Used getattr() to simplify contrib.messages.api.

    Returns the message storage on the request if it exists, otherwise returns

    an empty list.

    """

    return request._messages if hasattr(request, '_messages') else []

    return getattr(request, '_messages', [])

def get_level(request):

    The default level is the ``MESSAGE_LEVEL`` setting. If this is not found,

    the ``INFO`` level is used.

    """

    storage = request._messages if hasattr(request, '_messages') else default_storage(request)

    storage = getattr(request, '_messages', default_storage(request))

    return storage.level