My implementation of Panda3D's messager pattern

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My implementation of Panda3D's messager pattern

This is my implementation of the messager pattern used by Panda3D for event
handling. It's a really nice idea but I think Panda's version is implemented
weirdly, it uses the subscribe objects as keys in the dictionary. That means
that if you want more than one object to subscribe to the same message you have
to subclass DirectObject and use self.accept(...), can't just call the messager
directly or you'll get a different behaviour, it means that a single object
instance can't subscribe two different functions to the same message, and it
means that your objects have to be hashable (!) because the messager uses them
as keys in a dictionary. It seems to me that it would be much simpler if the
messager's dictionary just mapped message names to function objects, so that's
what I did.

Use this pattern when you have a lot of objects spread throughout the class
hierarchy that need to communicate with each other. It's a way of implementing
one-to-many or many-to-many communication, in which an object can send a message
to many receivers without needing to know who those receivers are, or how many
receivers there are, or even if there are any receivers (although an object can
potentially check all these things if it wants to). The singleton messager
object receives messages from broadcaster objects and forwards them to receiver
objects. Setup a single, simple, generic, system- wide messaging system, instead
of creating different systems for each different type of message or messaging
relation.

The disadvantage of just implementing this pattern once and using it everywhere
is that with lots of senders and receivers it might become difficult to
understand and debug message-based behaviour. Particularly if the order in which
messages are sent and received becomes important, when you send a message with
this pattern there's no way of knowing in what order the receiver objects will
receive the message, and therefore know way of knowing in what order their
responses will be executed, and those responses may include sending more
messages. You can implement some ordering relations by having an object receive
a message, deal with it, then send a different message to other recievers, but I
wouldn't want to overuse that.

Also you have to be careful to avoid clashes in message names.

The GoF Mediator and Observer patterns are similar in that they enable a mode of
communication between objects in which the sender object broadcasts a message
without needing to know all of the receiver objects, and the receiver objects
can receive messages without being tightly coupled to the sender object(s).

In the GoF Mediator pattern, the Mediator object is more than just a messager
that passes messages between other objects and leaves the behaviour up to the
others. The mediator actually encapsulates the interaction behaviour between
objects, deciding which methods to call on which objects each time it receives a
notification from an object. Mediator centralises control of how objects
cooperate in the mediator class, whereas the Messager pattern leaves this
control distributed throughout the objects themselves.

In the GoF observer pattern a one-to-many dependency is setup, there is no
separate Messager object but rather the sender object itself maintains the list
of reciever object and notifies them of new messages. With its separate messager
object the Messager pattern enables many-to-many dependencies as well as one-to-
many.

messager.py

"""
messager.py -- a simple message-passing pattern for one-many or many-many 
               dependencies. Useful for event notifications, for example.

To send a message use the singleton messager instance:

    from messager import messager

    messager.send('message name',argument)

You can pass a single argument with a message, and this argument can be anything
you like. For example, event objects that simply hold a number of attributes can
be constrcuted and passed as arguments with messages.
    
Messager maintains a mapping of message names to lists of functions (and their
arguments). When a message is sent, all of the functions subscribed to that
message are called and passed the argument given when the function was
subscribed followed by argument given when the message was sent. To subscribe a
function you must subclass Receiver and call the accept(...)  or acceptOnce(...) 
methods:

    self.accept('message name',function,argument)

    self.acceptOnce('message name',function,argument)

You don't need to call Receiver.__init__() when you subclass Receiver, it has no
__init__. Receiver works by maintaining a list of the message subscriptions you
have made.

It is up to you to make sure that functions that accept messages take the right
number of arguments, 0, 1 or 2 depending on whether the accept(...) and
send(...) methods were called with an argument or not.

To unsubscribe a function from a message name use ignore:

    # Unsubscribe a particular function from a particular message name.
    self.ignore('message name',function)

    # Unsubscribe all functions that this object has subscribed to a particular 
    # message name.
    self.ignore('message name')

    # Unsubscribe all functions that this object has subscribed to any message
    # name.
    self.ignoreAll()

You can unsubscribe all functions from all Receiver objects with:

    messager.clear()
        
If you do `messager.verbose = True` the messager will print whenever it
receives a message or subscription, and if you do `print messager` the messager
will print out a list of all the registered message names and their subscribers.

One last thing to be aware of is that messager keeps references to (functions
of) all objects that subscribe to accept messages. For an object to be deleted
it must unsubscribe all of its functions from all messages (the ignoreAll()
method will do this).

