[web2py] Form, with Dropbox and distinct values from db.

[Jason Jeremias]

So I'm trying out Web2py, I'm a complet newbie.  I've been using python to 
write CGI for years, I have python cgi that I use to display data from 
mysql db.  Its pretty simple and I thought I'd trying to recreate it using 
web2py.   Basically its a simple html form that has a drop box and a submit 
button.  The drop box is filled with mac addresses from a database.  So 
basically you select the mac address, hit submit and it brings back all the 
data in the db related to that mac address.  

My current cgi program uses a simple function to grab the distinct mac 
addresses from the db and put them in to a dropdown.

def PrintSelectMAC():
  db = MySQLdb.connect("localhost","myuser","mypass","wifi_usage")
  cursor = db.cursor()
  sql = 'SELECT DISTINCT(mac_addr) from wifi_usage'
  cursor.execute(sql)
  data = cursor.fetchall()

  print ("<b>Select MAC Addresses:</B><BR> \n")
  print ("<SELECT NAME=\"mac_addr\">")

  for row in sorted(data):
    macaddr = row[0]
    print ("<OPTION VALUE=\"%s\">%s") %(macaddr, macaddr)

  print ("</SELECT>")


I'm trying to get just this far with Web2py and I'm running into a learning 
curve or something.  Here's what I've done so far..

in my Model (db.py) I have added..

db = DAL("mysql://myuser:mypass@localhost/wifi_usage")
db.define_table('wifiusage', 
                        Field('u_date', 'date'),
                        Field('account_id', 'string', length=16),
                        Field('mac_addr', 'string', length=20),
                        Field('upstream', 'integer'),
                        Field('downstream', 'integer'),
                        Field('total', 'integer'),
                        Field('location', 'string'),
                        Field('package', 'string')
               )

So this worked well.  I then populated this database with data.

in my controller (index) I added:

def get_macaddr():
    # Grab distinct MAC addresses from DB
    macaddr = db(db.wifiusage).select(db.wifiusage.mac_addr, 
distinct=True)   

    form = SQLFORM.factory(
          Field('macaddr', label='Select a MAC Address', 
requires=IS_IN_SET(macaddr)))

    return dict(form=form)


I created a get_macaddr.html view.  It looks like this.
{{extend 'layout.html'}}
<h1>This is the get_macaddr.html template</h1>
{{=form}


Here's the issue.  My Form dropdown box. contains entries that look like 
this.

<Row {'mac_addr': '0123456789ab'}>

What I want is it to contain just the macaddress ''0123456789ab' for the 
value

I have to admit the syntax is messing with me.  I'm sure I'm doing 
something silly, Perhaps I've been doing cgi to long.  I want to stick with 
it and learn web2py, what am I doing wrong?

Thanks

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