Class method decorator with self arguments?

How do I pass a class field to a decorator on a class method as an argument? What I want to do is something like:

class Client(object):
    def __init__(self, url):
        self.url = url

    @check_authorization("some_attr", self.url)
    def get(self):
        do_work()

It complains that self does not exist for passing self.url to the decorator. Is there a way around this?

Answers:

Thank you for visiting the Q&A section on Magenaut. Please note that all the answers may not help you solve the issue immediately. So please treat them as advisements. If you found the post helpful (or not), leave a comment & I’ll get back to you as soon as possible.

Method 1

Yes. Instead of passing in the instance attribute at class definition time, check it at runtime:

def check_authorization(f):
    def wrapper(*args):
        print args[0].url
        return f(*args)
    return wrapper

class Client(object):
    def __init__(self, url):
        self.url = url

    @check_authorization
    def get(self):
        print 'get'

>>> Client('http://www.google.com').get()
http://www.google.com
get

The decorator intercepts the method arguments; the first argument is the instance, so it reads the attribute off of that. You can pass in the attribute name as a string to the decorator and use getattr if you don’t want to hardcode the attribute name:

def check_authorization(attribute):
    def _check_authorization(f):
        def wrapper(self, *args):
            print getattr(self, attribute)
            return f(self, *args)
        return wrapper
    return _check_authorization

Method 2

A more concise example might be as follows:

#/usr/bin/env python3
from functools import wraps

def wrapper(method):
    @wraps(method)
    def _impl(self, *method_args, **method_kwargs):
        method_output = method(self, *method_args, **method_kwargs)
        return method_output + "!"
    return _impl

class Foo:
    @wrapper
    def bar(self, word):
        return word

f = Foo()
result = f.bar("kitty")
print(result)

Which will print:

kitty!

Method 3

from re import search
from functools import wraps

def is_match(_lambda, pattern):
    def wrapper(f):
        @wraps(f)
        def wrapped(self, *f_args, **f_kwargs):
            if callable(_lambda) and search(pattern, (_lambda(self) or '')): 
                f(self, *f_args, **f_kwargs)
        return wrapped
    return wrapper

class MyTest(object):

    def __init__(self):
        self.name = 'foo'
        self.surname = 'bar'

    @is_match(lambda x: x.name, 'foo')
    @is_match(lambda x: x.surname, 'foo')
    def my_rule(self):
        print 'my_rule : ok'

    @is_match(lambda x: x.name, 'foo')
    @is_match(lambda x: x.surname, 'bar')
    def my_rule2(self):
        print 'my_rule2 : ok'



test = MyTest()
test.my_rule()
test.my_rule2()

ouput:
my_rule2 : ok

Method 4

Another option would be to abandon the syntactic sugar and decorate in the __init__ of the class.

def countdown(number):
    def countdown_decorator(func):
        def func_wrapper():
            for index in reversed(range(1, number+1)):
                print(index)
            func()
        return func_wrapper
    return countdown_decorator

class MySuperClass():
    def __init__(self, number):
        self.number = number
        self.do_thing = countdown(number)(self.do_thing)
    
    def do_thing(self):
        print('im doing stuff!')


myclass = MySuperClass(3)

myclass.do_thing()

which would print

3
2
1
im doing stuff!

Method 5

I know this issue is quite old, but the below workaround hasn’t been proposed before. The problem here is that you can’t access self in a class block, but you can in a class method.

Let’s create a dummy decorator to repeat a function some times.

import functools
def repeat(num_rep):
    def decorator_repeat(func):
        @functools.wraps(func)
        def wrapper_repeat(*args, **kwargs):
            for _ in range(num_rep):
                value = func(*args, **kwargs)
            return 
        return wrapper_repeat
    return decorator_repeat
class A:
    def __init__(self, times, name):
        self.times = times
        self.name = name
    
    def get_name(self):
        @repeat(num_rep=self.times)
        def _get_name():
            print(f'Hi {self.name}')
        _get_name()

Method 6

You can’t. There’s no self in the class body, because no instance exists. You’d need to pass it, say, a str containing the attribute name to lookup on the instance, which the returned function can then do, or use a different method entirely.

