_security object is an exception to the document model

[GoogleCodeExporter]

What steps will reproduce the problem?
1. Instantiate server:
server = couchdb.client.Server("http://admin:password@localhost:5984")
2. Try to set the _security object for a database you have admin privileges for:
server['test']['_security']={'members':{'names':[],'roles':['meow']},'admins':{'
names':[],'roles':[]}}

What is the expected output? What do you see instead?
The expected outcome is that the method should return successfully, what 
happens is that an error is thrown:

>>> 
server['test']['_security']={'members':{'names':[],'roles':['meow']},'admins':{'
names':[],'roles':[]}}
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
  File "couchdb/client.py", line 351, in __setitem__
    content.update({'_id': data['id'], '_rev': data['rev']})
KeyError: 'id'

This is likely due to the fact that the returned document does not have a _id 
or _rev attribute. This is because the security document is not a real document 
and does not follow the same rules as other documents in the database.

What version of the product are you using? On what operating system?

CouchDB 1.6 on Mac OS X using the latest version of couchdb-python in the repo.

Original issue reported on code.google.com by pokstad@gmail.com on 14 Jun 2014 at 6:13

[GoogleCodeExporter]

This issue could be resolved pretty easily by adding a check right before the 
affected line of code (351 of client.py):

if 'id' in data and 'rev' in data:
    content.update({'_id': data['id'], '_rev': data['rev']})

Original comment by pokstad@gmail.com on 15 Jun 2014 at 1:43

[GoogleCodeExporter]

That solves one use case, but I think we have other problems with security 
objects as well (i.e. just with receiving them?). We should try to solve all of 
them, but I'm not sure what API would make sense. Maybe there should be 
dedicated API.

Original comment by djc.ochtman on 29 Jun 2014 at 9:26

[GoogleCodeExporter]

Yes, it does fail on retrieval as well. Maybe an API like this:

db = server['meow']
db.readers.users = ['kitty']
db.admins.roles = ['poopsykins']

OR, this would be faster to execute in a single request:

db.security = {
  'readers':{'users':['kitty']},
  'admins':{'roles':['poopsykins']}
}

Original comment by pokstad@gmail.com on 1 Jul 2014 at 3:54

[GoogleCodeExporter]

Yeah, I think a db.security attribute could work pretty well.

Original comment by djc.ochtman on 1 Jul 2014 at 6:13

[GoogleCodeExporter]

Okay, a very basic implementation is in r7cd158aa7c1b. Please check whether 
this fulfills your use cases.

Original comment by djc.ochtman on 6 Jul 2014 at 11:40

• Changed state: Fixed