I try to implement a voting system. It works like this. If a user votes a post I record its temporary state in a session variable: upvoted, starred etc..
If current user hasn't voted before I save the results to temporary table. User may change the vote in 5 minutes. After 5 minutes pass the results are written to the database permanently using a thread.
I'd like to clear temporary session variables after results are written to database. Is there a way to achieve this?
task.py
import threading
import time
from flask import Flask, copy_current_request_context, session
from threading import Lock
from vote import voteQuestion
app = Flask(__name__)
app.secret_key="appkey"
#app.before_first_request
def initializeTask():
#copy_current_request_context
def runTask():
while True:
voteQuestion()
time.sleep(10)
task = threading.Thread(target=runTask)
task.start()
#app.route('/vote')
def vote():
session['test'] = "This is a test"
return 'success'
#app.route("/")
def hello():
return "Hello world!"
if __name__ == "__main__":
app.run()
vote.py
from flask import session
def voteQuestion():
print('session variables', session.items())
result = session.get('test', 'not set')
print ('result ', result)
if 'test' in session:
session.pop('test', None)
print ('Running in the background')
No, it's not possible. The request is over, the session in that thread is essentially a read-only copy. Writing to it won't do anything because there's no response to carry the updated cookie to the browser.
It would make more sense to store the timestamp in the temporary table when you store the temporary vote, rather than trying to do something with threads and the session.
I want to execute an async function every time the Flask route is executed. Why is the abar function never executed?
import asyncio
from flask import Flask
async def abar(a):
print(a)
loop = asyncio.get_event_loop()
app = Flask(__name__)
#app.route("/")
def notify():
asyncio.ensure_future(abar("abar"), loop=loop)
return "OK"
if __name__ == "__main__":
app.run(debug=False, use_reloader=False)
loop.run_forever()
I also tried putting the blocking call in a separate thread. But it is still not calling the abar function.
import asyncio
from threading import Thread
from flask import Flask
async def abar(a):
print(a)
app = Flask(__name__)
def start_worker(loop):
asyncio.set_event_loop(loop)
try:
loop.run_forever()
finally:
loop.close()
worker_loop = asyncio.new_event_loop()
worker = Thread(target=start_worker, args=(worker_loop,))
#app.route("/")
def notify():
asyncio.ensure_future(abar("abar"), loop=worker_loop)
return "OK"
if __name__ == "__main__":
worker.start()
app.run(debug=False, use_reloader=False)
You can incorporate some async functionality into Flask apps without having to completely convert them to asyncio.
import asyncio
from flask import Flask
async def abar(a):
print(a)
loop = asyncio.get_event_loop()
app = Flask(__name__)
#app.route("/")
def notify():
loop.run_until_complete(abar("abar"))
return "OK"
if __name__ == "__main__":
app.run(debug=False, use_reloader=False)
This will block the Flask response until the async function returns, but it still allows you to do some clever things. I've used this pattern to perform many external requests in parallel using aiohttp, and then when they are complete, I'm back into traditional flask for data processing and template rendering.
import aiohttp
import asyncio
import async_timeout
from flask import Flask
loop = asyncio.get_event_loop()
app = Flask(__name__)
async def fetch(url):
async with aiohttp.ClientSession() as session, async_timeout.timeout(10):
async with session.get(url) as response:
return await response.text()
def fight(responses):
return "Why can't we all just get along?"
#app.route("/")
def index():
# perform multiple async requests concurrently
responses = loop.run_until_complete(asyncio.gather(
fetch("https://google.com/"),
fetch("https://bing.com/"),
fetch("https://duckduckgo.com"),
fetch("http://www.dogpile.com"),
))
# do something with the results
return fight(responses)
if __name__ == "__main__":
app.run(debug=False, use_reloader=False)
A simpler solution to your problem (in my biased view) is to switch to Quart from Flask. If so your snippet simplifies to,
import asyncio
from quart import Quart
async def abar(a):
print(a)
app = Quart(__name__)
#app.route("/")
async def notify():
await abar("abar")
return "OK"
if __name__ == "__main__":
app.run(debug=False)
As noted in the other answers the Flask app run is blocking, and does not interact with an asyncio loop. Quart on the other hand is the Flask API built on asyncio, so it should work how you expect.
