Python unicode Decode Error SUDs

Question

OK so I have # -*- coding: utf-8 -*- at the top of my script and it worked for being able to pull data from the database that had funny chars(Ñ ,Õ,é,—,–,’,…) in it and store that data into variables...but I have run into other problems, see I pull my data, organize it, and then dump it into a variables like so:

title = product[1]

Where product[1] is from my database result set

Then I load it up for Suds like so:

array_of_inventory_item_submit = ca_client_inventory.factory.create('ArrayOfInventoryItemSubmit')
for product in products:
    inventory_item_submit = ca_client_inventory.factory.create('InventoryItemSubmit')
    inventory_item_list = get_item_list(product)
    inventory_item_submit = [inventory_item_list]
    array_of_inventory_item_submit.InventoryItemSubmit.append(inventory_item_submit)
#Call that service baby!
ca_client_inventory.service.SynchInventoryItemList(accountID, array_of_inventory_item_submit)

Where get_item_list sets product[1] to title and (including a whole bunch of other nodes):

inventory_item_submit.Title = title

So everything runs fine until I call ca_client_inventory.service.SynchInventoryItemList that contains array_of_inventory_item_submit which contains the title w/ the funky char...here is the error:

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "upload_all_inventory_ebay.py", line 421, in <module>
    ca_client_inventory.service.SynchInventoryItemList(accountID, array_of_inventory_item_submit)
  File "build/bdist.macosx-10.6-i386/egg/suds/client.py", line 539, in __call__
  File "build/bdist.macosx-10.6-i386/egg/suds/client.py", line 592, in invoke
  File "build/bdist.macosx-10.6-i386/egg/suds/bindings/binding.py", line 118, in get_message
  File "build/bdist.macosx-10.6-i386/egg/suds/bindings/document.py", line 63, in bodycontent
  File "build/bdist.macosx-10.6-i386/egg/suds/bindings/document.py", line 105, in mkparam
  File "build/bdist.macosx-10.6-i386/egg/suds/bindings/binding.py", line 260, in mkparam
  File "build/bdist.macosx-10.6-i386/egg/suds/mx/core.py", line 62, in process
  File "build/bdist.macosx-10.6-i386/egg/suds/mx/core.py", line 75, in append
  File "build/bdist.macosx-10.6-i386/egg/suds/mx/appender.py", line 102, in append
  File "build/bdist.macosx-10.6-i386/egg/suds/mx/appender.py", line 243, in append
  File "build/bdist.macosx-10.6-i386/egg/suds/mx/appender.py", line 182, in append
  File "build/bdist.macosx-10.6-i386/egg/suds/mx/core.py", line 75, in append
  File "build/bdist.macosx-10.6-i386/egg/suds/mx/appender.py", line 102, in append
  File "build/bdist.macosx-10.6-i386/egg/suds/mx/appender.py", line 298, in append
  File "build/bdist.macosx-10.6-i386/egg/suds/mx/appender.py", line 182, in append
  File "build/bdist.macosx-10.6-i386/egg/suds/mx/core.py", line 75, in append
  File "build/bdist.macosx-10.6-i386/egg/suds/mx/appender.py", line 102, in append
  File "build/bdist.macosx-10.6-i386/egg/suds/mx/appender.py", line 298, in append
  File "build/bdist.macosx-10.6-i386/egg/suds/mx/appender.py", line 182, in append
  File "build/bdist.macosx-10.6-i386/egg/suds/mx/core.py", line 75, in append
  File "build/bdist.macosx-10.6-i386/egg/suds/mx/appender.py", line 102, in append
  File "build/bdist.macosx-10.6-i386/egg/suds/mx/appender.py", line 243, in append
  File "build/bdist.macosx-10.6-i386/egg/suds/mx/appender.py", line 182, in append
  File "build/bdist.macosx-10.6-i386/egg/suds/mx/core.py", line 75, in append
  File "build/bdist.macosx-10.6-i386/egg/suds/mx/appender.py", line 102, in append
  File "build/bdist.macosx-10.6-i386/egg/suds/mx/appender.py", line 198, in append
  File "build/bdist.macosx-10.6-i386/egg/suds/sax/element.py", line 251, in setText
  File "build/bdist.macosx-10.6-i386/egg/suds/sax/text.py", line 43, in __new__
UnicodeDecodeError: 'ascii' codec can't decode byte 0xc3 in position 116: ordinal not in range(128)

Now what? My guess is my script can take in these funky chars because I have # -*- coding: utf-8 -*- at the top but Suds does NOT have that at the top of its files. Do I really want to go and change the Suds files...we all know this is the least desired last possible solution...what can I do?

Answer 1

#-*- coding: xxx -*- has nothing to do with this error, it only applies to the encoding of the source file it is declared in, not the content of variables coming from a database.

Your error says that you try to pass a str type object containing non ASCII characters to the unicode() constructor (which is called at line 43 of suds/sax/text.py).

You have to convert the strings coming from the database to unicode objects ; for example if your database is encoded in UTF-8:

title = product[1].decode("UTF-8")

See the str.decode() documentation for details.