openedx / openedx/edx-django-utils

@set_code_owner_attribute clashes with django-user-tasks

Open
#349 4 comments 0 reactions 0 assignees View on GitHub

Nobody has claimed this yet.

Dominant language
Python
Stars
28
Forks
31
Avg merge
7d 6h
Merged PRs (30d)
1

Description

(I'm not sure whether this is an issue with edx-django-utils, with django-user-tasks, or both...)

Adding @set_code_owner_attribute and @shared_task to the same function causes errors when that function is an instance of UserTask.

For this reason, the import_olx and export_olx tasks in edx-platform do not use @set_code_owner_attribute: https://github.com/openedx/edx-platform/blob/db252978f3f315c896b07443f70febdc043faee4/cms/djangoapps/contentstore/tasks.py#L310-L311

I recently (accidentally) confirmed this issue... I was working on update_children_task in the content_libraries djangoapp, and had this:

@shared_task(base=LibraryUpdateChildrenTask, bind=True)
@set_code_owner_attribute
def update_children_task(self, user_id, dest_block_key, version=None):
    ....

The celery task did still work, but logs contained a background exception:

 Traceback (most recent call last):
   File "/openedx/venv/lib/python3.8/site-packages/celery/utils/dispatch/signal.py", line 276, in send
     response = receiver(signal=self, sender=sender, **named)
   File "/openedx/venv/lib/python3.8/site-packages/user_tasks/signals.py", line 215, in start_user_task
     sender.status.start()
   File "/openedx/venv/lib/python3.8/site-packages/user_tasks/tasks.py", line 84, in status
     name = self.generate_name(arguments_dict)
   File "/openedx/edx-platform/openedx/core/djangoapps/content_libraries/tasks.py", line 274, in generate_name
     key = arguments_dict['dest_block_key']
 KeyError: 'dest_block_key'

Digging in, I found that this key is missing because the django-user-tasks-defined function arguments_as_dict was not properly returning a dictionary. The underlying failure seems to be that in the call inspect.getcallargs(cls.run, ...), cls.run does not always actually equal the function defining the celery task (update_children_task), but rather the stub method Task.run. I imagine that this has to do with @set_code_owner_attribute iterfering with the introspection that @shared_task and/or django-user-tasks relies upon.

I am not exactly sure what the react or impact of this bug is. I do know for sure that developers should not use @set_code_owner_attribute on any Django user task function.

Contributor guide

Open the contributing guide

First steps

  1. Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
  2. Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
  3. Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
  4. Open a pull request that references the issue number.

Research direction

Start with the update_children_task example and compare the behavior of @shared_task, @set_code_owner_attribute, and UserTask. Read the referenced django-user-tasks arguments_as_dict implementation and reproduce the background exception, checking whether the task function is preserved during introspection. Done means compatible decorator behavior or a clearly documented limitation, with the missing dest_block_key error resolved.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
django, python
Domain
backend
Issue type
Bug
Difficulty
4/5
Estimated time
3-5 days
Activity status
Stale
Clarity
Needs clarification
Newbie friendliness
32/100

Get new issues in your inbox

A short digest of beginner-friendly GitHub issues.