matplotlib · jenshnielsen · Dec 29, 2015 · Nov 10, 2015 · Nov 10, 2015 · Nov 30, 2015
diff --git a/doc/users/whats_new/abstract_movie_writer.rst b/doc/users/whats_new/abstract_movie_writer.rst
@@ -0,0 +1,8 @@
+Abstract base class for movie writers
+-------------------------------------
+
+The new :class:`~matplotlib.animation.AbstractMovieWriter` class defines
+the API required by a class that is to be used as the `writer` in the
+`save` method of the :class:`~matplotlib.animation.Animation` class.
+The existing :class:`~matplotlib.animation.MovieWriter` class now derives
+from the new abstract base class.
diff --git a/lib/matplotlib/animation.py b/lib/matplotlib/animation.py
@@ -33,6 +33,7 @@
 except ImportError:
     # python2
     from base64 import encodestring as encodebytes
+import abc
 import contextlib
 import tempfile
 from matplotlib.cbook import iterable, is_string_like
@@ -91,17 +92,76 @@ def __getitem__(self, name):
 writers = MovieWriterRegistry()
 
 
-class MovieWriter(object):
+class AbstractMovieWriter(six.with_metaclass(abc.ABCMeta)):
+    '''
+    Abstract base class for writing movies. Fundamentally, what a MovieWriter
+    does is provide is a way to grab frames by calling grab_frame().
+
+    setup() is called to start the process and finish() is called afterwards.
+
+    This class is set up to provide for writing movie frame data to a pipe.
+    saving() is provided as a context manager to facilitate this process as::
+
+      with moviewriter.saving(fig, outfile='myfile.mp4', dpi=100):
+          # Iterate over frames
+          moviewriter.grab_frame(**savefig_kwargs)
+
+    The use of the context manager ensures that setup() and finish() are
+    performed as necessary.
+
+    An instance of a concrete subclass of this class can be given as the
+    `writer` argument of `Animation.save()`.
+    '''
+
+    @abc.abstractmethod
+    def setup(self, fig, outfile, dpi, *args):
+        '''
+        Perform setup for writing the movie file.
+
+        fig: `matplotlib.Figure` instance
+            The figure object that contains the information for frames
+        outfile: string
+            The filename of the resulting movie file
+        dpi: int
+            The DPI (or resolution) for the file.  This controls the size
+            in pixels of the resulting movie file.
+        '''
+
+    @abc.abstractmethod
+    def grab_frame(self, **savefig_kwargs):
+        '''
+        Grab the image information from the figure and save as a movie frame.
+        All keyword arguments in savefig_kwargs are passed on to the 'savefig'
+        command that saves the figure.
+        '''
+
+    @abc.abstractmethod
+    def finish(self):
+        'Finish any processing for writing the movie.'
+
+    @contextlib.contextmanager
+    def saving(self, fig, outfile, dpi, *args):
+        '''
+        Context manager to facilitate writing the movie file.
+
+        All arguments are passed on to `setup`.
+        '''
+        self.setup(fig, outfile, dpi, *args)
+        yield
+        self.finish()
+
+
+class MovieWriter(AbstractMovieWriter):
     '''
     Base class for writing movies. Fundamentally, what a MovieWriter does
     is provide is a way to grab frames by calling grab_frame(). setup()
     is called to start the process and finish() is called afterwards.
     This class is set up to provide for writing movie frame data to a pipe.
     saving() is provided as a context manager to facilitate this process as::
 
-      with moviewriter.saving('myfile.mp4'):
+      with moviewriter.saving(fig, outfile='myfile.mp4', dpi=100):
           # Iterate over frames
-          moviewriter.grab_frame()
+          moviewriter.grab_frame(**savefig_kwargs)
 
     The use of the context manager ensures that setup and cleanup are
     performed as necessary.
@@ -183,18 +243,6 @@ def setup(self, fig, outfile, dpi, *args):
         # eliminates the need for temp files.
         self._run()
 
