--- MPIWGWeb/Attic/SrvTxtUtils.py	2012/03/22 13:30:56	1.1.2.1
+++ MPIWGWeb/Attic/SrvTxtUtils.py	2012/03/23 15:27:05	1.1.2.2
@@ -11,7 +11,7 @@ import urllib2
 import logging
 
 
-srvTxtUtilsVersion = "1.3"
+srvTxtUtilsVersion = "1.5"
 
 def getInt(number, default=0):
     """returns always an int (0 in case of problems)"""
@@ -27,6 +27,28 @@ def getAt(array, idx, default=None):
     except:
         return default
 
+def unicodify(s):
+    """decode str (utf-8 or latin-1 representation) into unicode object"""
+    if not s:
+        return u""
+    if isinstance(s, str):
+        try:
+            return s.decode('utf-8')
+        except:
+            return s.decode('latin-1')
+    else:
+        return s
+
+def utf8ify(s):
+    """encode unicode object or string into byte string in utf-8 representation.
+       assumes string objects to be utf-8"""
+    if not s:
+        return ""
+    if isinstance(s, str):
+        return s
+    else:
+        return s.encode('utf-8')
+
 def getText(node, recursive=0):
     """returns all text content of a node and its subnodes"""
     if node is None:
@@ -53,7 +75,7 @@ def getText(node, recursive=0):
 
 
 
-def getHttpData(url, data=None, num_tries=3, timeout=10):
+def getHttpData(url, data=None, num_tries=3, timeout=10, noExceptions=False):
     """returns result from url+data HTTP request"""
     # we do GET (by appending data to url)
     if isinstance(data, str) or isinstance(data, unicode):
@@ -94,6 +116,9 @@ def getHttpData(url, data=None, num_trie
         response.close()
         return data
     
+    if noExceptions:
+        return None
+    
     raise IOError("ERROR fetching HTTP data from %s: %s"%(url,errmsg))
     #return None