something to generate the username to
> test.
>
> Of course I could hardcode how I'd want to slice up first and last names,
> etc, to get a username, but I thought I'd make it more flexible and then
> release it for others to use if they wanted.
>
> The rules I'd be using would be something like:
>
> Employees:
> Try first initial + last name
> Try first initial + middle initial + last name
>
> Students:
> Try first initial + last name + last 2 digits of grad year
> Try first initial + middle initial + last name + last 2 digits of grad
> year
> Try first two letters of first name + last name + last 2 digits of grad
> year
>
> Any ideas on how to do this would be appreciated.  Mainly I'm concerned
> with making the rules persistent but easily changed and flexible enough to
> add/remove data to use and how to specify the use of said data.
>
> Brian Jarrett
> Network Administrator
> Garfield County School District 16
>
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-- 
d.w. harks <dave@psys.org> http://dwblog.psys.org