Trying to understand Python classes and modules

Question

I am working on a simple IMAP client written in Python. Once I got an initial script working (in that I could download and show the user a list of mailboxes), I decided it was time to get the code more organized.

I broke up the IMAP related functions into a module name imap.py and the user-interaction + CUI related functions into a module name mail.py. I imported imap.py into mail.py, but when I try to call the imap_functions class I get a "name not defined" error. I'm confused, because I define the class imap_functions at the beginning of imap.py, which is, as I said, imported into the main script.

Below is the code for the two scripts:

# mail.py

import py_cui
import imap
#from itertools import chain


host = "imap.gmail.com"
username = "user@gmail.com"
password = "someappapassword"

imap_functions = imap_functions(host, username, password)

class Mail:

    def __init__(self, master):
        self.master = master

        # Creating widgets for mailbox list on left and message list onright


        # Make Mailbox widget and get a list of folders for account
        Mailboxes = self.master.add_scroll_menu('Mailboxes', 0, 0, row_span=6, column_span=1)
        Mailboxes.add_item_list(imap_functions.get_folders())

        # Make a Messages widget and get a list of messages based on the folder selected. 
        Messages = self.master.add_scroll_menu('Messages', 0, 1, row_span=6, column_span=4)
        # First select the folder
        # message_list = client....whatever method lists messages
        # Messages.add_item_list(message_list)






# Create the CUI with 7 rows 6 columns (may change later), pass it to the wrapper object, and start it
root = py_cui.PyCUI(7, 6)
root.set_title('Mail')
s = Mail(root)
imap_functions.login()
root.start()

and

### imap.py

import ssl
import imapclient
import email




class imap_functions:
    def __init__(self, host, username, password):
        self.host = host
        self.username = username
        self.password = password
        self.client = IMAPClient(host)


    def login(self, username, password):
        "Handling various auth protocols"
        #client.starttls() --- gmail does not support starttls
        client.login(username, password)
        return;

    def get_folders(self):
        "Grabbing the list of folders for the account"
        get_folders = client.list_folders()
        folder_list = []
        for folders in get_folders:
            folder_list.append(folders[2])
        return folder_list;



        #client.select_folder("INBOX")

Answer 1

You could either change the import to be

from imap import imap_functions

# ...

imap_functions = imap_functions(host, username, password)

Or as pointed out by @mkrieger1 you can access the class from the module by calling

import imap

# ...

imap_functions = imap.imap_functions(host, username, password)

I would also recommend changing the class name to ImapFunctions since snake_case is usually used for variables and functions. Ideally, you could change the name to something even nicer, like ImapClient but I guess that's a matter of choice and who will see your code besides you.