Small tweeks to provide a sane error

Author: Paul Tagliamonte

sunlight/errors.py

@@ -34,7 +34,7 @@ def __str__(self):
 class BadRequestException(SunlightException):
     """
     This gets thrown when the underlying url request has recieved an abnormal
-    response code.
+    response code, or the program has issued a request that can not be filled.
     """
     pass
 

sunlight/services/openstates.py

@@ -2,6 +2,7 @@
 # of the LICENSE file.
 
 import sunlight.service
+from sunlight.errors import BadRequestException
 import json
 
 module_name = "openstates"
@@ -173,6 +174,11 @@ def district_boundary(self, boundary_id, **kwargs):
     # API impl methods
 
     def _get_url(self, objs, apikey, **kwargs):
+        # Gate for any None's in the query. This is usually a problem.
+        if None in objs:
+            raise BadRequestException("`None' passed to the URL encoder (%s)" %
+                                      (str(objs)))
+
         # join pieces by slashes and add a trailing slash
         object_path = "/".join(objs)
         object_path +=  "/"