Python sqlite3 connection - python

In my program there are multiple asynchronous functions updating data in a database.
There can be some cases where the functions are executed parallelly.
My question is :
In my case, do I need to create a new connection each time in a function or having a single connection throughout the program will work fine.
Second, in case of a single connection is it necessary to close it at the end?
Also, please recommend the best tool to access .db file outside the code [Just in case], that shouldn't interrupt the connections of the code with the database even if I make some changes personally outside the code.
Note : Am on windows
Thanks!

Related

Is it possible to trigger a script or program if any data is updated in a database, like MySQL?

It doesn't have to be exactly a trigger inside the database. I just want to know how I should design this, so that when changes are made inside MySQL or SQL server, some script could be triggered.
One Way would be to keep a counter on the last updated row in the database, and then you need to keep polling(Checking) the database through python for new records in short intervals.
If the value in the counter is increased then you could use the subprocess module to call another Python script.
It's possible to execute an external script from a MySql trigger, but I never used it and I don't know the implications of something like this.
MySql provides a way to implement your own functions, its called User Defined Functions. With this you can define your own functions and call them from MySql events. You need to write your own logic in a C program by following the interface provided by MySql.
Fortunately someone already did a library to call an external program from MySql: LIB_MYSQLUDF_SYS. After installing it, the following trigger should work:
CREATE TRIGGER Test_Trigger
AFTER INSERT ON MyTable
FOR EACH ROW
BEGIN
DECLARE cmd CHAR(255);
DECLARE result int(10);
SET cmd=CONCAT('/YOUR_SCRIPT');
SET result = sys_exec(cmd);
END;

SQL Stored Procedures not finishing when called from Python

I'm trying to call a stored procedure in my MSSQL database from a python script, but it does not run completely when called via python. This procedure consolidates transaction data into hour/daily blocks in a single table which is later grabbed by the python script. If I run the procedure in SQL studio, it completes just fine.
When I run it via my script, it gets cut short about 2/3's of the way through. Currently I found a work around, by making the program sleep for 10 seconds before moving on to the next SQL statement, however this is not time efficient and unreliable as some procedures may not finish in that time. I'm looking for a more elegant way to implement this.
Current Code:
cursor.execute("execute mySP")
time.sleep(10)
cursor.commit()
The most related article I can find to my issue is here:
make python wait for stored procedure to finish executing
I tried the solution using Tornado and I/O generators, but ran into the same issue as listed in the article, that was never resolved. I also tried the accepted solution to set a runningstatus field in the database by my stored procedures. At the beginnning of my SP Status is updated to 1 in RunningStatus, and when the SP finished Status is updated to 0 in RunningStatus. Then I implemented the following python code:
conn=pyodbc_connect(conn_str)
cursor=conn.cursor()
sconn=pyodbc_connect(conn_str)
scursor=sconn.cursor()
cursor.execute("execute mySP")
cursor.commit()
while 1:
q=scursor.execute("SELECT Status FROM RunningStatus").fetchone()
if(q[0]==0):
break
When I implement this, the same problem happens as before with my storedprocedure finishing executing prior to it actually being complete. If I eliminate my cursor.commit(), as follows, I end up with the connection just hanging indefinitely until I kill the python process.
conn=pyodbc_connect(conn_str)
cursor=conn.cursor()
sconn=pyodbc_connect(conn_str)
scursor=sconn.cursor()
cursor.execute("execute mySP")
while 1:
q=scursor.execute("SELECT Status FROM RunningStatus").fetchone()
if(q[0]==0):
break
Any assistance in finding a more efficient and reliable way to implement this, as opposed to time.sleep(10) would be appreciated.
As OP found out, inconsistent or imcomplete processing of stored procedures from application layer like Python may be due to straying from best practices of TSQL scripting.
As #AaronBetrand highlights in this Stored Procedures Best Practices Checklist blog, consider the following among other items:
Explicitly and liberally use BEGIN ... END blocks;
Use SET NOCOUNT ON to avoid messages sent to client for every row affected action, possibly interrupting workflow;
Use semicolons for statement terminators.
Example
CREATE PROCEDURE dbo.myStoredProc
AS
BEGIN
SET NOCOUNT ON;
SELECT * FROM foo;
SELECT * FROM bar;
END
GO

