Split the list view code up in three pieces 1. getListContents which returns the required contents dictionary 2. _list which returns the response for a specified list of contents 3. list which constructs just one content dict and passes it to _list This way it is easier to do step 1 and 2 in other code than list(), which makes it possible to display multiple list pages (by calling getListContents multiple times and passing the result to _list).

"""
Utilities for XML generation/parsing.
"""

from xml.sax.saxutils import XMLGenerator

class SimplerXMLGenerator(XMLGenerator):
    def addQuickElement(self, name, contents=None, attrs=None):
        "Convenience method for adding an element with no children"
        if attrs is None: attrs = {}
        self.startElement(name, attrs)
        if contents is not None:
            self.characters(contents)
        self.endElement(name)