feat!: collapse extraneous XBlock mixins (#718)

Various extraneous classes have been removed from the XBlock API, simplifying its implementation
and making debugging of XBlock instances easier. We believe that most, if not all, XBlock API users
will be unaffected by this change. Some improvements have also been made to the reference documentation.

See CHANGELOG.rst for details.

Closes: #714

CHANGELOG.rst

@@ -2,11 +2,62 @@
 Change history for XBlock
 =========================
 
-These are notable changes in XBlock.
-
 Unreleased
 ----------
 
+
+3.0.0 - 2024-03-18
+------------------
+
+Various extraneous classes have been removed from the XBlock API, simplifying its implementation
+and making debugging of XBlock instances easier. We believe that most, if not all, XBlock API users
+will be unaffected by this change. Some improvements have also been made to the reference documentation.
+
+Specific changes:
+
+* **Removed:** 
+
+  * ``xblock.XBlockMixin`` (still available as ``xblock.core.XBlockMixin``)
+  * ``xblock.core.SharedBlockBase`` (replaced with ``xblock.core.Blocklike``)
+  * ``xblock.internal.Nameable``
+  * ``xblock.internal.NamedAttributesMetaclass``
+  * ``xblock.django.request.HeadersDict``
+  * ``xblock.fields.XBlockMixin`` (still available as ``xblock.core.XBlockMixin``)
+  * ``xblock.mixins.RuntimeServicesMixin``
+  * ``xblock.mixins.ScopedStorageMixin``
+  * ``xblock.mixins.IndexInfoMixin``
+  * ``xblock.mixins.XmlSerializationMixin``
+  * ``xblock.mixins.HandlersMixin``
+  * ``xblock.mixins.ChildrenModelMetaclass``
+  * ``xblock.mixins.HierarchyMixin``
+  * ``xblock.mixins.ViewsMixin``
+
+* **Added:**
+
+  * ``xblock.core.Blocklike``, the new common ancestor of ``XBlock`` and ``XBlockAside``, and ``XBlockMixin``,
+    replacing ``xblock.core.SharedBlockBase``.
+
+  * New attributes on ``xblock.core.XBlockAside``, each behaving the same as their ``XBlock`` counterpart:
+
+    * ``usage_key``
+    * ``context_key``
+    * ``index_dictionary``
+
+  * Various new attributes on ``xblock.core.XBlockMixin``, encompassing the functionality of these former classes:
+
+    * ``xblock.mixins.IndexInfoMixin``
+    * ``xblock.mixins.XmlSerializationMixin``
+    * ``xblock.mixins.HandlersMixin``
+
+* **Docs**
+
+  * Various docstrings have been improved, some of which are published in the docs.
+  * XBlockAside will now be represented in the API docs, right below XBlock on the "XBlock API" page.
+  * XBlockMixin has been removed from the docs. 
+    It was only ever documented under the "Fields API" page (which didn't make any sense),
+    and it was barely even documented there. We considered adding it back to the "XBlock API" page,
+    but as noted in the class's new docstring, we do not want to encourage any new use of XBlockMixin.
+
 2.0.0 - 2024-02-26
 ------------------
 

docs/conf.py

@@ -128,6 +128,7 @@
     ('py:class', 'aside'),
     ('py:class', 'aside_fn'),
     ('py:class', 'webob.Request'),
+    ('py:class', 'webob.Response'),
 ]
 
 suppress_warnings = [

xblock/__init__.py

@@ -2,29 +2,4 @@
 XBlock Courseware Components
 """
 
-# For backwards compatibility, provide the XBlockMixin in xblock.fields
-# without causing a circular import
-import codecs
-import os
-import warnings
-
-import xblock.core
-import xblock.fields
-
-
-class XBlockMixin(xblock.core.XBlockMixin):
-    """
-    A wrapper around xblock.core.XBlockMixin that provides backwards compatibility for the old location.
-
-    Deprecated.
-    """
-    def __init__(self, *args, **kwargs):
-        warnings.warn("Please use xblock.core.XBlockMixin", DeprecationWarning, stacklevel=2)
-        super().__init__(*args, **kwargs)
-
-
-# For backwards compatibility, provide the XBlockMixin in xblock.fields
-# without causing a circular import
-xblock.fields.XBlockMixin = XBlockMixin
-
-__version__ = '2.0.0'
+__version__ = '3.0.0'