Not in love with this part but it's the simplest possible way I could think to let the activity extension skip creating useless activity entries. I don't like that this is a new Context value that's a really specific case not a general solution.

Alternatives I considered:

• Create a generic way to return extra information in the API envelope via the context that could be used by other actions. This would be useful for API users so they would know if an update actually occurred after any of the package or resource updating actions.
• Create a new interface for the activity plugin that could be passed both the original_package and updated data_dict from package_update so it doesn't have to call package_show itself or and the generic signal handling.

We are getting rid of an ugly context var and introducing an ugly context var so it evens out :)

Create a generic way to return extra information in the API envelope via the context that could be used by other actions.

You mean something like context["extra_data"]["package_update_unchanged"] = "before validation"?
This looks like encouraging sharing info in the context, so perhaps I prefer a specific key that is clear where it comes from. Unless I misunderstood?

This would be useful for API users so they would know if an update actually occurred after any of the package or resource updating actions.

Not sure what you mean here. You mean an update happening e.g. in a chained action?

@amercader I'm thinking something like context['updated_entities']['package'] = [id] and then expose that updated_entities in the API response envelope or something so that API users can know when something has been modified as a result of the action they call. Wouldn't need to implement it for everything right away but it would naturally extend to resources, groups, orgs, users etc. and bulk actions that may update many things at once.

As discussed at meeting I'll implement this as context['changed_entities'] to potentially encompass creation and deletion in the future, add this value to the response envelope for API calls and document it in the changelog.

We are getting rid of an ugly context var and introducing an ugly context var so it evens out :)

Create a generic way to return extra information in the API envelope via the context that could be used by other actions.

You mean something like context["extra_data"]["package_update_unchanged"] = "before validation"?
This looks like encouraging sharing info in the context, so perhaps I prefer a specific key that is clear where it comes from. Unless I misunderstood?

This would be useful for API users so they would know if an update actually occurred after any of the package or resource updating actions.

Not sure what you mean here. You mean an update happening e.g. in a chained action?