Add ContainerTypes to openedx-core [FC-0117] by bradenmacdonald · Pull Request #495 · openedx/openedx-core

bradenmacdonald · 2026-03-03T01:26:08Z

Implements #412

Add a ContainerType concept and corresponding database table (ContainerTypeRecord). Now every container must have a corresponding type; plain Container instances cannot be saved on their own.
The test cases for Containers are now in the publishing app and don't depend on Unit, Subsection, etc. This consolidates the core container logic, and should also make it easier to extract to a separate containers app.
The Unit, Subsection, and Section classes, apps, and test cases are substantially simplified.
Because the container APIs are now type-aware you can use the generic APIs even with specific subclasses like Unit.
The create_next_container_version now accepts a Container object. Previously it only accepted a container PK, but passing the object is more convenient (also see next point)
If you pass a Container instance (or subclass instance) to create_next_container_version, it now automatically clears Django's internal field cache for accessing the latest draft version, so you don't have to remember to call refresh_from_db() before container.versioning.draft will be correct.
- I didn't yet make the same change to soft_delete_draft() but I think we should.
- We can't really do the same for publishing because there's no way to clear the cache for dependencies that are automatically published.

Corresponding openedx-platform PR: openedx/openedx-platform#38181

openedx-webhooks · 2026-03-03T01:26:14Z

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ormsbee · 2026-03-14T04:28:35Z

So this is definitely not something that needs to roll into this work, but in case it's relevant: Now that everything is in applets and publishing dependencies are explicitly modeled, I think container models and logic can move out of publishing and into its own applet.

bradenmacdonald · 2026-03-16T20:55:30Z

@ormsbee As you expected it was quite easy to do, so I've included that change in this PR.

I just have to make the corresponding edx-platform changes, and clean up a few small loose ends, and this will be ready.

bradenmacdonald · 2026-03-16T22:24:49Z

src/openedx_content/applets/backup_restore/toml.py

        # If the version has a container version, add its children
        container_table = tomlkit.table()
-        children = publishing_api.get_container_children_entities_keys(version.containerversion)
+        children = containers_api.get_container_children_entities_keys(version.containerversion)
        container_table.add("children", children)
        version_table.add("container", container_table)


I noticed that this if branch of toml_publishable_entity_version is not covered by any tests. I think we need a lot more test coverage of the backup/restore format.

tests/openedx_content/applets/containers/test_api.py

…odels

Claude explanation: In `_create_side_effects_for_change_log`, `change_log.records.all()` has no `ORDER BY`. On SQLite, this returns records in insertion order (PK order) — which is root-first, since `publish_from_drafts` inserts the initial draft first, then its dependencies layer by layer. On MySQL/InnoDB, the query uses the `oel_plr_uniq_pl_publishable` unique index on (`publish_log`, `entity`) to service the `WHERE publish_log_id = ?` filter, which returns records in `entity_id` order — i.e. leaf-first, because `child_entity2` has a lower entity PK than `parent_of_two`, `grandparent`, etc. The `processed_entity_ids` optimization on line 899–904 is order-sensitive: when you process leaf records first, `processed_entity_ids` isn't yet populated with their ancestors' IDs, so the while loop traverses all the way up the tree redundantly on each leaf

kdmccormick

Partial review.

So happy to see the containers applet factored out and the create_container_* APIs made DRYer and safer.

kdmccormick · 2026-03-17T21:34:24Z

src/openedx_content/applets/containers/models.py

+    """Raised when trying to modify a container whose implementation [plugin] is no longer available."""
+
+
+class ContainerTypeRecord(models.Model):


I think I'd rather call this just ContainerType, consistent with ComponentType.

The type alias you're calling ContainerType now, ie type[Container], could be ContainerSubclass, which is more precise from a Python standpoint. Or you could drop the alias altogether. You have several methods named along these lines, eg subclass_for_type_code, all_subclasses, etc., and I think it is very clear what all of those method do just by their names.

kdmccormick · 2026-03-17T21:36:45Z

.importlinter

+    # The "containers" app is built on top of publishing, and is a peer to
+    # "components" but they do not depend on each other.
+    openedx_content.applets.components | openedx_content.applets.containers


did not know about this syntax. cool!

bradenmacdonald · 2026-03-18T04:54:14Z

@kdmccormick @ormsbee It occurred to me (unfortunately rather late) that the ContainerType I'm adding here could also have been implemented more generically within publishing as a PublishableEntityType, providing all the same benefits and functionality to Containers, but also to all other publishable entities. Somewhat relevant in the context of the discussion about the key field and its purpose, especially given that PublishableEntity doesn't have the concept of "entity type" yet. (But we will have very similar ContainerType and ComponentType) I do wonder if we'll want it in the near future.