Also as an update, Flask-Aiohttp is no longer maintained.
Your mistake is to try to run the asyncio event loop after calling app.run(). The latter doesn't return, it instead runs the Flask development server.
In fact, that's how most WSGI setups will work; either the main thread is going to busy dispatching requests, or the Flask server is imported as a module in a WSGI server, and you can't start an event loop here either.
You'll instead have to run your asyncio event loop in a separate thread, then run your coroutines in that separate thread via asyncio.run_coroutine_threadsafe(). See the Coroutines and Multithreading section in the documentation for what this entails.
Here is an implementation of a module that will run such an event loop thread, and gives you the utilities to schedule coroutines to be run in that loop:
import asyncio
import itertools
import threading
__all__ = ["EventLoopThread", "get_event_loop", "stop_event_loop", "run_coroutine"]
class EventLoopThread(threading.Thread):
loop = None
_count = itertools.count(0)
def __init__(self):
self.started = threading.Event()
name = f"{type(self).__name__}-{next(self._count)}"
super().__init__(name=name, daemon=True)
def __repr__(self):
loop, r, c, d = self.loop, False, True, False
if loop is not None:
r, c, d = loop.is_running(), loop.is_closed(), loop.get_debug()
return (
f"<{type(self).__name__} {self.name} id={self.ident} "
f"running={r} closed={c} debug={d}>"
)
def run(self):
self.loop = loop = asyncio.new_event_loop()
asyncio.set_event_loop(loop)
loop.call_later(0, self.started.set)
try:
loop.run_forever()
finally:
try:
shutdown_asyncgens = loop.shutdown_asyncgens()
except AttributeError:
pass
else:
loop.run_until_complete(shutdown_asyncgens)
try:
shutdown_executor = loop.shutdown_default_executor()
except AttributeError:
pass
else:
loop.run_until_complete(shutdown_executor)
asyncio.set_event_loop(None)
loop.close()
def stop(self):
loop, self.loop = self.loop, None
if loop is None:
return
loop.call_soon_threadsafe(loop.stop)
self.join()
_lock = threading.Lock()
_loop_thread = None
def get_event_loop():
global _loop_thread
if _loop_thread is None:
with _lock:
if _loop_thread is None:
_loop_thread = EventLoopThread()
_loop_thread.start()
# give the thread up to a second to produce a loop
_loop_thread.started.wait(1)
return _loop_thread.loop
def stop_event_loop():
global _loop_thread
with _lock:
if _loop_thread is not None:
_loop_thread.stop()
_loop_thread = None
def run_coroutine(coro):
"""Run the coroutine in the event loop running in a separate thread
Returns a Future, call Future.result() to get the output
"""
return asyncio.run_coroutine_threadsafe(coro, get_event_loop())
You can use the run_coroutine() function defined here to schedule asyncio routines. Use the returned Future instance to control the coroutine:
Get the result with Future.result(). You can give this a timeout; if no result is produced within the timeout, the coroutine is automatically cancelled.
You can query the state of the coroutine with the .cancelled(), .running() and .done() methods.
You can add callbacks to the future, which will be called when the coroutine has completed, or is cancelled or raised an exception (take into account that this is probably going to be called from the event loop thread, not the thread that you called run_coroutine() in).
For your specific example, where abar() doesn't return any result, you can just ignore the returned future, like this:
#app.route("/")
def notify():
run_coroutine(abar("abar"))
return "OK"
Note that before Python 3.8 that you can't use an event loop running on a separate thread to create subprocesses with! See my answer to Python3 Flask asyncio subprocess in route hangs for backport of the Python 3.8 ThreadedChildWatcher class for a work-around for this.
For same reason you won't see this print:
if __name__ == "__main__":
app.run(debug=False, use_reloader=False)
print('Hey!')
loop.run_forever()
loop.run_forever() is never called since as #dirn already noted app.run is also blocking.
Running global blocking event loop - is only way you can run asyncio coroutines and tasks, but it's not compatible with running blocking Flask app (or with any other such thing in general).
