Python Observer Pattern: Examples, Tips? [closed]

Answer 1

Based on Jason's answer, I implemented the C#-like events example as a fully-fledged python module including documentation and tests. I love fancy pythonic stuff :)

So, if you want some ready-to-use solution, you can just use the code on github.

Answer 2

How about an implementation where objects aren't kept alive just because they're observing something? Below please find an implementation of the observer pattern with the following features:

1. Usage is pythonic. To add an observer to a bound method .bar of instance foo, just do foo.bar.addObserver(observer).
2. Observers are not kept alive by virtue of being observers. In other words, the observer code uses no strong references.
3. No sub-classing necessary (descriptors ftw).
4. Can be used with unhashable types.
5. Can be used as many times you want in a single class.
6. (bonus) As of today the code exists in a proper downloadable, installable package on github.

Here's the code (the github package or PyPI package have the most up to date implementation):

import weakref
import functools

class ObservableMethod(object):
    """
    A proxy for a bound method which can be observed.

    I behave like a bound method, but other bound methods can subscribe to be
    called whenever I am called.
    """

    def __init__(self, obj, func):
        self.func = func
        functools.update_wrapper(self, func)
        self.objectWeakRef = weakref.ref(obj)
        self.callbacks = {}  #observing object ID -> weak ref, methodNames

    def addObserver(self, boundMethod):
        """
        Register a bound method to observe this ObservableMethod.

        The observing method will be called whenever this ObservableMethod is
        called, and with the same arguments and keyword arguments. If a
        boundMethod has already been registered to as a callback, trying to add
        it again does nothing. In other words, there is no way to sign up an
        observer to be called back multiple times.
        """
        obj = boundMethod.__self__
        ID = id(obj)
        if ID in self.callbacks:
            s = self.callbacks[ID][1]
        else:
            wr = weakref.ref(obj, Cleanup(ID, self.callbacks))
            s = set()
            self.callbacks[ID] = (wr, s)
        s.add(boundMethod.__name__)

    def discardObserver(self, boundMethod):
        """
        Un-register a bound method.
        """
        obj = boundMethod.__self__
        if id(obj) in self.callbacks:
            self.callbacks[id(obj)][1].discard(boundMethod.__name__)

    def __call__(self, *arg, **kw):
        """
        Invoke the method which I proxy, and all of it's callbacks.

        The callbacks are called with the same *args and **kw as the main
        method.
        """
        result = self.func(self.objectWeakRef(), *arg, **kw)
        for ID in self.callbacks:
            wr, methodNames = self.callbacks[ID]
            obj = wr()
            for methodName in methodNames:
                getattr(obj, methodName)(*arg, **kw)
        return result

    @property
    def __self__(self):
        """
        Get a strong reference to the object owning this ObservableMethod

        This is needed so that ObservableMethod instances can observe other
        ObservableMethod instances.
        """
        return self.objectWeakRef()


class ObservableMethodDescriptor(object):

    def __init__(self, func):
        """
        To each instance of the class using this descriptor, I associate an
        ObservableMethod.
        """
        self.instances = {}  # Instance id -> (weak ref, Observablemethod)
        self._func = func

    def __get__(self, inst, cls):
        if inst is None:
            return self
        ID = id(inst)
        if ID in self.instances:
            wr, om = self.instances[ID]
            if not wr():
                msg = "Object id %d should have been cleaned up"%(ID,)
                raise RuntimeError(msg)
        else:
            wr = weakref.ref(inst, Cleanup(ID, self.instances))
            om = ObservableMethod(inst, self._func)
            self.instances[ID] = (wr, om)
        return om

    def __set__(self, inst, val):
        raise RuntimeError("Assigning to ObservableMethod not supported")


def event(func):
    return ObservableMethodDescriptor(func)


class Cleanup(object):
    """
    I manage remove elements from a dict whenever I'm called.

    Use me as a weakref.ref callback to remove an object's id from a dict
    when that object is garbage collected.
    """
    def __init__(self, key, d):
        self.key = key
        self.d = d

    def __call__(self, wr):
        del self.d[self.key]

To use this we just decorate methods we want to make observable with @event. Here's an example

class Foo(object):
    def __init__(self, name):
        self.name = name

    @event
    def bar(self):
        print("%s called bar"%(self.name,))

    def baz(self):
        print("%s called baz"%(self.name,))

a = Foo('a')
b = Foo('b')
a.bar.addObserver(b.bar)
a.bar()

Answer 3

I think people in the other answers overdo it. You can easily achieve events in Python with less than 15 lines of code.

