address @andynemzek comments

api/api.py

@@ -27,7 +27,7 @@ routing_regexes = {
     # site id regex
     # length less than 24 characters
     # allowed characters are [0-9a-z]
-    'site_re': '[0-9a-z]{0,24}',
+    'site_id_re': '[0-9a-z]{0,24}',
     # user id regex
     # any length, allowed chars are [0-9a-z.@_-]
     'user_id_re': '[0-9a-z.@_-]*',
@@ -76,7 +76,7 @@ routes = [
     webapp2.Route(_format(r'/api/groups/<_id:{group_id_re}>'),      grouphandler.GroupHandler, name='group'),
 
     webapp2.Route(_format(r'/api/<cont_name:groups>/<cid:{group_id_re}>/<list_name:roles>'),                                        listhandler.ListHandler, name='group'),
-    webapp2.Route(_format(r'/api/<cont_name:groups>/<cid:{group_id_re}>/<list_name:roles>/<site:{site_re}>/<_id:{user_id_re}>'),    listhandler.ListHandler, name='group', methods=['GET', 'PUT', 'DELETE']),
+    webapp2.Route(_format(r'/api/<cont_name:groups>/<cid:{group_id_re}>/<list_name:roles>/<site:{site_id_re}>/<_id:{user_id_re}>'),    listhandler.ListHandler, name='group', methods=['GET', 'PUT', 'DELETE']),
 
     webapp2.Route(_format(r'/api/<cont_name:{cont_name_re}>/<cid:{cid_re}>/<list_name:tags>'),                                      listhandler.ListHandler, methods=['POST'], name='tags_post'),
     webapp2.Route(_format(r'/api/<cont_name:{cont_name_re}>/<cid:{cid_re}>/<list_name:tags>/<value:{tag_re}>'),                     listhandler.ListHandler, name='tags'),
@@ -85,7 +85,7 @@ routes = [
     webapp2.Route(_format(r'/api/<cont_name:{cont_name_re}>/<cid:{cid_re}>/<list_name:files>/<filename:{filename_re}>'),            listhandler.FileListHandler, name='files'),
 
     webapp2.Route(_format(r'/api/<cont_name:collections|projects>/<cid:{cid_re}>/<list_name:permissions>'),                                     listhandler.PermissionsListHandler, name='perms_post', methods=['POST']),
-    webapp2.Route(_format(r'/api/<cont_name:collections|projects>/<cid:{cid_re}>/<list_name:permissions>/<site:{site_re}>/<_id:{user_id_re}>'), listhandler.PermissionsListHandler, name='perms'),
+    webapp2.Route(_format(r'/api/<cont_name:collections|projects>/<cid:{cid_re}>/<list_name:permissions>/<site:{site_id_re}>/<_id:{user_id_re}>'), listhandler.PermissionsListHandler, name='perms'),
 
     webapp2.Route(_format(r'/api/<cont_name:{cont_name_re}>/<cid:{cid_re}>/<list_name:notes>'),                                     listhandler.NotesListHandler, name='notes_post', methods=['POST']),
     webapp2.Route(_format(r'/api/<cont_name:{cont_name_re}>/<cid:{cid_re}>/<list_name:notes>/<_id:{note_id_re}>'),                  listhandler.NotesListHandler, name='notes'),

api/mongo.py

+import time
+import logging
 import pymongo
 import datetime
-import time
+
+log = logging.getLogger('scitran.api')
 
 db = None
 
 
 def configure_db(db_uri, site_id, site_name, api_uri):
     global db
-    for i in range(0,3):
+    for i in range(3):
         try:
             db = pymongo.MongoClient(db_uri).get_default_database()
             # TODO jobs indexes
@@ -28,5 +31,6 @@ def configure_db(db_uri, site_id, site_name, api_uri):
             return
         except Exception as e:
             db = None
-            time.sleep(5)
+            log.warning('DB not available...trying again in {} seconds'.format((i + 1) * 2))
+            time.sleep((i + 1) * 2)
     raise e

api/validators.py

@@ -108,7 +108,10 @@ def key_check(handler, schema_file):
     for sublists of mongo container there is no automatic key check when creating, updating or deleting an object.
     We are adding a custom array field to the json schemas ("key_fields").
     The uniqueness is checked on the combination of all the elements of "key_fields".
-    For an example check api/schemas/input/permission.json
+
+    For an example check api/schemas/input/permission.json:
+    The key fields are the _id and the site. Uniqueness is checked on the combination
+    of the values of the _id and the site of the permissions.
 
     So this method ensures that:
     1. after a POST and PUT request we don't have two items with the same values for the key set