In object-oriented languages like Python, the interface is a collection of method signatures that should be provided by the implementing class. Implementing an interface is a way of writing an organized code and achieve abstraction.
The package
zope.interface provides an implementation of "object interfaces" for Python. It is maintained by the Zope Toolkit project. The package exports two objects, 'Interface' and 'Attribute' directly. It also exports several helper methods. It aims to provide stricter semantics and better error messages than Python's built-in abc module.
Declaring interface
In python, interface is defined using python class statements and is a subclass of
interface.Interface which is the parent interface for all interfaces.
Syntax :
class IMyInterface(zope.interface.Interface):
# methods and attributes
Example
Output :
<class zope.interface.interface.InterfaceClass>
__main__
MyInterface
<zope.interface.interface.Attribute object at 0x00000270A8C74358>
<class 'zope.interface.interface.Attribute'>
Implementing interface
Interface acts as a blueprint for designing classes, so interfaces are implemented using
implementer decorator on class. If a class implements an interface, then the instances of the class provide the interface. Objects can provide interfaces directly, in addition to what their classes implement.
Syntax :
@zope.interface.implementer(*interfaces)
class Class_name:
# methods
Example
We declared that MyClass implements MyInterface. This means that instances of MyClass provide MyInterface.
Methods
- implementedBy(class) - returns a boolean value, True if class implements the interface else False
- providedBy(object) - returns a boolean value, True if object provides the interface else False
- providedBy(class) - returns False as class does not provide interface but implements it
- list(zope.interface.implementedBy(class)) - returns the list of interfaces implemented by a class
- list(zope.interface.providedBy(object)) - returns the list of interfaces provided by an object.
- list(zope.interface.providedBy(class)) - returns empty list as class does not provide interface but
implements it.
Output :
True
False
True
[<InterfaceClass __main__.MyInterface>]
[<InterfaceClass __main__.MyInterface>]
[]
Interface Inheritance
Interfaces can extend other interfaces by listing the other interfaces as base interfaces.
Functions
- extends(interface) - returns boolean value, whether one interface extends another.
- isOrExtends(interface) - returns boolean value, whether interfaces are same or one extends another.
- isEqualOrExtendedBy(interface) - returns boolean value, whether interfaces are same or one is extended by another.
