Remove RegionBuilder and remaining references to region references (#…

…1212)

* Update builders.py

* [pre-commit.ci] auto fixes from pre-commit.com hooks

for more information, see https://pre-commit.ci

* Update spec.py

* [pre-commit.ci] auto fixes from pre-commit.com hooks

for more information, see https://pre-commit.ci

* Remove more references to region references and RegionBuilder

* Remove to-be-deprecated aliases to object reference

* Remove reference to referencebuilder in docs

* Update CHANGELOG.md

* Update CHANGELOG.md

* Update CHANGELOG.md

---------

Co-authored-by: pre-commit-ci[bot] <66853113+pre-commit-ci[bot]@users.noreply.github.com>

CHANGELOG.md

@@ -3,7 +3,7 @@
 ## HDMF 4.0.0 (Upcoming)
 
 ### Deprecations
-- The following classes have been deprecated and removed: Array, AbstractSortedArray, SortedArray, LinSpace, Query, RegionSlicer, ListSlicer, H5RegionSlicer, DataRegion. The following methods have been deprecated and removed: fmt_docval_args, call_docval_func, get_container_cls, add_child, set_dataio (now refactored as set_data_io). We have also removed all early evelopment for region references. @mavaylon1 [#1998](https://github.com/hdmf-dev/hdmf/pull/1198)
+- The following classes have been deprecated and removed: Array, AbstractSortedArray, SortedArray, LinSpace, Query, RegionSlicer, ListSlicer, H5RegionSlicer, DataRegion, RegionBuilder. The following methods have been deprecated and removed: fmt_docval_args, call_docval_func, get_container_cls, add_child, set_dataio (now refactored as set_data_io). We have also removed all early development for region references. @mavaylon1, @rly [#1998](https://github.com/hdmf-dev/hdmf/pull/1198), [#1212](https://github.com/hdmf-dev/hdmf/pull/1212)
 - Python 3.8 has been deprecated. Python 3.9 is the new minimum with support for Python 3.13. @mavaylon1 [#1209](https://github.com/hdmf-dev/hdmf/pull/1209)
 
 ### Enhancements

docs/source/conf.py

@@ -87,7 +87,6 @@
 
 nitpicky = True
 nitpick_ignore = [('py:class', 'Intracomm'),
-                  ('py:class', 'h5py.RegionReference'),
                   ('py:class', 'h5py._hl.dataset.Dataset'),
                   ('py:class', 'function'),
                   ('py:class', 'unittest.case.TestCase'),

docs/source/overview_software_architecture.rst

@@ -68,7 +68,7 @@ Builder
    * :py:class:`~hdmf.build.builders.GroupBuilder` - represents a collection of objects
    * :py:class:`~hdmf.build.builders.DatasetBuilder` - represents data
    * :py:class:`~hdmf.build.builders.LinkBuilder` - represents soft-links
-   * :py:class:`~hdmf.build.builders.RegionBuilder` - represents a slice into data (Subclass of :py:class:`~hdmf.build.builders.DatasetBuilder`)
+   * :py:class:`~hdmf.build.builders.ReferenceBuilder` - represents a reference to another group or dataset
 
 * **Main Module:** :py:class:`hdmf.build.builders`
 

src/hdmf/backends/hdf5/h5tools.py

@@ -908,8 +908,6 @@ def get_type(cls, data):
         "utf-8": H5_TEXT,
         "ascii": H5_BINARY,
         "bytes": H5_BINARY,
-        "ref": H5_REF,
-        "reference": H5_REF,
         "object": H5_REF,
         "isodatetime": H5_TEXT,
         "datetime": H5_TEXT,
@@ -1492,7 +1490,7 @@ def __is_ref(self, dtype):
         if isinstance(dtype, dict):  # may be dict from reading a compound dataset
             return self.__is_ref(dtype['dtype'])
         if isinstance(dtype, str):
-            return dtype == DatasetBuilder.OBJECT_REF_TYPE or dtype == DatasetBuilder.REGION_REF_TYPE
+            return dtype == DatasetBuilder.OBJECT_REF_TYPE
         return False
 
     def __queue_ref(self, func):

src/hdmf/build/__init__.py

@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-from .builders import Builder, DatasetBuilder, GroupBuilder, LinkBuilder, ReferenceBuilder, RegionBuilder
+from .builders import Builder, DatasetBuilder, GroupBuilder, LinkBuilder, ReferenceBuilder
 from .classgenerator import CustomClassGenerator, MCIClassGenerator
 from .errors import (BuildError, OrphanContainerBuildError, ReferenceTargetNotBuiltError, ContainerConfigurationError,
                      ConstructError)

src/hdmf/build/builders.py

@@ -6,7 +6,6 @@
 from datetime import datetime, date
 
 import numpy as np
-from h5py import RegionReference
 
 from ..utils import docval, getargs, get_docval
 
@@ -320,11 +319,10 @@ def values(self):
 
 class DatasetBuilder(BaseBuilder):
     OBJECT_REF_TYPE = 'object'
-    REGION_REF_TYPE = 'region'
 
