Python - can a class act like a module?

Question

I'm considering a package implementation set up like this:

wordproc
 __init__.py
 _generic.py
 gedit.py
 oofice.py
 word.py

_generic.py would have a class like this:

class WordProc (object):
 def __init__ (self):
 pass
 def createNewDoc (self):
 print "createNewDoc unimplemented in current interface"
 def getWordCount (self):
 print "getWordCount unimplemented in current interface"
 etc...

These could print out as shown, or raise errors. App-specific modules would just be copies of _generic.py with the WordProc classes deriving from _generic.WordProc. In this way, functionality could be implemented iteratively over time, with messages about unimplemented things simply raising alerts.

I'm imagining that __init__.py could look for the following things (listed in order) to figure out which module to use:

1. a wordproc module variable
2. a settings file in the path
3. a wordproc environment variable
4. a function that attempts to determine the environment
5. a default in __init__.py (probably _generic.py)

I think 3 could be a function in each app's module, or these could go into folders with particularly named environment test scripts (e.g. env.py), and __init__.py could loop over them.

I'd like then in any libraries that want to use wordproc to simply be able to do this:

import wordproc as wp
wp.createNewDoc()
etc...

What I don't know is how to have wp resolve to the proper class in the proper module as determined by __init__.py. It doesn't make sense to do this:

import wordproc.gedit as wp

This destroys the point of having __init__.py determine which module in wordproc to use. I need something like class inheritance, but on the module level.

Answer 1

You can achieve your desired effect by writing __init__.py like this:

1. Import the appropriate module first. See python docs on importlib.import_module or __import__ for help on dynamic imports.
2. Instantiate the class from which you want to export methods
3. Assign the instance methods to locals()

# import appropriate module as mod depending on settings, environment
# using importlib.import_module, or __import__
__all__ = []
_instance = mod.WordProc()
for attr in dir(_instance):
 if not attr.startswith('_') and callable(getattr(_instance, attr)):
 locals()[attr] = getattr(_instance, attr)