from PySide import QtCore, QtGui

class MyItem(QtGui.QStandardItem):
    '''This is the item I'd like to drop into the view'''

    def __init__(self, parent=None):
        super(MyItem, self).__init__(parent)
        self.testAttr = 'hello'

class ReceivingView(QtGui.QListView):
    '''Custom view to show the problem - i.e. the dropEvent produces a QStandardItem rather than MyItem'''

    def __init__(self, parent=None):
        super(ReceivingView, self).__init__(parent)

    def decode_data(self, bytearray):

        data = []
        item = {}

        ds = QtCore.QDataStream(bytearray)
        while not ds.atEnd():

            row = ds.readInt32()
            column = ds.readInt32()

            map_items = ds.readInt32()
            for i in range(map_items):

                key = ds.readInt32()

                value = MyItem()
                ds >> value
                #item[QtCore.Qt.ItemDataRole(key)] = value
                item = value

            data.append(item)

        return data

    def dropEvent(self, event):

        #print event.mimeData().formats()

        byteArray = event.mimeData().data('application/x-qabstractitemmodeldatalist')
        for item in self.decode_data(byteArray):
            copiedItem = MyItem(item)
            newItem = MyItem('hello')
            print copiedItem
            print newItem
            self.model().appendRow(copiedItem) # this does not work
            #self.model().appendRow(newItem) # this works

        event.accept()

        ## let the default behaviour do it's thing:
        #super(ReceivingView, self).dropEvent(event)
        ## now show received item is QStandardItem, not the sent custom item
        #item = self.model().item(self.model().rowCount() - 1)
        ##print item

if __name__ == "__main__":
    import sys

    app = QtGui.QApplication(sys.argv)

    mw = QtGui.QMainWindow()
    w = QtGui.QSplitter()
    mw.setCentralWidget(w)

    # models
    model1 = QtGui.QStandardItemModel()
    model2 = QtGui.QStandardItemModel()

    for i in xrange(5):
        #item = QtGui.QStandardItem()
        item = MyItem()
        item.setData(str(i), QtCore.Qt.DisplayRole)
        model1.appendRow(item)

    # views
    view1 = QtGui.QListView()
    view2 = ReceivingView()
    for v in (view1, view2):
        v.setViewMode(QtGui.QListView.IconMode)

    view1.setModel(model1)
    view2.setModel(model2)

    w.addWidget(view1)
    w.addWidget(view2)

    mw.show()
    mw.raise_()
    sys.exit(app.exec_())