traits.trait_handler Module

Defines the TraitHandler class.

A trait handler mediates the assignment of values to object traits. It verifies (via its validate() method) that a specified value is consistent with the object trait, and generates a TraitError exception if it is not consistent.

Classes

class traits.trait_handler.TraitHandler

The task of this class and its subclasses is to verify the correctness of values assigned to object trait attributes.

This class is an alternative to trait validator functions. A trait handler has several advantages over a trait validator function, due to being an object:

• Trait handlers have constructors and state. Therefore, you can use them to create parametrized types.

• Trait handlers can have multiple methods, whereas validator functions can have only one callable interface. This feature allows more flexibility in their implementation, and allows them to handle a wider range of cases, such as interactions with other components.

The only method of TraitHandler that must be implemented by subclasses is validate().

validate(object, name, value)

Verifies whether a new value assigned to a trait attribute is valid.

This method must be implemented by subclasses of TraitHandler. It is called whenever a new value is assigned to a trait attribute defined using this trait handler.

If the value received by validate() is not valid for the trait attribute, the method must called the predefined error() method to raise a TraitError exception

Parameters

• object (HasTraits instance) – The object whose attribute is being assigned.

• name (str) – The name of the attribute being assigned.

• value (any) – The proposed new value for the attribute.

Returns

If the new value is valid, this method must return either the original value passed to it, or an alternate value to be assigned in place of the original value. Whatever value this method returns is the actual value assigned to object.name.

Return type

any