"""

class Messager:
    """Singleton messager object."""
   
    def __init__(self):
        """Initialise the dictionary mapping message names to lists of receiver 
        functions."""

        self.receivers = {}
        self.one_time_receivers = {}
        self.verbose = False

    def send(self,name,sender_arg=None):
        """Send a message with the given name and the given argument. All
        functions registered as receivers of this message name will be
        called."""
                
        if self.verbose:
            print 'Sending message',name
        
        if self.receivers.has_key(name):
            for receiver in self.receivers[name]:
                args = []
                if receiver['arg'] is not None:
                    args.append(receiver['arg'])
                if sender_arg is not None:
                    args.append(sender_arg)
                receiver['function'](*args)
                if self.verbose:
                    print '   received by',receiver['function']
        
        if self.one_time_receivers.has_key(name):
            for receiver in self.one_time_receivers[name]:
                args = []
                if receiver['arg'] is not None:
                    args.append(receiver['arg'])
                if sender_arg is not None:
                    args.append(sender_arg)
                receiver['function'](*args)
                if self.verbose:
                    print '   received by',receiver['function']
            del self.one_time_receivers[name]
    
    def _accept(self,name,function,arg=None):
        """Register with the messager to receive messages with the given name,
        messager will call the given function to notify of a message. The arg
        object given to accept will be passed to the given function first,
        followed by the arg object given to send by the sender object."""

        if not self.receivers.has_key(name):
            self.receivers[name] = []
        self.receivers[name].append({'function':function,'arg':arg})

        if self.verbose:
            print '',function,'subscribed to event',name,'with arg',arg
        
    def _acceptOnce(self,name,function,arg=None):
        """Register to receive the next instance only of a message with the
        given name."""

        if not self.one_time_receivers.has_key(name):
            self.one_time_receivers[name] = []
        self.one_time_receivers[name].append({'function':function,'arg':arg})

        if self.verbose:
            print '',function,'subscribed to event',name,'with arg',arg,'once only'
        
    def _ignore(self,name,function):
        """Unregister the given function from the given message name."""

        if self.receivers.has_key(name):        
            # FIXME: Could use a fancy list comprehension here.
            temp = []
            for receiver in self.receivers[name]:
                if receiver['function'] != function:
                    temp.append(receiver)            
            self.receivers[name] = temp

        if self.one_time_receivers.has_key(name):        
            temp = []
            for receiver in self.one_time_receivers[name]:
                if receiver['function'] != function:
                    temp.append(receiver)            
            self.one_time_receivers[name] = temp

        if self.verbose:
            print '',function,'unsubscribed from',name             
    
    def clear(self):
        """Clear all subscriptions with the messager."""
        
        self.receivers = {}
        self.one_time_receivers = {}
        
    def __str__(self):
        """Return a string showing which functions are registered with 
        which event names, useful for debugging."""
        
        string = 'Receivers:\n'
        string += self.receivers.__str__() + '\n'
        string += 'One time receivers:\n'
        string += self.one_time_receivers.__str__()
        return string

# Create the single instance of Messager.
messager = Messager()

class Receiver:
    """A class to inherit if you want to register with the messager to receive
    messages. You don't have to inherit this to register for messages, you can
    just call messager directly, but this class maintains a list of your message
    subscriptions and provides a handy ignoreAll() method, and an enhanced
    ignore(...) method."""
    
    def accept(self,name,function,arg=None):
        
        # We initialise subscriptions when we first need it, to avoid having an
        # __init__ method that subclasses would need to call.
        if not hasattr(self,'subscriptions'):
            self.subscriptions = []    
        
        messager._accept(name,function,arg)
        self.subscriptions.append((name,function))
        
    def acceptOnce(self,name,function,arg=None):

        if not hasattr(self,'subscriptions'):
            self.subscriptions = []    

        messager._acceptOnce(name,function,arg)
        self.subscriptions.append((name,function))
        
    def ignore(self,*args):

        if not hasattr(self,'subscriptions'):
            return

        if len(args) == 1:
            name = args[0]
            function = None
        elif len(args) == 2:
            name,function = args
        else:
            raise Exception('Wrong number of arguments to Receiver.ignore')

        if function is None:
            # Remove all of this object's function subscriptions to the given
            # message name.
            temp = []
            for subscription in self.subscriptions:
                n,f = subscription
                if n == name:
                    messager._ignore(n,f)
                else:
                    temp.append(subscription)
            self.subscriptions = temp
        else:
            # Remove the single subscription (name,function)
            messager._ignore(name,function)        
            self.subscriptions.remove((name,function))
        
    def ignoreAll(self):

        if not hasattr(self,'subscriptions'):
            return

        for subscription in self.subscriptions:
            messager._ignore(*subscription)
        self.subscriptions = []
                  
if __name__ == '__main__':

    pass

messager_test.py

"""Unit test for messager.py."""

from messager import messager, Receiver
import unittest

class Logger(Receiver):
    """An object that maintains a log, in self.log, of the order in which its
    methods foo and bar are called and the arguments that are passed to them.
    Each item in the list is a 2-tuple: the method that was called, and a tuple
    of the arguments that were passed to it."""
 
    def __init__(self):

        # FIXME: log should be a class variable that all instances log to. 
        self.log = []
 
    def foo(self,*args):

        self.log.append((self.foo,args))
 
    def bar(self,*args):
 
        self.log.append((self.bar,args))

class MessagerTest(unittest.TestCase):

    def setUp(self):
    
        self.logger = Logger()
        
    def tearDown(self):
        pass

    # Accepting and sending messages.
    def testMultipleAccept(self):
        """foo and bar are subscribed to message a, when a is sent both foo and
        bar should be called."""

