Fix the type handeling for tasks to support string types (#1470)

Signed-off-by: elronbandel <[email protected]>

src/unitxt/task.py

@@ -116,7 +116,7 @@ def prepare_args(self):
                 self.prediction_type
             )
 
-    def verify(self):
+    def task_deprecations(self):
         if hasattr(self, "inputs") and self.inputs is not None:
             depr_message = (
                 "The 'inputs' field is deprecated. Please use 'input_fields' instead."
@@ -127,6 +127,9 @@ def verify(self):
             depr_message = "The 'outputs' field is deprecated. Please use 'reference_fields' instead."
             warnings.warn(depr_message, DeprecationWarning, stacklevel=2)
 
+    def verify(self):
+        self.task_deprecations()
+
         if self.input_fields is None:
             raise UnitxtError(
                 "Missing attribute in task: 'input_fields' not set.",
@@ -152,7 +155,11 @@ def verify(self):
                     f"will raise an exception.",
                     Documentation.ADDING_TASK,
                 )
-                data = {key: Any for key in data}
+                if isinstance(data, dict):
+                    data = parse_type_dict(to_type_dict(data))
+                else:
+                    data = {key: Any for key in data}
+
                 if io_type == "input_fields":
                     self.input_fields = data
                 else:

src/unitxt/type_utils.py

@@ -552,6 +552,9 @@ def strtype(typing_type) -> str:
         - The function checks the `__origin__` attribute to determine the base type and formats
           the type arguments accordingly.
     """
+    if isinstance(typing_type, str):
+        return typing_type
+
     if not is_type(typing_type):
         raise UnsupportedTypeError(typing_type)