Gufo Loader

Generic Python class loader for robust plugin infrastructure.

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Documentation: https://docs.gufolabs.com/gufo_loader/

Source Code: https://github.com/gufolabs/gufo_loader/

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Loader delivers plugins from one or many plugin packages.

Loader

Loader is the dict-like singleton providing the following services:

• plugin initialization and fetching.
• plugins enumeration.

Plugins are not dependent on the loader and do not need any registration process. The loaders are lazy by nature, meaning the plugin will be imported and initialized just in time when the user code requests the plugin.

Plugins

Plugins are named entities dedicated to the given task. Each plugin is defined in its python module. Depending on the loader settings plugins can be:

• Instances: Singleton instances having the class as the ancestor.
• Subclasses: Classes having the common ancestor.
• Protocols: Classes following the set of methods.

Plugin Packages

Plugin packages are plain Python packages: the directory containing python files with plugins and the empty __init__.py file.

Plugin name must match the module name. For example, module my_plugin.py will define the plugin my_plugin.

Examples:

Plugins as the subclasses:

    loader = Loader[Type[BasePlugin]](base="myproject.plugins")

Plugins as the singletones:

    loader = Loader[BasePlugin](base="myproject.plugins")

Plugins as the protocols:

    loader = Loader[MyProtocol](base="myproject.plugins")

Virtues

• Clean dict-like API.
• Full abstraction from the plugin internals.
• Custom plugins.
• Full Python typing support.
• Editor completion.
• Well-tested, battle-proven code.
• 100% test coverage.

On Gufo Stack

This product is a part of Gufo Stack - the collaborative effort led by Gufo Labs. Our goal is to create a robust and flexible set of tools to create network management software and automate routine administration tasks.

To do this, we extract the key technologies that have proven themselves in the NOC and bring them as separate packages. Then we work on API, performance tuning, documentation, and testing. The NOC uses the final result as the external dependencies.

Gufo Stack makes the NOC better, and this is our primary task. But other products can benefit from Gufo Stack too. So we believe that our effort will make the other network management products better.