You simple have two classes: Event and Observer. Any class that wants to listen for an event, needs to inherit Observer and set to listen (observe) for a specific event. When an Event is instantiated and fired, all observers listening to that event will run the specified callback functions.

class Observer():
    _observers = []
    def __init__(self):
        self._observers.append(self)
        self._observables = {}
    def observe(self, event_name, callback):
        self._observables[event_name] = callback


class Event():
    def __init__(self, name, data, autofire = True):
        self.name = name
        self.data = data
        if autofire:
            self.fire()
    def fire(self):
        for observer in Observer._observers:
            if self.name in observer._observables:
                observer._observables[self.name](self.data)

Example:

class Room(Observer):

    def __init__(self):
        print("Room is ready.")
        Observer.__init__(self) # Observer's init needs to be called
    def someone_arrived(self, who):
        print(who + " has arrived!")

room = Room()
room.observe('someone arrived',  room.someone_arrived)

Event('someone arrived', 'Lenard')

Output:

Room is ready.
Lenard has arrived!

Answer 4

However it does lack flexibility.

Well... actually, this looks like a good design to me if an asynchronous API is what you want. It usually is. Maybe all you need is to switch from stderr to Python's logging module, which has a sort of publish/subscribe model of its own, what with Logger.addHandler() and so on.

If you do want to support observers, my advice is to keep it simple. You really only need a few lines of code.

class Event(object):
    pass

class Observable(object):
    def __init__(self):
        self.callbacks = []
    def subscribe(self, callback):
        self.callbacks.append(callback)
    def fire(self, **attrs):
        e = Event()
        e.source = self
        for k, v in attrs.iteritems():
            setattr(e, k, v)
        for fn in self.callbacks:
            fn(e)

Your Job class can subclass Observable. When something of interest happens, call self.fire(type="progress", percent=50) or the like.

Answer 5

A functional approach to observer design:

def add_listener(obj, method_name, listener):

    # Get any existing listeners
    listener_attr = method_name + '_listeners'
    listeners = getattr(obj, listener_attr, None)

    # If this is the first listener, then set up the method wrapper
    if not listeners:

        listeners = [listener]
        setattr(obj, listener_attr, listeners)

        # Get the object's method
        method = getattr(obj, method_name)

        @wraps(method)
        def method_wrapper(*args, **kwags):
            method(*args, **kwags)
            for l in listeners:
                l(obj, *args, **kwags) # Listener also has object argument

        # Replace the original method with the wrapper
        setattr(obj, method_name, method_wrapper)

    else:
        # Event is already set up, so just add another listener
        listeners.append(listener)


def remove_listener(obj, method_name, listener):

    # Get any existing listeners
    listener_attr = method_name + '_listeners'
    listeners = getattr(obj, listener_attr, None)

    if listeners:
        # Remove the listener
        next((listeners.pop(i)
              for i, l in enumerate(listeners)
              if l == listener),
             None)

        # If this was the last listener, then remove the method wrapper
        if not listeners:
            method = getattr(obj, method_name)
            delattr(obj, listener_attr)
            setattr(obj, method_name, method.__wrapped__)

These methods can then be used to add a listener to any class method. For example:

class MyClass(object):

    def __init__(self, prop):
        self.prop = prop

    def some_method(self, num, string):
        print('method:', num, string)

def listener_method(obj, num, string):
    print('listener:', num, string, obj.prop)

my = MyClass('my_prop')

add_listener(my, 'some_method', listener_method)
my.some_method(42, 'with listener')

remove_listener(my, 'some_method', listener_method)
my.some_method(42, 'without listener')

And the output is:

method: 42 with listener
listener: 42 with listener my_prop
method: 42 without listener

Answer 6

OP asks "Are there any exemplary examples of the GoF Observer implemented in Python?" This is an example in Python 3.7. This Observable class meets the requirement of creating a relationship between one observable and many observers while remaining independent of their structure.

from functools import partial
from dataclasses import dataclass, field
import sys
from typing import List, Callable


@dataclass
class Observable:
    observers: List[Callable] = field(default_factory=list)

    def register(self, observer: Callable):
        self.observers.append(observer)

    def deregister(self, observer: Callable):
        self.observers.remove(observer)

    def notify(self, *args, **kwargs):
        for observer in self.observers:
            observer(*args, **kwargs)


def usage_demo():
    observable = Observable()

    # Register two anonymous observers using lambda.
    observable.register(
        lambda *args, **kwargs: print(f'Observer 1 called with args={args}, kwargs={kwargs}'))
    observable.register(
        lambda *args, **kwargs: print(f'Observer 2 called with args={args}, kwargs={kwargs}'))

    # Create an observer function, register it, then deregister it.
    def callable_3():
        print('Observer 3 NOT called.')

    observable.register(callable_3)
    observable.deregister(callable_3)

    # Create a general purpose observer function and register four observers.
    def callable_x(*args, **kwargs):
        print(f'{args[0]} observer called with args={args}, kwargs={kwargs}')

    for gui_field in ['Form field 4', 'Form field 5', 'Form field 6', 'Form field 7']:
        observable.register(partial(callable_x, gui_field))

    observable.notify('test')


if __name__ == '__main__':
    sys.exit(usage_demo())