-    @contextlib.contextmanager
-    def saving(self, *args):
-        '''
-        Context manager to facilitate writing the movie file.
-
-        ``*args`` are any parameters that should be passed to `setup`.
-        '''
-        # This particular sequence is what contextlib.contextmanager wants
-        self.setup(*args)
-        yield
-        self.finish()
-
     def _run(self):
         # Uses subprocess to call the program for assembling frames into a
         # movie file.  *args* returns the sequence of command line arguments
@@ -669,10 +717,10 @@ def save(self, filename, writer=None, fps=None, dpi=None, codec=None,
 
         *filename* is the output filename, e.g., :file:`mymovie.mp4`
 
-        *writer* is either an instance of :class:`MovieWriter` or a string
-        key that identifies a class to use, such as 'ffmpeg' or 'mencoder'.
-        If nothing is passed, the value of the rcparam `animation.writer` is
-        used.
+        *writer* is either an instance of :class:`AbstractMovieWriter` or
+        a string key that identifies a class to use, such as 'ffmpeg' or
+        'mencoder'.  If nothing is passed, the value of the rcparam
+        `animation.writer` is used.
 
         *fps* is the frames per second in the movie. Defaults to None,
         which will use the animation's specified interval to set the frames

diff --git a/lib/matplotlib/tests/test_animation.py b/lib/matplotlib/tests/test_animation.py
@@ -6,6 +6,7 @@
 import os
 import tempfile
 import numpy as np
+from numpy.testing import assert_equal
 from nose import with_setup
 from matplotlib import pyplot as plt
 from matplotlib import animation
@@ -14,10 +15,87 @@
 from matplotlib.testing.decorators import CleanupTest
 
 
+class NullMovieWriter(animation.AbstractMovieWriter):
+    """
+    A minimal MovieWriter.  It doesn't actually write anything.
+    It just saves the arguments that were given to the setup() and
+    grab_frame() methods as attributes, and counts how many times
+    grab_frame() is called.
+
+    This class doesn't have an __init__ method with the appropriate
+    signature, and it doesn't define an isAvailable() method, so
+    it cannot be added to the 'writers' registry.
+    """
+
+    def setup(self, fig, outfile, dpi, *args):
+        self.fig = fig
+        self.outfile = outfile
+        self.dpi = dpi
+        self.args = args
+        self._count = 0
+
+    def grab_frame(self, **savefig_kwargs):
+        self.savefig_kwargs = savefig_kwargs
+        self._count += 1
+
+    def finish(self):
+        pass
+
+
+def test_null_movie_writer():
+    # Test running an animation with NullMovieWriter.
+
+    fig = plt.figure()
+
+    def init():
+        pass
+
+    def animate(i):
+        pass
+
+    num_frames = 5
+    filename = "unused.null"
+    fps = 30
+    dpi = 50
+    savefig_kwargs = dict(foo=0)
+
+    anim = animation.FuncAnimation(fig, animate, init_func=init,
+                                   frames=num_frames)
+    writer = NullMovieWriter()
+    anim.save(filename, fps=fps, dpi=dpi, writer=writer,
+              savefig_kwargs=savefig_kwargs)
+
+    assert_equal(writer.fig, fig)
+    assert_equal(writer.outfile, filename)
+    assert_equal(writer.dpi, dpi)
+    assert_equal(writer.args, ())
+    assert_equal(writer.savefig_kwargs, savefig_kwargs)
+    assert_equal(writer._count, num_frames)
+
+
+@animation.writers.register('null')
+class RegisteredNullMovieWriter(NullMovieWriter):
+
+    # To be able to add NullMovieWriter to the 'writers' registry,
+    # we must define an __init__ method with a specific signature,
+    # and we must define the class method isAvailable().
+    # (These methods are not actually required to use an instance
+    # of this class as the 'writer' argument of Animation.save().)
+
+    def __init__(self, fps=None, codec=None, bitrate=None,
+                 extra_args=None, metadata=None):
+        pass
+
+    @classmethod
+    def isAvailable(self):
+        return True
+
+
 WRITER_OUTPUT = dict(ffmpeg='mp4', ffmpeg_file='mp4',
                      mencoder='mp4', mencoder_file='mp4',
                      avconv='mp4', avconv_file='mp4',
-                     imagemagick='gif', imagemagick_file='gif')
+                     imagemagick='gif', imagemagick_file='gif',
+                     null='null')
 
 
 # Smoke test for saving animations.  In the future, we should probably