How can I use a non-standard object as a state variable?

[simonmesmith]

I'm not sure if that question makes sense, but here's what's up:

1. Add a page with an on_load event to load data on page load

   app.add_page(bot, route="/bot/[sl]", on_load=State.get_bot)

2—works: Get the associated object and set string variables with its values

    def get_bot(self):
        with pc.session() as session:
            slug = self.get_query_params().get("sl", "Missing slug.")
            bot: Bot = session.execute(Bot.select.filter(Bot.slug == slug)).first()
            if bot:
                self.bot_name = bot[0].name
                self.bot_personality = bot[0].personality
                self.bot_sample = bot[0].sample

2—doesn't work: Get the associated object and set a single object variable

    def get_bot(self):
        with pc.session() as session:
            slug = self.get_query_params().get("sl", "Missing slug.")
            bot: Bot = session.execute(Bot.select.filter(Bot.slug == slug)).first()
            self.bot = bot[0]

If I do this, then I'll get an error if I try to access bot values like bot.personality, saying that these attributes don't exist.

What am I doing wrong?

[Lendemor]

I think you need to define a custom vars Bot:

https://pynecone.io/docs/advanced-guide/custom-vars

[simonmesmith]

@Lendemor I should have mentioned that I already have this:

class Bot(pc.Model, table=True):
    slug: str
    name: str
    personality: str
    sample: str

Can a custom var not inherit from pc.Model? Does it have to be pc.Base?

[simonmesmith]

Okay, here's the answer:

1. Create a custom var using either pc.Model or pc.Base

class Bot(pc.Model, table=True):
    slug: str
    name: str
    personality: str
    sample: str

2. Within your state class, create an instance of the custom var class and be sure to instantiate it

class State(pc.State):

    current_bot: Bot = Bot(
        slug="",
        name="",
        personality="",
        sample="",
    )

3. Create a function to populate the variable on page load

    def get_bot(self):
        with pc.session() as session:
            slug = self.get_query_params().get("sl", "Missing slug.")
            bot: Bot = session.execute(Bot.select.filter(Bot.slug == slug)).first()
            if bot:
                self.current_bot = bot[0]

4. Add the function to your definition for the page

app.add_page(bot, route="/bot/[sl]", on_load=State.get_bot)

5. Use the variable within your page

pc.heading(State.current_bot.sample)

WARNING: If you have an attribute called "name," it will not work. If you use this you will instead just get the name of the variable, e.g. "current_bot" in this case. I'm not sure if there's a way around this apart from just not using that attribute name, which is unfortunate.