zope.deferredimport 3.4dev

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zope.deferredimport
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Often, especially for package modules, you want to import names for
convenience, but not actually perform the imports until necessary.
The zope.deferredimport package provided facilities for defining names
in modules that will be imported from somewhere else when used. You
can also cause deprecation warnings to be issued when a variable is
used.

.. contents::

Releases
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==================
1.0 (2007/02/18)
==================

Initial public release zope.deferredimport

Detailed Documentation
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Deferred Import
===============

Often, especially for package modules, you want to import names for
convenience, but not actually perform the imports until necessary.
The zope.deferredimport package provided facilities for defining names
in modules that will be imported from somewhere else when used. You
can also cause deprecation warnings to be issued when a variable is
used, but we'll get to that later.

The zope.deferredimport.define function can be used to define one or
more names to be imported when they are accessed. Simply provide
names as keyword arguments with import specifiers as values. The
import specifiers are given as strings of the form "module:name",
where module is the dotted name of the module and name is a, possibly
dotted, name of an object within the module.

To see how this works, we'll create some sample modules within the
zope.deferredimport package. We'll actually use a helper function
specific to this document to define the modules inline so we can
easily see what's in them. Let's start by defining a module, sample1,
that defined some things to be imported:

>>> create_module(sample1 = '''
...
... print "Sampe 1 imported!"
...
... x = 1
...
... class C:
... y = 2
...
... z = 3
... q = 4
...
... ''')

Note that the module starts by printing a message. This allows us to
see when the module is actually imported. Now, let's define a module
that imports some names from this module:


>>> create_module(sample2 = '''
...
... import zope.deferredimport
...
... zope.deferredimport.define(
... sample1 = 'zope.deferredimport.sample1',
... one = 'zope.deferredimport.sample1:x',
... two = 'zope.deferredimport.sample1:C.y',
... )
...
... three = 3
... x = 4
... def getx():
... return x
...
... ''')


In this example, we defined the name 'sample1' as the module
zope.deferredimport.sample1. The module isn't imported immediately,
but will be imported when needed. Similarly, the name 'one' is
defined as the 'x' attribute of sample1.

The sample1 module prints a message when it is
imported. When we import sample2, we don't see a message until we
access a variable:

>>> import zope.deferredimport.sample2
>>> print zope.deferredimport.sample2.one
Sampe 1 imported!
1

>>> import zope.deferredimport.sample1

>>> zope.deferredimport.sample2.sample1 is zope.deferredimport.sample1
True

Note that a deferred attribute appears in a module's dictionary *after*
it is accessed the first time:

>>> 'two' in zope.deferredimport.sample2.__dict__
False

>>> zope.deferredimport.sample2.two
2

>>> 'two' in zope.deferredimport.sample2.__dict__
True

When deferred imports are used, the original module is replaced with a
proxy.

>>> type(zope.deferredimport.sample2)
<class 'zope.deferredimport.deferredmodule.ModuleProxy'>

But we can use the proxy just like the original. We can even update
it.

>>> zope.deferredimport.sample2.x=5
>>> zope.deferredimport.sample2.getx()
5

And the inspect module thinks it's a module:

>>> import inspect
>>> inspect.ismodule(zope.deferredimport.sample2)
True


In the example above, the modules were fairly simple. Let's look at a
more complicated example.

>>> create_module(sample3 = '''
...
... import zope.deferredimport
... import zope.deferredimport.sample4
...
... zope.deferredimport.define(
... sample1 = 'zope.deferredimport.sample1',
... one = 'zope.deferredimport.sample1:x',
... two = 'zope.deferredimport.sample1:C.y',
... )
...
... x = 1
...
... ''')

>>> create_module(sample4 = '''
...
... import sample3
...
... def getone():
... return sample3.one
...
... ''')

Here, we have a circular import between sample3 and sample4. When
sample3 is imported, it imports sample 4, which then imports sample3.
Let's see what happens when we use these modules in an unfortunate
order:

>>> import zope.deferredimport.sample3
>>> import zope.deferredimport.sample4

>>> zope.deferredimport.sample4.getone()
Traceback (most recent call last):
...
AttributeError: 'module' object has no attribute 'one'

Hm. Let's try accessing one through sample3:

>>> zope.deferredimport.sample3.one
1

Funny, let's try getone again:

>>> zope.deferredimport.sample4.getone()
1

The problem is that sample4 obtained sample3 before sample4 was
replaced by a proxy. This example is slightly pathalogical because it
requires a circular import and a relative import, but the bug
introduced is very subtle. To guard against this, you should define
defered imports ebfore importing any other modules. Alternatively,
you can call the initialize fuction before importing any other
modules, as in:


>>> create_module(sample5 = '''
...
... import zope.deferredimport
... zope.deferredimport.initialize()
...
... import zope.deferredimport.sample6
...
... zope.deferredimport.define(
... sample1 = 'zope.deferredimport.sample1',
... one = 'zope.deferredimport.sample1:x',
... two = 'zope.deferredimport.sample1:C.y',
... )
...
... x = 1
...
... ''')

>>> create_module(sample6 = '''
...
... import sample5
...
... def getone():
... return sample5.one
...
... ''')

>>> import zope.deferredimport.sample5
>>> import zope.deferredimport.sample6

>>> zope.deferredimport.sample6.getone()
1


Deprecation
-----------

Deferred attributes can also be marked as deprecated, in which case, a
message will be printed the first time they are accessed.

Lets define a module that has deprecated attributes defined as
deferred imports:

>>> create_module(sample7 = '''
...
... import zope.deferredimport
... zope.deferredimport.initialize()
...
... zope.deferredimport.deprecated(
... "Import from sample1 instead",
... x = 'zope.deferredimport.sample1:x',
... y = 'zope.deferredimport.sample1:C.y',
... z = 'zope.deferredimport.sample1:z',
... )
...
... ''')

Now, if we use one of these variables, we'll get a deprecation
warning:

>>> import zope.deferredimport.sample7
>>> zope.deferredimport.sample7.x
... doctest: +NORMALIZE_WHITESPACE
zope/deferredimport/README.txt:1: DeprecationWarning:
x is deprecated. Import from sample1 instead
Deferred Import
1

but only the first time:

>>> zope.deferredimport.sample7.x
1

Importing multiple names from the same module
---------------------------------------------

Sometimes, you want to get multiple things from the same module. You
can use defineFrom or deprecatedFrom to do that:


>>> create_module(sample8 = '''
...
... import zope.deferredimport
...
... zope.deferredimport.deprecatedFrom(
... "Import from sample1 instead",
... 'zope.deferredimport.sample1',
... 'x', 'z', 'q',
... )
...
... zope.deferredimport.defineFrom(
... 'zope.deferredimport.sample9',
... 'a', 'b', 'c',
... )
...
... ''')

>>> create_module(sample9 = '''
... print 'Imported sample 9'
... a, b, c = range(10,13)
... ''')

>>> import zope.deferredimport.sample8
>>> zope.deferredimport.sample8.q
... doctest: +NORMALIZE_WHITESPACE
zope/deferredimport/README.txt:1: DeprecationWarning:
q is deprecated. Import from sample1 instead
Deferred Import
4

>>> zope.deferredimport.sample8.c
Imported sample 9
12

Note, as in the example above, that you can make multiple
deferred-import calls in a module.

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