foo.py

  class WCMFTPUser(Base):
      """WCM FTP Users table"""
      __tablename__ = 'user'

      username = Column(String(50), nullable=False, unique=True)
      password = Column(String(255), nullable=False)
      uid = Column(Integer, primary_key=True, nullable=False)
      gid = Column(Integer, nullable=False)
      homedir = Column(String(1024), nullable=False, default='/var/www/content')
      shell = Column(String(255), nullable=False, default='/sbin/nologin')
      count = Column(Integer, nullable=False, default=0)
      last_login = Column(DateTime, nullable=True)

      def set_password(self, pw):
          """Hash a password for storage under ProFTPd

          Hash is sha512 stored in base64

          Does not accept NULL passwords!

          """
          if not pw or pw == '':
              raise ValueError
              return
          h = hashlib.sha512()
          h.update(pw)
          self.password = '{sha512}' + base64.b64encode(h.digest())


  def add_ftp_user(session, username, uid, gid, password, home=None,
                   shell=None):
      """Creates a user with the given attributes."""
      u = WCMFTPUser(username=username, uid=uid, gid=gid, password='',
                     homedir=home, shell=shell)
      u.set_password(password)
      try:
          session.add(u)
          session.commit()
      except:
          print 'Exception encountered!  User exists?'
          session.rollback()
          raise