If you want to use asynchronous web framework you should choose one created to be asynchronous. For example, probably most popular now is aiohttp:
from aiohttp import web
async def hello(request):
return web.Response(text="Hello, world")
if __name__ == "__main__":
app = web.Application()
app.router.add_get('/', hello)
web.run_app(app) # this runs asyncio event loop inside
Upd:
About your try to run event loop in background thread. I didn't investigate much, but it seems problem somehow related with tread-safety: many asyncio objects are not thread-safe. If you change your code this way, it'll work:
def _create_task():
asyncio.ensure_future(abar("abar"), loop=worker_loop)
#app.route("/")
def notify():
worker_loop.call_soon_threadsafe(_create_task)
return "OK"
But again, this is very bad idea. It's not only very inconvenient, but I guess wouldn't make much sense: if you're going to use thread to start asyncio, why don't just use threads in Flask instead of asyncio? You will have Flask you want and parallelization.
If I still didn't convince you, at least take a look at Flask-aiohttp project. It has close to Flask api and I think still better that what you're trying to do.
The main issue, as already explained in the other answers by #Martijn Pieters and #Mikhail Gerasimov is that app.run is blocking, so the line loop.run_forever() is never called. You will need to manually set up and maintain a run loop on a separate thread.
Fortunately, with Flask 2.0, you don't need to create, run, and manage your own event loop anymore. You can define your route as async def and directly await on coroutines from your route functions.
https://flask.palletsprojects.com/en/2.0.x/async-await/
Using async and await
New in version 2.0.
Routes, error handlers, before request, after request, and teardown
functions can all be coroutine functions if Flask is installed with
the async extra (pip install flask[async]). It requires Python 3.7+
where contextvars.ContextVar is available. This allows views to be
defined with async def and use await.
Flask will take care of creating the event loop on each request. All you have to do is define your coroutines and await on them to finish:
https://flask.palletsprojects.com/en/2.0.x/async-await/#performance
Performance
Async functions require an event loop to run. Flask, as a WSGI
application, uses one worker to handle one request/response cycle.
When a request comes into an async view, Flask will start an event
loop in a thread, run the view function there, then return the result.
Each request still ties up one worker, even for async views. The
upside is that you can run async code within a view, for example to
make multiple concurrent database queries, HTTP requests to an
external API, etc. However, the number of requests your application
can handle at one time will remain the same.
Tweaking the original example from the question:
import asyncio
from flask import Flask, jsonify
async def send_notif(x: int):
print(f"Called coro with {x}")
await asyncio.sleep(1)
return {"x": x}
app = Flask(__name__)
#app.route("/")
async def notify():
futures = [send_notif(x) for x in range(5)]
results = await asyncio.gather(*futures)
response = list(results)
return jsonify(response)
# The recommended way now is to use `flask run`.
# See: https://flask.palletsprojects.com/en/2.0.x/cli/
# if __name__ == "__main__":
# app.run(debug=False, use_reloader=False)
$ time curl -s -XGET 'http://localhost:5000'
[{"x":0},{"x":1},{"x":2},{"x":3},{"x":4}]
real 0m1.016s
user 0m0.005s
sys 0m0.006s
Most common recipes using asyncio can be applied the same way. The one thing to take note of is, as of Flask 2.0.1, we cannot use asyncio.create_task to spawn background tasks:
https://flask.palletsprojects.com/en/2.0.x/async-await/#background-tasks
Async functions will run in an event loop until they complete, at which
stage the event loop will stop. This means any additional spawned
tasks that haven’t completed when the async function completes will be
cancelled. Therefore you cannot spawn background tasks, for example
via asyncio.create_task.
If you wish to use background tasks it is best to use a task queue to
trigger background work, rather than spawn tasks in a view function.
Other than the limitation with create_task, it should work for use-cases where you want to make async database queries or multiple calls to external APIs.
I'm developing a simple API in Flask, it isn't REST or anything.
There's a module that returns real-time data in a list.
The module in question
# module.py
def get_data():
do_something()
return [info_from_somewhere, info_from_other_place]
And the app
# app.py
import module
#app.route('/')
def get_data():
return jsonify(data=module.get_data()[0])
The thing is, this would run the function every time someones requests that route. And as the data is only one for all, I want to give it for every request but running the function just once.
Edit: I tried this:
got_data = module.get_data()
#app.route('/')
def get_data():
return jsonify(data=got_data[0])
Works, but don't refresh the list. So my question would be "how can I refresh it every second?" I tried sleep but it freezes my app
You could achieve this with celery. From project page.
