[ENH] simplify architecture of containers

pycaret/containers/base_container.py

@@ -4,10 +4,12 @@
 import inspect
 from typing import Any, Dict, Optional
 
+from skbase.base import BaseObject
+
 import pycaret.utils.generic
 
 
-class BaseContainer:
+class BaseContainer(BaseObject):
     """
     Base container class, for easier definition of containers. Ensures consistent format
     before being turned into a dataframe row.
@@ -37,14 +39,13 @@ class BaseContainer:
         Should the model be used with 'turbo = True' in compare_models().
     args : dict, default = {} (empty dict)
         The arguments to always pass to constructor when initializing object of class_def class.
-
     """
 
     def __init__(
         self,
         id: str,
         name: str,
-        class_def: type,
+        class_def: type = None,
         args: Optional[Dict[str, Any]] = None,
     ) -> None:
         if not args:
@@ -54,10 +55,21 @@ def __init__(
 
         self.id = id
         self.name = name
-        self.class_def = class_def
+        self._class_def = class_def
         self.reference = self.get_class_name()
-        self.args = args
+        self._args = args
         self.active = True
+        super().__init__()
+
+    @property
+    def class_def(self):
+        # temporary solution for downwards compatibility with most model classes
+        return self._class_def
+
+    @property
+    def args(self):
+        # temporary solution for downwards compatibility with most model classes
+        return self._args
 
     def get_class_name(self):
         return pycaret.utils.generic.get_class_name(self.class_def)

pycaret/containers/models/base_model.py

@@ -53,7 +53,7 @@ def __init__(
         self,
         id: str,
         name: str,
-        class_def: type,
+        class_def: type = None,
         eq_function: Optional[type] = None,
         args: Dict[str, Any] = None,
         is_special: bool = False,