Plot update on getting attributes

src/sisl/viz/figure/figure.py

@@ -68,6 +68,17 @@
 
         return fig
 
+    @classmethod
+    def fig_has_attr(cls, key: str) -> bool:
+        """Whether the figure that this class generates has a given attribute.
+
+        Parameters
+        -----------
+        key
+            the attribute to check for.
+        """
+        return False
+
     @staticmethod
     def _sanitize_plot_actions(plot_actions):
         def _flatten(plot_actions, out, level=0, root_i=0):

src/sisl/viz/figure/matplotlib.py

@@ -195,9 +195,16 @@
 
             yield sanitized_section_actions
 
+    @classmethod
+    def fig_has_attr(cls, key: str) -> bool:
+        return hasattr(plt.Axes, key) or hasattr(plt.Figure, key)
+
     def __getattr__(self, key):
         if key != "axes":
-            return getattr(self.axes, key)
+            if hasattr(self.axes, key):
+                return getattr(self.axes, key)
+            elif key != "figure" and hasattr(self.figure, key):
+                return getattr(self.figure, key)
         raise AttributeError(key)
 
     def clear(self, layout=False):

src/sisl/viz/figure/plotly.py

@@ -402,6 +402,11 @@
 
         self.update_layout(sliders=[slider], updatemenus=updatemenus)
 
+    @classmethod
+    def fig_has_attr(cls, key: str) -> bool:
+        print(key, hasattr(go.Figure, key))
+        return hasattr(go.Figure, key)
+
     def __getattr__(self, key):
         if key != "figure":
             return getattr(self.figure, key)

src/sisl/viz/plot.py

@@ -6,25 +6,31 @@
 from sisl.messages import deprecate
 from sisl.nodes import Workflow
 
+from .figure import BACKENDS
+
 
 class Plot(Workflow):
     """Base class for all plots"""
 
     def __getattr__(self, key):
         if key != "nodes":
-            # If an ipython key is requested, get the plot and look
-            # for the key in the plot. This is simply to enhance
-            # interactivity in a python notebook environment.
-            # However, this results in a (maybe undesired) behavior:
-            # The plot is updated when ipython requests it, without any
-            # explicit request to update it. This is how it has worked
-            # from the beggining, so it's probably best to keep it like
-            # this for now.
-            if "ipython" in key:
-                output = self.nodes.output.get()
+            # From the backend input, we find out which class is the figure going to be
+            # (even if no figure has been created yet or the latest figure was from a different backend)
+            # Then we check if the attribute will be available there. If it will, we update the plot and
+            # get the attribute on the updated plot.
+            # This is so that things like `plot.show()` work as expected.
+            # It has the downside that `.get()` is called even when for example a method of the figure is
+            # retreived to get its docs (e.g. in the helper messages of jupyter notebooks)
+            selected_backend = self.inputs.get("backend")
+            figure_cls = BACKENDS.get(selected_backend)
+            if figure_cls is not None and (
+                hasattr(figure_cls, key) or figure_cls.fig_has_attr(key)
+            ):
+                return getattr(self.nodes.output.get(), key)
             else:
-                output = self.nodes.output._output
-            return getattr(output, key)
+                raise AttributeError(
+                    f"'{key}' not found in {self.__class__.__name__} with backend '{selected_backend}'"
+                )
         else:
             return super().__getattr__(key)