fix: upstream bugfixes and proxy support backport

[vidiecan]

Summary

Backport critical bugfixes and improvements from the-library-code/dspace-rest-python upstream (v0.1.14-v0.1.16) into our fork.

Bug Fixes

Critical

1. User class trailing comma bug (models.py) - Class-level field definitions like name = None, had trailing commas, silently creating tuples (None,) instead of None. This caused incorrect behavior in JSON serialization, comparisons (user.name is None -> False), and any downstream code assuming these are plain values. All 6 affected fields fixed.

2. get_items() never returning results (client.py) - Was checking collections in r_json['_embedded'] instead of items, meaning this method always returned an empty list even when the API responded correctly.

3. InProgressSubmission.init double assignment bugs (models.py) - Two bugs: self.step was assigned api_resource['lastModified'] instead of api_resource['step']; when type was present, it overwrote self.lastModified with itself instead of setting self.type.

4. EntityType.init label overwrite (models.py) - The type field was being assigned to self.label, destroying the correctly parsed label value. Fixed to assign to self.type.

Improvements

5. Proxy support for all HTTP methods (client.py) - Added PROXY_DICT class variable (reads PROXY_URL env var), proxies parameter to DSpaceClient.__init__(), and proxies=self.proxies to all 7 HTTP methods: authenticate, api_get, api_post, api_post_uri, api_put, api_delete, api_patch.

6. params parameter added to api_patch() (client.py) - Upstream added params=None to api_patch() and passes it to session.patch(). Previously query parameters could not be passed during PATCH operations.

7. embedded attribute on HALResource (models.py) - All HAL resources now store _embedded data from API responses into self.embedded. Enables access to embedded sub-resources (e.g. community.embedded['logo']).

API / Breaking Changes

Change	Impact	Migration
DSpaceClient.__init__() has new proxies parameter	Non-breaking - defaults to PROXY_DICT (empty dict if no env var)	No action needed; pass proxies={...} to use
api_patch() has new params parameter	Non-breaking - defaults to None (same behavior as before)	No action needed
HALResource and subclasses now have .embedded attribute	Non-breaking - new attribute, defaults to {}	Can now access dso.embedded['logo'] etc.
User class fields changed from tuples to proper types	Potentially breaking if code depended on buggy tuple values	Update user.name == (None,) to user.name is None
get_items() now actually returns items	Behavior change - previously always returned []	Code that worked around the bug may need updating
InProgressSubmission.step now correctly populated	Behavior change - was previously set to lastModified	.step now gets the real value
InProgressSubmission.type now correctly populated	Behavior change - was previously always None	.type now gets the real value
EntityType.type no longer overwrites .label	Behavior change	.label now correct, .type now populated

Not Included

The following upstream additions were intentionally not included (new features, not bugfixes):

• paginated decorator and *_iter auto-paginating methods
• parse_params / embeds parameter throughout methods
• create_item_version, create_resource_policy, resolve_identifier_to_dso methods
• BitstreamFormat, SearchResult model classes
• smart_open S3 support in create_bitstream
• Migration from setup.py to pyproject.toml
• search_objects configuration parameter

[Copilot]

Pull request overview

This PR backports critical bugfixes and proxy support from the upstream dspace-rest-python library (v0.1.14-v0.1.16). It addresses several serious bugs including tuple-instead-of-None issues in the User class, a broken get_items() method that always returned empty results, and incorrect field assignments in InProgressSubmission and EntityType initialization. The PR also adds HTTP/HTTPS proxy support via environment variable configuration.

Changes:

• Fixed 6 trailing comma bugs in User class that created tuples instead of None values
• Fixed get_items() checking wrong key ('collections' → 'items') in API response
• Fixed InProgressSubmission and EntityType init methods incorrectly assigning fields
• Added proxy support with PROXY_DICT class variable and proxies parameter to all HTTP methods
• Added params parameter to api_patch() for query string support
• Added embedded attribute to HALResource for accessing embedded API sub-resources

Reviewed changes

Copilot reviewed 2 out of 2 changed files in this pull request and generated 3 comments.

File	Description
dspace_rest_client/models.py	Fixes User class trailing commas (lines 428-433), InProgressSubmission field assignment bugs (lines 480, 484), EntityType label overwrite bug (line 515), and adds embedded attribute to HALResource (lines 24, 33, 42-43)
dspace_rest_client/client.py	Adds PROXY_DICT class variable and proxies parameter (lines 77, 87, 100), adds proxies argument to all 7 HTTP methods (authenticate, api_get, api_post, api_post_uri, api_put, api_delete, api_patch), adds params parameter to api_patch (line 353), and fixes get_items() key check (line 935)

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