I started to develop my own QGIS plugin today and I was pretty confident when browsing through all the different literature and tutorials available on the web. I started this beginners tutorial and until step 19 everything just worked like a charm! But starting to edit the code was not going to work for me without getting an error. I was trying to include the "Select file output" functionality in the code but I just get all the time the AttributeError:

Couldn't load plugin SaveAttributes due to an error when calling its classFactory() method 

AttributeError: SaveAttributes instance has no attribute 'select_output_file' 
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/qgis/utils.py", line 333, in startPlugin
    plugins[packageName] = package.classFactory(iface)
  File "/home/alexgis/.qgis2/python/plugins/SaveAttributes/__init__.py", line 35, in classFactory
    return SaveAttributes(iface)
  File "/home/alexgis/.qgis2/python/plugins/SaveAttributes/save_attributes.py", line 73, in __init__
    self.dlg.pushButton.clicked.connect(self.select_output_file)
AttributeError: SaveAttributes instance has no attribute 'select_output_file'


Python version: 2.7.12 (default, Nov 19 2016, 06:48:10) [GCC 5.4.0 20160609] 
QGIS version: 2.18.11 Las Palmas, 29548e7 

My code does exactly match the tutorials code. I also make shure that all components are up-to-date the double checked the folder directory and of course the line indentation. I also followed the advice given in this QGIS bug report, but nothing seems to help.

This is my first time developing a QGIS plugin and I have to admit that I found it quite challenging without knowing the appropriate QT or Core functions by heart, but I really want to learn this, so I do not want to give up in this early stage. I browsed through all the other questions regarding the Attribute Error and tried a lot of workarounds but I still get the same error.

I am working in a OSGeoLive 11.0 Environment.

I am really looking forward to your help and hope that I ask this question in the right way to fit into this board.

Code as an attachment:

from PyQt4.QtCore import QSettings, QTranslator, qVersion, QCoreApplication
from PyQt4.QtGui import QAction, QIcon, QFileDialog
# Initialize Qt resources from file resources.py
import resources
# Import the code for the dialog
from save_attributes_dialog import SaveAttributesDialog
import os.path


class SaveAttributes:
    """QGIS Plugin Implementation."""

    def __init__(self, iface):
        """Constructor.

        :param iface: An interface instance that will be passed to this class
            which provides the hook by which you can manipulate the QGIS
            application at run time.
        :type iface: QgsInterface
        """
        # Save reference to the QGIS interface
        self.iface = iface
        # initialize plugin directory
        self.plugin_dir = os.path.dirname(__file__)
        # initialize locale
        locale = QSettings().value('locale/userLocale')[0:2]
        locale_path = os.path.join(
            self.plugin_dir,
            'i18n',
            'SaveAttributes_{}.qm'.format(locale))

        if os.path.exists(locale_path):
            self.translator = QTranslator()
            self.translator.load(locale_path)

            if qVersion() > '4.3.3':
                QCoreApplication.installTranslator(self.translator)
                
        
        # Create the dialog (after translation) and keep reference
        self.dlg = SaveAttributesDialog()        

        # Declare instance attributes
        self.actions = []
        self.menu = self.tr(u'&Save Attributes')
        # TODO: We are going to let the user set this up in a future iteration
        self.toolbar = self.iface.addToolBar(u'SaveAttributes')
        self.toolbar.setObjectName(u'SaveAttributes')
        
        self.dlg.lineEdit.clear()
        self.dlg.pushButton.clicked.connect(self.select_output_file)

    # noinspection PyMethodMayBeStatic
    def tr(self, message):
        """Get the translation for a string using Qt translation API.

        We implement this ourselves since we do not inherit QObject.

        :param message: String for translation.
        :type message: str, QString

        :returns: Translated version of message.
        :rtype: QString
        """
        # noinspection PyTypeChecker,PyArgumentList,PyCallByClass
        return QCoreApplication.translate('SaveAttributes', message)


    def add_action(
        self,
        icon_path,
        text,
        callback,
        enabled_flag=True,
        add_to_menu=True,
        add_to_toolbar=True,
        status_tip=None,
        whats_this=None,
        parent=None):
        """Add a toolbar icon to the toolbar.

        :param icon_path: Path to the icon for this action. Can be a resource
            path (e.g. ':/plugins/foo/bar.png') or a normal file system path.
        :type icon_path: str

        :param text: Text that should be shown in menu items for this action.
        :type text: str

        :param callback: Function to be called when the action is triggered.
        :type callback: function

        :param enabled_flag: A flag indicating if the action should be enabled
            by default. Defaults to True.
        :type enabled_flag: bool

        :param add_to_menu: Flag indicating whether the action should also
            be added to the menu. Defaults to True.
        :type add_to_menu: bool

        :param add_to_toolbar: Flag indicating whether the action should also
            be added to the toolbar. Defaults to True.
        :type add_to_toolbar: bool

        :param status_tip: Optional text to show in a popup when mouse pointer
            hovers over the action.
        :type status_tip: str

        :param parent: Parent widget for the new action. Defaults None.
        :type parent: QWidget

        :param whats_this: Optional text to show in the status bar when the
            mouse pointer hovers over the action.

        :returns: The action that was created. Note that the action is also
            added to self.actions list.
        :rtype: QAction
        """

        icon = QIcon(icon_path)
        action = QAction(icon, text, parent)
        action.triggered.connect(callback)
        action.setEnabled(enabled_flag)

        if status_tip is not None:
            action.setStatusTip(status_tip)

        if whats_this is not None:
            action.setWhatsThis(whats_this)

        if add_to_toolbar:
            self.toolbar.addAction(action)

        if add_to_menu:
            self.iface.addPluginToVectorMenu(
                self.menu,
                action)

        self.actions.append(action)

        return action

    def initGui(self):
        """Create the menu entries and toolbar icons inside the QGIS GUI."""

        icon_path = ':/plugins/SaveAttributes/icon.png'
        self.add_action(
            icon_path,
            text=self.tr(u'Save Attributes'),
            callback=self.run,
            parent=self.iface.mainWindow())


    def unload(self):
        """Removes the plugin menu item and icon from QGIS GUI."""
        for action in self.actions:
            self.iface.removePluginVectorMenu(
                self.tr(u'&Save Attributes'),
                action)
            self.iface.removeToolBarIcon(action)
        # remove the toolbar
        del self.toolbar


    def select_output_file(self):
        filename = QFileDialog.getSaveFileName(self.dlg, "Select output file ","", '*.txt')
        self.dlg.lineEdit.setText(filename)

    def run(self):
        """Run method that performs all the real work"""
        # show the dialog
        self.dlg.show()
        # Run the dialog event loop
        result = self.dlg.exec_()
        # See if OK was pressed
        if result:
            # Do something useful here - delete the line containing pass and
            # substitute with your code.
            pass

Cheers, Griffin