from PySide import QtCore
from PySide import QtGui

class TestItem(QtGui.QStandardItem):
    '''Item that stores data for a tool'''

    def __init__(self, container, data):
        super(TestItem, self).__init__(data['title'])
        self.container = container
        self.toolData = data
        self.title = data['title']
        self.author = data['author']

    def data(self, role=QtCore.Qt.UserRole + 1):
        '''
        Return the name for displaying only,
        otherwise return the entire object.
        '''
        if role == Qt.DisplayRole:
            return self.title
        return QtGui.QStandardItem.data(self, role)


class TestWidget(QtGui.QWidget):

    def __init__(self, parent=None):
        super(TestWidget, self).__init__(parent)
        self.menu = QtGui.QMenu()
        self.btn = QtGui.QPushButton('sender test')
        self.btn.setMenu(self.menu)
        self.setLayout(QtGui.QHBoxLayout())
        self.layout().addWidget(self.btn)

    def testSlot(self):
        sender = self.sender()
        print sender.data()


if __name__ == '__main__':
    import sys

    app = QtGui.QApplication([])
    w = TestWidget()
    actionDef = QtGui.QAction('dict object', w)
    actionCustom = QtGui.QAction('custom object', w)
    rawData = {'title':'toolA', 'author':'some dude'}
    testItem = TestItem('test container', rawData)

    # adding dict object is passed on by sender()
    actionDef.setData(rawData)
    # custom object is not passed on by sender() and sender().data() returns None
    actionCustom.setData(testItem)

    actionDef.triggered.connect(w.testSlot)
    actionCustom.triggered.connect(w.testSlot)

    w.menu.addAction(actionDef)
    w.menu.addAction(actionCustom)
    w.show()
    sys.exit(app.exec_())