Question

I am trying to understand a certain OAuth2/web2py integration, but some quirks in the python class model are making it difficult for me to grasp. Specifically, I have this web2py controller:

def google():
    if 'state' in request.vars and request.vars.state == 'google':
        session.state = request.vars.state
    person = Person("google")
    print person.render()
    return person.render()

So we have are using the Person class here. The implementation is like this:

class Person(Base):

No __init__ is present in the Person class. The Base class has an __init__ function:

class Base(object):
    def __init__(
        self,
        hooks=[],
        theme="%(name)s/",
        view="app/generic",
        meta=None,
        context=None
        ):
        from gluon.storage import Storage
        self.meta = meta or Storage()
        self.context = context or Storage()
        self.context.alerts = []
        self.context.content_types = []
        self.context.categories = []
        self.context.menus = []
        self.context.internalpages = []
        self.theme = theme
        self.view = view

        # hooks call
        self.start()
        self.build()
        self.pre_render()

        # aditional hooks
        if not isinstance(hooks, list):
            hooks = [hooks]

        for hook in hooks:
            self.__getattribute__(hook)()

So my questions is as follows: If Person is not explicitly calling Base.__init__, will it be called at all?

Or, to make it more general: will the base class __init__ function be called if the derived class has no __init__ function? And if the derived class has an __init__ function but does not explicitly call the base class __init__ function?

Answer 1

If the derived class has no __init__ function, the parent’s class __init__ will be inherited and called.

If the derived class has an __init__ function which does not call the parent’s __init__, the parent’s __init__ will not be called.