Exception Handling for the Essay Set module

Other small changes.

ease/create.py

@@ -69,7 +69,7 @@ def create(examples, scores, prompt_string, dump_data=False):
     # Create an essay set object that encapsulates all the essays and alternate representations (tokens, etc)
     try:
         essay_set = _create_essay_set(examples, scores, prompt_string)
-    except (ExampleCreationRequestError, ExampleCreationInternalError) as ex:
+    except (EssaySetRequestError, ExampleCreationInternalError) as ex:
         msg = "Essay Set Creation failed (likely due to an error in essay cleaning/parsing) {}".format(ex)
         results['errors'].append(msg)
         log.exception(msg)

ease/errors.py

@@ -2,7 +2,7 @@
 Errors for the EASE repository
 """
 
-class ExampleCreationRequestError(Exception):
+class EssaySetRequestError(Exception):
     pass
 
 class ExampleCreationInternalError(Exception):
@@ -18,3 +18,4 @@ class ClassifierTrainingInternalError(Exception):
     pass
 
 class CreateRequestError(Exception):
+    pass
\ No newline at end of file

ease/essay_set.py

@@ -8,6 +8,7 @@ import sys
 import random
 import os
 import logging
+from errors import *
 
 base_path = os.path.dirname(__file__)
 sys.path.append(base_path)
@@ -76,6 +77,9 @@ class EssaySet(object):
 
         Returns:
             A string confirmation that essay was added.
+
+        Raises
+            EssaySetRequestError
         """
 
         # Get maximum current essay id (the newest essay), or set to 0 if this is the first essay added
@@ -91,9 +95,10 @@ class EssaySet(object):
         except UnicodeError:
             try:
                 essay_text = (essay_text.decode('utf-8', 'replace')).encode('ascii', 'ignore')
-            except UnicodeError:
-                log.exception("Could not parse essay into ascii.")
-                raise
+            except UnicodeError as ex:
+                str = "Could not parse essay text into ascii: {}".format(ex)
+                log.exception(str)
+                raise EssaySetRequestError(ex)
 
         # Validates that score is an integer and essay_text is a string.
         try:
@@ -101,15 +106,15 @@ class EssaySet(object):
             essay_text = str(essay_text)
             essay_generated = int(essay_generated)
         except TypeError:
-            log.exception(
-                "Invalid type for essay score : {0} or essay text : {1}".format(type(essay_score), type(essay_text)))
-            raise
+            str = "Invalid type for essay score : {0} or essay text : {1}".format(type(essay_score), type(essay_text))
+            log.exception(str)
+            raise EssaySetRequestError(str)
 
         # Validates that essay generated is 0 or 1
         if essay_generated != 0 and essay_generated != 1:
             ex = "Invalid value for essay_generated ({}).  Value must be 0 or 1.".format(essay_generated)
             log.exception(ex)
-            raise util_functions.InputError(ex)
+            raise EssaySetRequestError(ex)
 
         # Validates to make sure that the essay is at least five characters long.
         if len(essay_text) < 5:
@@ -159,8 +164,11 @@ class EssaySet(object):
 
         Returns:
             (str): The prompt, if it was stored successfully.
+
+        Raises:
+            InputError
         """
-        if (isinstance(prompt_text, basestring)):
+        if isinstance(prompt_text, basestring):
             self._prompt = util_functions.sub_chars(prompt_text)
         else:
             raise util_functions.InputError(prompt_text, "Invalid prompt. Need to enter a string value.")

ease/util_functions.py

@@ -89,9 +89,9 @@ def spell_correct(string):
         incorrect = p.readlines()
         p.close()
 
-    except Exception:
-        log.exception("aspell process failed; could not spell check")
-        # Return original string if aspell fails
+    except Exception as ex:
+        log.exception("aspell spell checking was not run, because it failed with the exception: {}".format(ex))
+        # DESIGN CHOICE: Return original string if aspell fails
         return string, 0, string
 
     finally:
@@ -201,6 +201,9 @@ def get_vocab(essays, scores, max_features_pass_1=750, max_features_pass_2=200):
 
 
 class InputError(Exception):
+    """
+    A class to report to the user that one of their inputs was incorrect.
+    """
     def __init__(self, expr, msg):
         self.expr = expr
         self.msg = msg