How to autodoc a patched module

[davlee1972]

I'm trying to document some patches & bug fixes made to existing packages, but griffe isn't finding the patched items.

Any suggestions on how to get this to work?

Here is a example:

string_mod.py file which adds a hello attribute as a patch

import string
string.hello = "hello"

in strings_documentation.md

::: string
    options:
      members:
        - hello

in mkdocs.yml load string_mod.py as a extension

plugins:
  - mkdocstrings:
      default_handler: python
      handlers:
        python:
          options:
            extensions:
              - string_mod

nav: strings_documentation.md

[pawamoy]

Hi @davlee1972!

The extensions option takes in actual Griffe extensions, not arbitrary Python code to run, that's why what you tried had no effect.

Since your patches/fixes dynamically modify other modules, basic static analysis won't be able to handle them. Instead, you'll have to toggle dynamic analysis on, thanks to the force_inspection setting of mkdocstrings-python. You'll also have to make sure the relevant patch/fix for the package you're documenting is imported (as in, through Python's import system), so that it applies its modifications to the package. In order to do this, you might have to write and use a MkDocs hook or a Griffe extension. The hook/extension would simply import the relevant patch(es).

Let me know if you need more guidance and I'll try to provide some examples/snippets tomorrow 🙂

[davlee1972]

Adding force_inspection solved this and surprisingly keeping the module import in the extensions section worked as well. I guess even though it isn't a Griffe extension it still gets loaded in memory.

[pawamoy]

Ah, you're right! Griffe imports the modules configured in extensions to try and load any existing extensions within them 😄 It doesn't find any but your code was still executed 👌