Plugin architecture - Plugin Manager vs inspecting from plugins import *

Question

I\'m currently writing an application which allows the user to extend it via a \'plugin\' type architecture. They can write additional python classes based on a BaseClass o

Answer 1

The approach from will-hart was the most useful one to me! For i needed more control I wrapped the Plugin Base class in a function like:

def get_plugin_base(name='Plugin',
                       cls=object,
                       metaclass=PluginMount):

    def iter_func(self):
        for mod in self._models:
            yield mod

    bases = not isinstance(cls, tuple) and (cls,) or cls

    class_dict = dict(
        _models=None,
        session=None
    )

    class_dict['__iter__'] = iter_func

    return metaclass(name, bases, class_dict)

and then:

from plugin import get_plugin_base
Plugin = get_plugin_base()

This allows to add additional baseclasses or switching to another metaclass.