Method 7

I know this is an old question, but this solution has not been mentioned yet, hopefully it may help someone even today, after 8 years.

So, what about wrapping a wrapper? Let’s assume one cannot change the decorator neither decorate those methods in init (they may be @property decorated or whatever). There is always a possibility to create custom, class-specific decorator that will capture self and subsequently call the original decorator, passing runtime attribute to it.

Here is a working example (f-strings require python 3.6):

import functools

# imagine this is at some different place and cannot be changed
def check_authorization(some_attr, url):
        def decorator(func):
                @functools.wraps(func)
                def wrapper(*args, **kwargs):
                        print(f"checking authorization for '{url}'...")
                        return func(*args, **kwargs)
                return wrapper
        return decorator

# another dummy function to make the example work
def do_work():
        print("work is done...")

###################
# wrapped wrapper #
###################
def custom_check_authorization(some_attr):
        def decorator(func):
                # assuming this will be used only on this particular class
                @functools.wraps(func)
                def wrapper(self, *args, **kwargs):
                        # get url
                        url = self.url
                        # decorate function with original decorator, pass url
                        return check_authorization(some_attr, url)(func)(self, *args, **kwargs)
                return wrapper
        return decorator
        
#############################
# original example, updated #
#############################
class Client(object):
        def __init__(self, url):
                self.url = url
    
        @custom_check_authorization("some_attr")
        def get(self):
                do_work()

# create object
client = Client(r"https://stackoverflow.com/questions/11731136/class-method-decorator-with-self-arguments")

# call decorated function
client.get()

output:

checking authorisation for 'https://stackoverflow.com/questions/11731136/class-method-decorator-with-self-arguments'...
work is done...

Method 8

It will be very useful to have a general-purpose utility, that can turn any decorator for functions, into decorator for methods. I thought about it for an hour, and actually come up with one:

from typing import Callable
Decorator = Callable[[Callable], Callable]

def decorate_method(dec_for_function: Decorator) -> Decorator:

    def dec_for_method(unbounded_method) -> Callable:
        # here, `unbounded_method` will be a unbounded function, whose
        # invokation must have its first arg as a valid `self`. When it 
        # return, it also must return an unbounded method.
        def decorated_unbounded_method(self, *args, **kwargs):
            @dec_for_function
            def bounded_method(*args, **kwargs):
                return unbounded_method(self, *args, **kwargs)
            return bounded_method(*args, **kwargs)

        return decorated_unbounded_method

    return dec_for_method

The usage is:

# for any decorator (with or without arguments)
@some_decorator_with_arguments(1, 2, 3)
def xyz(...): ...

# use it on a method:
class ABC:
  @decorate_method(some_decorator_with_arguments(1, 2, 3))
  def xyz(self, ...): ...

Test:

def dec_for_add(fn):
    """This decorator expects a function: (x,y) -> int.

    If you use it on a method (self, x, y) -> int, it will fail at runtime.
    """
    print(f"decorating: {fn}")
    def add_fn(x,y):
        print(f"Adding {x} + {y} by using {fn}")
        return fn(x,y)
    return add_fn


@dec_for_add
def add(x,y):
    return x+y

add(1,2)  # OK!


class A:
    @dec_for_add
    def f(self, x, y):
        # ensure `self` is still a valid instance
        assert isinstance(self, A)
        return x+y

# TypeError: add_fn() takes 2 positional arguments but 3 were given
# A().f(1,2)
    

class A:
    @decorate_method(dec_for_add)
    def f(self, x, y):
        # ensure `self` is still a valid instance
        assert isinstance(self, A)
        return x+y

# Now works!!
A().f(1,2)


All methods was sourced from stackoverflow.com or stackexchange.com, is licensed under cc by-sa 2.5, cc by-sa 3.0 and cc by-sa 4.0

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