Use PYCOUNTRY to convert ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 to Country Name

Question

Python (and coding newbie) here. I'm attempting to generate an XML file based a list of files in a directory. The first two letters of the filenames correspond to a new letter country code and I'm trying to extract this as well.

My intended format is as follows:

<ROOT>
    <BASIC/>
    <FULL>
        <INFO>
            <server>filname</server>
            <country>country</country>
            <region/>
        </INFO>
    </FULL>
</ROOT>

I seem to be able to generate the XML file but I'm unable to convert the two digit country code to the country using pycountry. Could someone please suggest a possible solution? Any comments on the rest of the code would be helpful as well.

# -*- coding: utf-8 -*-
import lxml.etree as xml
import pycountry
import glob

import gettext
gettext.bindtextdomain('iso3166', pycountry.LOCALES_DIR)
_c = lambda t: gettext.dgettext('iso3166', t)

def createXML(outfile):
        root = xml.Element("ROOT")
        basic = xml.Element("BASIC")
        full = xml.Element("FULL")
        root.append(basic)
        root.append(full)
# add file information
        for filename in glob.glob("*.*"):
                info = xml.Element("INFO")
                server = xml.SubElement(info, "server")
                server.text = filename
                short = filename[:2]
                country = xml.SubElement(info, "country")
                def get_country(code):
                  return _c(pycountry.countries.get(alpha2=code).name)
                country.text = get_country(short)
                region = xml.SubElement(info, "region")
                full.append(info)
        print xml.tostring(root, pretty_print=True)
#save new XML
#       tree = xml.ElementTree(root)
#       with open(filename, "w") as fh:
#        tree.write(fh)

#--------------------------------------------------------
if __name__ == "__main__":
    createXML("info.xml")

Answer 1

Thanks to gbe for the help! It's not pretty but here is the code that worked.

# -*- coding: utf-8 -*-
import lxml.etree as xml
import pycountry
import glob

import gettext
gettext.bindtextdomain('iso3166', pycountry.LOCALES_DIR)
_c = lambda t: gettext.dgettext('iso3166', t)

def createXML(outfile):
        root = xml.Element("ROOT")
        basic = xml.Element("BASIC")
        full = xml.Element("FULL")
        root.append(basic)
        root.append(full)
# add file information
        for filename in glob.glob("*.*"):
                info = xml.Element("INFO")
                server = xml.SubElement(info, "server")
                server.text = filename
                short = filename[:2].upper()
                country = xml.SubElement(info, "country")
                country.text = pycountry.countries.get(alpha2=short).name
                region = xml.SubElement(info, "region")
                full.append(info)
        print xml.tostring(root, pretty_print=True)
#save new XML
#       tree = xml.ElementTree(root)
#       with open(filename, "w") as fh:
#        tree.write(fh)

#--------------------------------------------------------
if __name__ == "__main__":
    createXML("info.xml")