Event system in Python

Question

What event system for Python do you use? I'm already aware of pydispatcher, but I was wondering what else can be found, or is commonly used?

I'm not interested in event managers that are part of large frameworks, I'd rather use a small bare-bones solution that I can easily extend.

Answer 1

I've been doing it this way:

class Event(list):
    """Event subscription.

    A list of callable objects. Calling an instance of this will cause a
    call to each item in the list in ascending order by index.

    Example Usage:
    >>> def f(x):
    ...     print 'f(%s)' % x
    >>> def g(x):
    ...     print 'g(%s)' % x
    >>> e = Event()
    >>> e()
    >>> e.append(f)
    >>> e(123)
    f(123)
    >>> e.remove(f)
    >>> e()
    >>> e += (f, g)
    >>> e(10)
    f(10)
    g(10)
    >>> del e[0]
    >>> e(2)
    g(2)

    """
    def __call__(self, *args, **kwargs):
        for f in self:
            f(*args, **kwargs)

    def __repr__(self):
        return "Event(%s)" % list.__repr__(self)

However, like with everything else I've seen, there is no auto generated pydoc for this, and no signatures, which really sucks.

Answer 2

If I do code in pyQt I use QT sockets/signals paradigm, same is for django

If I'm doing async I/O I use native select module

If I'm usign a SAX python parser I'm using event API provided by SAX. So it looks like I'm victim of underlying API :-)

Maybe you should ask yourself what do you expect from event framework/module. My personal preference is to use Socket/Signal paradigm from QT. more info about that can be found here

Answer 3

You can try buslane module.

This library makes implementation of message-based system easier. It supports commands (single handler) and events (0 or multiple handlers) approach. Buslane uses Python type annotations to properly register handler.

Simple example:

from dataclasses import dataclass

from buslane.commands import Command, CommandHandler, CommandBus


@dataclass(frozen=True)
class RegisterUserCommand(Command):
    email: str
    password: str


class RegisterUserCommandHandler(CommandHandler[RegisterUserCommand]):

    def handle(self, command: RegisterUserCommand) -> None:
        assert command == RegisterUserCommand(
            email='[e-mail]',
            password='secret',
        )


command_bus = CommandBus()
command_bus.register(handler=RegisterUserCommandHandler())
command_bus.execute(command=RegisterUserCommand(
    email='[e-mail]',
    password='secret',
))

To install buslane, simply use pip:

$ pip install buslane

Answer 4

We use an EventHook as suggested from Michael Foord in his Event Pattern:

Just add EventHooks to your classes with:

class MyBroadcaster()
    def __init__():
        self.onChange = EventHook()

theBroadcaster = MyBroadcaster()

# add a listener to the event
theBroadcaster.onChange += myFunction

# remove listener from the event
theBroadcaster.onChange -= myFunction

# fire event
theBroadcaster.onChange.fire()

We add the functionality to remove all listener from an object to Michaels class and ended up with this:

class EventHook(object):

    def __init__(self):
        self.__handlers = []

    def __iadd__(self, handler):
        self.__handlers.append(handler)
        return self

    def __isub__(self, handler):
        self.__handlers.remove(handler)
        return self

    def fire(self, *args, **keywargs):
        for handler in self.__handlers:
            handler(*args, **keywargs)

    def clearObjectHandlers(self, inObject):
        for theHandler in self.__handlers:
            if theHandler.im_self == inObject:
                self -= theHandler

Answer 5

I found this small script on Valued Lessons. It seems to have just the right simplicity/power ratio I'm after. Peter Thatcher is the author of following code (no licensing is mentioned).

class Event:
    def __init__(self):
        self.handlers = set()

    def handle(self, handler):
        self.handlers.add(handler)
        return self

    def unhandle(self, handler):
        try:
            self.handlers.remove(handler)
        except:
            raise ValueError("Handler is not handling this event, so cannot unhandle it.")
        return self

    def fire(self, *args, **kargs):
        for handler in self.handlers:
            handler(*args, **kargs)

    def getHandlerCount(self):
        return len(self.handlers)

    __iadd__ = handle
    __isub__ = unhandle
    __call__ = fire
    __len__  = getHandlerCount

class MockFileWatcher:
    def __init__(self):
        self.fileChanged = Event()

    def watchFiles(self):
        source_path = "foo"
        self.fileChanged(source_path)

def log_file_change(source_path):
    print "%r changed." % (source_path,)

def log_file_change2(source_path):
    print "%r changed!" % (source_path,)

watcher              = MockFileWatcher()
watcher.fileChanged += log_file_change2
watcher.fileChanged += log_file_change
watcher.fileChanged -= log_file_change2
watcher.watchFiles()

Answer 6

If you wanted to do more complicated things like merging events or retry you can use the Observable pattern and a mature library that implements that. https://github.com/ReactiveX/RxPY . Observables are very common in Javascript and Java and very convenient to use for some async tasks.

from rx import Observable, Observer


def push_five_strings(observer):
        observer.on_next("Alpha")
        observer.on_next("Beta")
        observer.on_next("Gamma")
        observer.on_next("Delta")
        observer.on_next("Epsilon")
        observer.on_completed()


class PrintObserver(Observer):

    def on_next(self, value):
        print("Received {0}".format(value))

    def on_completed(self):
        print("Done!")

    def on_error(self, error):
        print("Error Occurred: {0}".format(error))

source = Observable.create(push_five_strings)

source.subscribe(PrintObserver())

OUTPUT:

Received Alpha
Received Beta
Received Gamma
Received Delta
Received Epsilon
Done!