From eaa9248782f3f83ed7cebf417bb91769aeefea06 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Carlos Ernesto Alvarez Berumen <carloea2@uci.edu>
Date: Sat, 7 Mar 2026 01:35:22 -0600
Subject: [PATCH 1/2] v1

---
 .../amber/pybuilder/EncodableInspector.scala     | 16 +++++++++++++---
 .../pybuilder/EncodableStringAnnotation.java     |  3 ++-
 2 files changed, 15 insertions(+), 4 deletions(-)

diff --git a/common/pybuilder/src/main/scala/org/apache/texera/amber/pybuilder/EncodableInspector.scala b/common/pybuilder/src/main/scala/org/apache/texera/amber/pybuilder/EncodableInspector.scala
index 58bdcb649ec..9362016c72f 100644
--- a/common/pybuilder/src/main/scala/org/apache/texera/amber/pybuilder/EncodableInspector.scala
+++ b/common/pybuilder/src/main/scala/org/apache/texera/amber/pybuilder/EncodableInspector.scala
@@ -46,7 +46,7 @@ final class EncodableInspector[C <: blackbox.Context](val c: C) {
 
   // Keep this as a string so it also works if the annotation is referenced indirectly.
   private val encodableStringAnnotationFqn =
-    "org.apache.texera.amber.EncodableStringAnn"
+    "org.apache.texera.amber.pybuilder.EncodableStringAnnotation"
 
   /**
    * If we are pointing at a getter/accessor, hop to its accessed field symbol when possible.
@@ -110,10 +110,20 @@ final class EncodableInspector[C <: blackbox.Context](val c: C) {
     val symHasAnn =
       rawSym != null && rawSym != NoSymbol && {
         val accessed = safeAccessed(rawSym)
-        accessed != null && accessed != NoSymbol && accessed.annotations.exists(annIsEncodableString)
+        accessed != null && accessed != NoSymbol &&
+          accessed.annotations.exists(annIsEncodableString)
       }
 
-    symHasAnn || (tree.tpe != null && typeHasEncodableString(tree.tpe))
+    val methodReturnHasAnn =
+      rawSym != null && rawSym != NoSymbol && (rawSym match {
+        case m: MethodSymbol =>
+          typeHasEncodableString(m.typeSignature.finalResultType)
+        case _ =>
+          false
+      })
+
+    symHasAnn || methodReturnHasAnn ||
+      (tree.tpe != null && typeHasEncodableString(tree.tpe))
   }
 
   def isPythonTemplateBuilderArg(argExpr: c.Expr[Any]): Boolean = {
diff --git a/common/pybuilder/src/main/scala/org/apache/texera/amber/pybuilder/EncodableStringAnnotation.java b/common/pybuilder/src/main/scala/org/apache/texera/amber/pybuilder/EncodableStringAnnotation.java
index ea17e6d0130..f94c01f680a 100644
--- a/common/pybuilder/src/main/scala/org/apache/texera/amber/pybuilder/EncodableStringAnnotation.java
+++ b/common/pybuilder/src/main/scala/org/apache/texera/amber/pybuilder/EncodableStringAnnotation.java
@@ -29,6 +29,7 @@
     ElementType.FIELD,
     ElementType.PARAMETER,
     ElementType.TYPE_USE,
-    ElementType.LOCAL_VARIABLE
+    ElementType.LOCAL_VARIABLE,
+    ElementType.METHOD
 })
 public @interface EncodableStringAnnotation {}
\ No newline at end of file

From b39711268cdeeae85f19b6643ba20e334132142e Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Carlos Ernesto Alvarez Berumen <carloea2@uci.edu>
Date: Sat, 7 Mar 2026 01:45:33 -0600
Subject: [PATCH 2/2] v2

---
 .../pybuilder/PythonTemplateBuilderSpec.scala    | 16 ++++++++++++++++
 1 file changed, 16 insertions(+)

diff --git a/common/pybuilder/src/test/scala/org/apache/texera/amber/pybuilder/PythonTemplateBuilderSpec.scala b/common/pybuilder/src/test/scala/org/apache/texera/amber/pybuilder/PythonTemplateBuilderSpec.scala
index d2e423f810a..7347ba8c2fd 100644
--- a/common/pybuilder/src/test/scala/org/apache/texera/amber/pybuilder/PythonTemplateBuilderSpec.scala
+++ b/common/pybuilder/src/test/scala/org/apache/texera/amber/pybuilder/PythonTemplateBuilderSpec.scala
@@ -275,6 +275,22 @@ class PythonTemplateBuilderSpec extends AnyFunSuite {
     assert(builder.encode == "param-only")
   }
 
+  test("@StringUI method annotation triggers UI encoding") {
+    object Holder {
+      @EncodableStringAnnotation def uiText: String = "method"
+    }
+    val builder = pyb"${Holder.uiText}"
+    assert(builder.encode == decodeExpr("method"))
+  }
+
+  test("@StringUI method annotation on def with parens triggers UI encoding") {
+    object Holder {
+      @EncodableStringAnnotation def uiText(): String = "method-parens"
+    }
+    val builder = pyb"${Holder.uiText()}"
+    assert(builder.encode == decodeExpr("method-parens"))
+  }
+
   test("unannotated String does not become UI (stays raw python)") {
     val rawText: String = "raw"
     val builder = pyb"$rawText"