…ainerType

ormsbee · 2026-03-18T14:32:25Z

@bradenmacdonald: Would you see EntityType as being the high level thing (e.g. container), the more specific subclass (e.g. unit), or that it would encode both together?

ormsbee · 2026-03-18T14:35:53Z

Another random thought while everything gets moved around is that we might someday stuff units, subsections, and sections applets under containers to make that hierarchical relationship more obvious. Though given that we only have nine applets, there's no real pressure to do that anytime soon.

ormsbee

I'm broadly supportive of this PR, but I'm likely not going to get to properly reviewing it this week. I'm totally happy to have it merge once it gets approval from @kdmccormick. No need to wait for my review.

Thank you.

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bradenmacdonald mentioned this pull request Mar 10, 2026

Move ContainerTypes into openedx-core and simplify platform #412

Open

bradenmacdonald force-pushed the braden/container-type branch from a0a83aa to 4e22996 Compare March 10, 2026 17:19

bradenmacdonald added 2 commits March 10, 2026 12:49

fix: add missing constraint to ComponentType

9225c68

docs: remove outdated comment

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bradenmacdonald force-pushed the braden/container-type branch 3 times, most recently from cc4b63e to bc3e931 Compare March 11, 2026 00:13

bradenmacdonald mentioned this pull request Mar 13, 2026

Ensure that openedx_content cannot create a corrupted data state #463

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bradenmacdonald force-pushed the braden/container-type branch 2 times, most recently from 7bed463 to 0c75f56 Compare March 16, 2026 20:54

bradenmacdonald force-pushed the braden/container-type branch 2 times, most recently from 37757d1 to 9430410 Compare March 16, 2026 21:52

feat: add new ContainerType model, refactor Containers implementation

034cca9

bradenmacdonald force-pushed the braden/container-type branch from 9430410 to 92f8a1b Compare March 16, 2026 22:20

bradenmacdonald commented Mar 16, 2026

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feat: move containers into a new applet

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bradenmacdonald force-pushed the braden/container-type branch from 92f8a1b to 6e60108 Compare March 16, 2026 22:37

test: add a "deep publish" test to the containers API

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bradenmacdonald commented Mar 17, 2026

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tests/openedx_content/applets/containers/test_api.py Outdated Show resolved Hide resolved

bradenmacdonald marked this pull request as ready for review March 17, 2026 00:52

bradenmacdonald added 2 commits March 16, 2026 18:31

feat: add a get_container_type() API to get a type class from type_code

ee2da60

feat: store olx_tag_name in openedx_content's core container type m…

72c3290

…odels

bradenmacdonald changed the title ~~Add ContainerTypes to openedx-core~~ Add ContainerTypes to openedx-core [FC-0117] Mar 17, 2026

bradenmacdonald added the FC Relates to an Axim Funded Contribution project label Mar 17, 2026

bradenmacdonald mentioned this pull request Mar 17, 2026

refactor: update to work with latest openedx_content container changes [FC-0117] openedx/openedx-platform#38181

Draft

bradenmacdonald added 2 commits March 17, 2026 10:17

test: minor cleanups in containers/test_api

fe1b594

bradenmacdonald force-pushed the braden/container-type branch from 73df8cd to 9f49bde Compare March 17, 2026 18:10

bradenmacdonald added 2 commits March 17, 2026 11:27

perf: slightly reduce query count when computing publishing side effects

e6d046f

chore: ignore mypy warning

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kdmccormick reviewed Mar 17, 2026

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bradenmacdonald added 2 commits March 17, 2026 22:41

refactor: ContainerType->ContainerSubclass, ContainerTypeRecord->Cont…

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…ainerType

feat: improved container admin views

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ormsbee reviewed Mar 18, 2026

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Add ContainerTypes to openedx-core [FC-0117]#495

Add ContainerTypes to openedx-core [FC-0117]#495
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		"""Raised when trying to modify a container whose implementation [plugin] is no longer available."""


		class ContainerTypeRecord(models.Model):

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