The "register" class function (how to declare)

Question

The documentation on bpy.utils.register_class states:

If the class has a register class method it will be called before registration.

How should this method be declared? What arguments will it be given?

Answer 1

A class method takes at least one argument - the class itself. Here, register (and its counterpart, unregsiter) do not take anything else, so you must declare them this way:

    @classmethod
    def register(cls):
        pass

    @classmethod
    def unregister(cls):
        pass

You have a good example of their usage in Cycles' propertie.py file:

class CyclesRenderSettings(bpy.types.PropertyGroup):
    @classmethod
    def register(cls):
        bpy.types.Scene.cycles = PointerProperty(
                name="Cycles Render Settings",
                description="Cycles render settings",
                type=cls,
                )
        cls.device = EnumProperty(
                name="Device",
                description="Device to use for rendering",
                items=enum_devices,
                default='CPU',
                )
        # ... and so on adding properties to cls

    @classmethod
    def unregister(cls):
        del bpy.types.Scene.cycles

That way, you can embed the definition of your propertygroup and handle its container’s creation and deletion inside the class, instead of having to create/delete bpy.types.Scene.cycles in the global (un)register funcs.