Celery is an asynchronous task queue/job queue based on distributed message passing. It is focused on real-time operation, but supports scheduling as well.
Other solution could be done by spawning a thread, that will update the data every second, but this could get tricky really fast.
from threading import Timer
from flask import Flask
app = Flask(__name__)
DATA = "data"
def update_data(interval):
Timer(interval, update_data, [interval]).start()
global DATA
DATA = DATA + " updating..."
# update data every second
update_data(1)
#app.route("/")
def index():
return DATA
if __name__ == "__main__":
app.run(debug=True)
I'm trying to use threading in my flask app, like:
#app.route('/index')
def index():
t = threading.Thread(do_sth_else())
t.start()
print('ready to response')
return render_template('index.html')
def do_sth_else():
time.sleep(5)
print('sth else done')
When calling 127.0.0.1:5000/index in the browser, the result in the server console is not what I expected:
sth else done
ready to response
I want the do_sth_else() function to run in some other thread, while the index() function go on returning the response right away, which means I should see the above result in defferent order.
So I want to know:
Why the index() function kept waiting until do_sth_else() is finished
How do I get the app working as I wanted
Thanks!
t = threading.Thread(do_sth_else()) calls do_sth_else() and pass it's result to Thread.
You should use it like t = threading.Thread(do_sth_else).
This example working as you want (tested on Python 3.4.3)
from time import sleep
from concurrent.futures import ThreadPoolExecutor
# DOCS https://docs.python.org/3/library/concurrent.futures.html#concurrent.futures.ThreadPoolExecutor
executor = ThreadPoolExecutor(2)
#app.route('/index')
def index():
executor.submit(do_sth_else)
print('ready to response')
return render_template('index.html')
def do_sth_else():
print("Task started!")
sleep(10)
print("Task is done!")
For actual parallelization in Python, you should use the multiprocessing module to fork multiple processes that execute in parallel.
Python threads provide interleaving, but are in fact executed serially, not in parallel.
This applies to CPython due to the existence of global interpreter lock, otherwise true concurrency is bound to number of cpu's you have
I have a bottle app that I eventually wan't to deploy on apache (just fyi in case that's important).
Now I need to run a function once after the bottle app is started. I can't just put it into a routed function because it has to run even if no user has accessed the site yet.
Any best pratice to do this ?
The function starts a APScheduler Instance and adds a jobstore to it.
Here's what I do.
def initialize():
//init whatever you need.
if __name__ == '__main__':
initialize()
#bottle.run(port='8080', yatta yatta)
Honestly your problem is simply a sync vs async issue. Use gevent to easily convert to microthreads, and then launch each separately. You can even add a delay either in your function or before with gevent.sleep if you want to wait for the web server to finish launching.
import gevent
from gevent import monkey, signal, spawn, joinall
monkey.patch_all()
from gevent.pywsgi import WSGIServer
from bottle import Bottle, get, post, request, response, template, redirect, hook, abort
import bottle
#get('/')
def mainindex():
return "Hello World"
def apScheduler():
print "AFTER SERVER START"
if __name__ == "__main__":
botapp = bottle.app()
server = WSGIServer(("0.0.0.0", 80), botapp)
threads = []
threads.append(spawn(server.serve_forever))
threads.append(spawn(apScheduler))
joinall(threads)
Create an APScheduler class.
Look at examples of object use and creation in this same site bacause it's too general to give an especific example to copy.
I don't know if this helps.
class Shed(object):
def __init__(self): # this to start it
# instruccions here
def Newshed(self, data):
# Call from bottle
# more methods ...
...
# init
aps = Shed() # this activates Shed.__init__()
...
# in the #router
x = aps.Newshed(data) # or whatever
Anyway I'm still learning this stuff and it's just an idea.
import threading
import bottle
def init_app():
def my_function_on_startup():
# some code here
pass
app = bottle.app()
t = threading.Thread(target=my_function_on_startup)
t.daemon = True
t.start()
return app
app = init_app()
#app.route("/")
def hello():
return "App is running"
if __name__ == "__main__":
bottle.run(app, host='localhost', port=8080, debug=True)