     @docval({'name': 'name', 'type': str, 'doc': 'The name of the dataset.'},
             {'name': 'data',
-             'type': ('array_data', 'scalar_data', 'data', 'DatasetBuilder', 'RegionBuilder', Iterable, datetime, date),
+             'type': ('array_data', 'scalar_data', 'data', 'DatasetBuilder', Iterable, datetime, date),
              'doc': 'The data in this dataset.', 'default': None},
             {'name': 'dtype', 'type': (type, np.dtype, str, list),
              'doc': 'The datatype of this dataset.', 'default': None},
@@ -429,20 +427,3 @@ def __init__(self, **kwargs):
     def builder(self):
         """The target builder object."""
         return self['builder']
-
-
-class RegionBuilder(ReferenceBuilder):
-
-    @docval({'name': 'region', 'type': (slice, tuple, list, RegionReference),
-             'doc': 'The region, i.e. slice or indices, into the target dataset.'},
-            {'name': 'builder', 'type': DatasetBuilder, 'doc': 'The dataset this region reference applies to.'})
-    def __init__(self, **kwargs):
-        """Create a builder object for a region reference."""
-        region, builder = getargs('region', 'builder', kwargs)
-        super().__init__(builder)
-        self['region'] = region
-
-    @property
-    def region(self):
-        """The selected region of the target dataset."""
-        return self['region']

src/hdmf/build/objectmapper.py

@@ -6,7 +6,7 @@
 
 import numpy as np
 
-from .builders import DatasetBuilder, GroupBuilder, LinkBuilder, Builder, ReferenceBuilder, RegionBuilder, BaseBuilder
+from .builders import DatasetBuilder, GroupBuilder, LinkBuilder, Builder, ReferenceBuilder, BaseBuilder
 from .errors import (BuildError, OrphanContainerBuildError, ReferenceTargetNotBuiltError, ContainerConfigurationError,
                      ConstructError)
 from .manager import Proxy, BuildManager
@@ -1214,8 +1214,6 @@ def __get_subspec_values(self, builder, spec, manager):
                 continue
             if isinstance(attr_val, (GroupBuilder, DatasetBuilder)):
                 ret[attr_spec] = manager.construct(attr_val)
-            elif isinstance(attr_val, RegionBuilder):  # pragma: no cover
-                raise ValueError("RegionReferences as attributes is not yet supported")
             elif isinstance(attr_val, ReferenceBuilder):
                 ret[attr_spec] = manager.construct(attr_val.builder)
             else:

src/hdmf/spec/spec.py

@@ -38,7 +38,6 @@ class DtypeHelper:
         'uint32': ["uint32", "uint"],
         'uint64': ["uint64"],
         'object': ['object'],
-        'region': ['region'],
         'numeric': ['numeric'],
         'isodatetime': ["isodatetime", "datetime", "date"]
     }
@@ -174,12 +173,13 @@ def path(self):
 
 _ref_args = [
     {'name': _target_type_key, 'type': str, 'doc': 'the target type GroupSpec or DatasetSpec'},
-    {'name': 'reftype', 'type': str, 'doc': 'the type of references this is i.e. region or object'},
+    {'name': 'reftype', 'type': str,
+     'doc': 'the type of reference this is. only "object" is supported currently.'},
 ]
 
 
 class RefSpec(ConstructableDict):
-    __allowable_types = ('object', 'region')
+    __allowable_types = ('object', )
 
     @docval(*_ref_args)
     def __init__(self, **kwargs):
@@ -200,10 +200,6 @@ def reftype(self):
         '''The type of reference'''
         return self['reftype']
 
-    @docval(rtype=bool, returns='True if this RefSpec specifies a region reference, False otherwise')
-    def is_region(self):
-        return self['reftype'] == 'region'
-
 
 _attr_args = [
     {'name': 'name', 'type': str, 'doc': 'The name of this attribute'},

src/hdmf/validate/validator.py

@@ -8,7 +8,7 @@
 
 from .errors import Error, DtypeError, MissingError, MissingDataType, ShapeError, IllegalLinkError, IncorrectDataType
 from .errors import ExpectedArrayError, IncorrectQuantityError
-from ..build import GroupBuilder, DatasetBuilder, LinkBuilder, ReferenceBuilder, RegionBuilder
+from ..build import GroupBuilder, DatasetBuilder, LinkBuilder, ReferenceBuilder
 from ..build.builders import BaseBuilder
 from ..spec import Spec, AttributeSpec, GroupSpec, DatasetSpec, RefSpec, LinkSpec
 from ..spec import SpecNamespace
@@ -124,9 +124,6 @@ def get_type(data, builder_dtype=None):
     # Bytes data
     elif isinstance(data, bytes):
         return 'ascii', get_string_format(data)
-    # RegionBuilder data
-    elif isinstance(data, RegionBuilder):
-        return 'region', None
     # ReferenceBuilder data
     elif isinstance(data, ReferenceBuilder):
         return 'object', None

tests/unit/build_tests/test_builder.py

@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-from hdmf.build import GroupBuilder, DatasetBuilder, LinkBuilder, ReferenceBuilder, RegionBuilder
+from hdmf.build import GroupBuilder, DatasetBuilder, LinkBuilder, ReferenceBuilder
 from hdmf.testing import TestCase
 
 
@@ -392,12 +392,3 @@ def test_constructor(self):
         db = DatasetBuilder('db1', [1, 2, 3])
         rb = ReferenceBuilder(db)
         self.assertIs(rb.builder, db)
-
-
-class TestRegionBuilder(TestCase):
-
-    def test_constructor(self):
-        db = DatasetBuilder('db1', [1, 2, 3])
-        rb = RegionBuilder(slice(1, 3), db)
-        self.assertEqual(rb.region, slice(1, 3))
-        self.assertIs(rb.builder, db)

tests/unit/spec_tests/test_ref_spec.py

@@ -15,9 +15,3 @@ def test_constructor(self):
     def test_wrong_reference_type(self):
         with self.assertRaises(ValueError):
             RefSpec('TimeSeries', 'unknownreftype')
-
-    def test_isregion(self):
-        spec = RefSpec('TimeSeries', 'object')
-        self.assertFalse(spec.is_region())
-        spec = RefSpec('Data', 'region')
-        self.assertTrue(spec.is_region())