code: def get_class(classname):
      
      parts = classname.split('.')
      module = ".".join(parts[:-1])
      m = __import__(module)
      for comp in parts[1:]:
          m = getattr(m, comp)
      return m
docs: Returns the class object associated with the dot-notation classname.
  
      Taken from here: http://stackoverflow.com/a/452981
  
      :param classname: the classname
      :type classname: str
      :return: the class object
      :rtype: object