        self.logger.accept('a',self.logger.foo)
        self.logger.accept('a',self.logger.bar)

        messager.send('a')
        # Two methods were called.
        self.assertEqual(len(self.logger.log),2)
        # foo was called once.
        count = self.logger.log.count((self.logger.foo,()))
        self.assertEqual(count,1)
        # bar was called once.
        count = self.logger.log.count((self.logger.bar,()))
        self.assertEqual(count,1)
        
    def testAcceptOnce(self):
        """foo is subscribed to message b once only, bar is subscribed to it
        permanently. If b is sent twice, foo and bar should be called the first
        time, only bar should be called the second time."""

        self.logger.acceptOnce('b',self.logger.foo)
        self.logger.accept('b',self.logger.bar)
        
        messager.send('b')
        # foo should have been called once.
        count = self.logger.log.count((self.logger.foo,()))
        self.assertEqual(count,1)
        # bar should have been called once.
        count = self.logger.log.count((self.logger.bar,()))
        self.assertEqual(count,1)
        messager.send('b')
        # foo should still have been called only once.
        count = self.logger.log.count(( self.logger.foo,()))
        self.assertEqual(count,1)
        # bar should now have been called twice.
        count = self.logger.log.count((self.logger.bar,()))
        self.assertEqual(count,2)

    # Ignoring messages.
    def testIgnore(self):
        """foo and bar are subscribed to c, after ignore(c,foo) only bar should
        be called when c is sent."""

        self.logger.accept('c',self.logger.foo)
        self.logger.accept('c',self.logger.bar)
        self.logger.ignore('c',self.logger.foo)
        messager.send('c')
        # Only one method should have been called.
        self.assertEqual(len(self.logger.log),1)
        # bar should have been called once.
        count = self.logger.log.count((self.logger.bar,()))
        self.assertEqual(count,1)

    def testIgnoreMessage(self):
        """foo and bar are subscribed to c, after ignore(c) neither foo nor bar
        should be called."""

        self.logger.accept('c',self.logger.foo)
        self.logger.accept('c',self.logger.bar)
        self.logger.ignore('c')
        messager.send('c')
        # No methods should have been called.
        self.assertEqual(self.logger.log,[])
      
    def testIgnoreAll(self):
        """After a Receiver object calls ignoreAll() no methods of this object
        should be called when any message is sent, but methods of other objects 
        should continue to be called."""

        self.logger.accept('d',self.logger.foo)
        self.logger.accept('e',self.logger.bar)
        second_logger = Logger()
        second_logger.accept('d',second_logger.foo)
        second_logger.accept('e',second_logger.bar)

        self.logger.ignoreAll()
        messager.send('d')
        messager.send('e')
        # No methods of logger should have been called.
        self.assertEqual(self.logger.log,[])
        # Two methods should have been called on second_logger.
        self.assertEqual(len(second_logger.log),2)
        # foo should have been called once.
        count = second_logger.log.count((second_logger.foo,()))
        self.assertEqual(count,1)
        # bar should have been called once.
        count = second_logger.log.count((second_logger.bar,()))
        self.assertEqual(count,1)

    # Clear.
    def testClear(self):
        """After clear has been called, sending a message should not result in
        any functions being called."""
        
        messager.clear()
        messager.send('a')
        messager.send('b')
        messager.send('c')
        # No methods should have been called.
        self.assertEqual(self.logger.log,[])

    # Sending with arguments.    
    def testSendWithTwoArguments(self):
        """If accept is called with an argument and then send is called with an
        argument (and the same message name) the function subscribed via accept
        should be called with accept's argument followed by send's argument."""
        
        self.logger.accept('f',self.logger.foo,'accepter arg')
        messager.send('f','sender arg')
        # One method should have been called.
        self.assertEqual(len(self.logger.log),1)
        # foo should have been called with the two arguments in the right order.
        count = self.logger.log.count((self.logger.foo,('accepter arg','sender arg')))        
        self.assertEqual(count,1)
        
    def testSendWithNoAccepterArgument(self):
        """If no argument is given to the accept method, but an argument is
        given to the send method, then the subscribed function(s) should be
        called with the send argument only."""
        
        self.logger.accept('foo',self.logger.foo)
        messager.send('foo','sender arg')
        # One method should have been called.
        self.assertEqual(len(self.logger.log),1)
        # foo should have been called with the right argument.
        count = self.logger.log.count((self.logger.foo,('sender arg',)))        
        self.assertEqual(count,1)

    def testSendWithNoSenderArgument(self):
        """If no argument is given to the send method, but an argument is given
        to the accept method, then the subscribed function(s) should be called
         with the accept argument only."""
        
        self.logger.accept('foo',self.logger.foo,'accepter arg')
        messager.send('foo')
        # One method should have been called.
        self.assertEqual(len(self.logger.log),1)
        # foo should have been called with the right argument.
        count = self.logger.log.count((self.logger.foo,('accepter arg',)))        
        self.assertEqual(count,1)
        
if __name__ == '__main__':
    unittest.main()