def splitPrefix(name):
 if (isinstance(name, basestring) and (':' in name)):
  return tuple(name.split(':', 1))
 else:
  return (None, name)

def splitPrefix ( name ) : if ( isinstance ( name , basestring ) and ( ':' in name ) ) : return tuple ( name . split ( ':' , 1 ) ) else : return ( None , name )
split the name into a tuple .