running 2 python scripts without them effecting each other

I have 2 python scripts I'm trying to run side by side. However, each of them have to open and close and reopen independently from each other. Also, one of the scripts is running inside a shell script.
Flaskserver.py & ./pyinit.sh
Flaskserver.py is just a flask server that needs to be restarted everynow and again to load a new page. (cant define all pages as the html is interchangeable). the pyinit is runs as xinit ./pyinit.sh (its selenium-webdriver pythoncode)
So when the Flaskserver changes and restarts the ./pyinit needs to wait about 20 seconds then restart as well.
Either one of these can create errors so I need to be able to check if Flaskserver has an error before restarting ./pyinit if ./pyinit errors i need to set the Flaskserver to a default value and then relaunch both of them.
I know a little about subprocess but I'm unsure on how it can deal with errors and stop-start code.
Rather than using sub-process I would recommend you to create a different thread for your processes using multithread.
Multithreading will not solve the problem if global variables are colliding, but by running them in different scripts, while you might solve this, you might collide in something else like a log file.
Now, if you keep both processes running from a single process that takes care of keeping them separated and assigning different global variables where necessary, you should be able to keep a better control. Using things like join and lock from the multithreading library, will also ensure that they don't collide and it should be easy to put a process to sleep while the other is running (as per waiting 20 secs).
You can keep a thread list as a global variable, as well as your lock. I have done this successfully with CherryPy's server for example. Any more details about multithreading look into the question I linked above, it's very well explained.

What is the proper way of using MySQLdb connections and cursors across multiple functions in Python

I'm kind of new to Python and its MySQLdb connector.
I'm writing an API to return some data from a database using the RESTful approach. In PHP, I wrapped the Connection management part in a class, acting as an abstraction layer for MySQL queries.
In Python:
I define the connection early on in the script: con = mdb.connect('localhost', 'user', 'passwd', 'dbname')
Then, in all subsequent methods:
import MySQLdb as mdb
def insert_func():
with con:
cur = con.cursor(mdb.cursors.DictCursor)
cur.execute("INSERT INTO table (col1, col2, col3) VALUES (%s, %s, %s)", (val1, val2, val3) )
rows = cur.fetchall()
#do something with the results
return someval
etc.
I use mdb.cursors.DictCursor because I prefer to be able to access database columns in an associative array manner.
Now the problems start popping up:
in one function, I issue an insert query to create a 'group' with unique 'groupid'.
This 'group' has a creator. Every user in the database holds a JSON array in the 'groups' column of his/her row in the table.
So when I create a new group, I want to assign the groupid to the user that created it.
I update the user's record using a similar function.
I've wrapped the 'insert' and 'update' parts in two separate function defs.
The first time I run the script, everything works fine.
The second time I run the script, the script runs endlessly (I suspect due to some idle connection to the MySQL database).
When I interrupt it using CTRL + C, I get one of the following errors:
"'Cursor' object has no attribute 'connection'"
"commands out of sync; you can't run this command now"
or any other KeyboardInterrupt exception, as would be expected.
It seems to me that these errors are caused by some erroneous way of handling connections and cursors in my code.
I read it was good practice to use with con: so that the connection will automatically close itself after the query. I use 'with' on 'con' in each function, so the connection is closed, but I decided to define the connection globally, for any function to use it. This seems incompatible with the with con: context management. I suspect the cursor needs to be 'context managed' in a similar way, but I do not know how to do this (To my knowledge, PHP doesn't use cursors for MySQL, so I have no experience using them).
I now have the following questions:
Why does it work the first time but not the second? (it will however, work again, once, after the CTRL + C interrupt).
How should I go about using connections and cursors when using multiple functions (that can be called upon in sequence)?
I think there are two main issues going on here- one appears to be python code and the other is the structure of how you're interacting to your DB.
First, you're not closing your connection. This depends on your application's needs - you have to decide how long it should stay open. Reference this SO question
from contextlib import closing
with closing( connection.cursor() ) as cursor:
... use the cursor ...
# cursor closed. Guaranteed.
connection.close()
Right now, you have to interrupt your program with Ctl+C because there's no reason for your with statement to stop running.
Second, start thinking about your interactions with the DB in terms of 'transactions'. Do something, commit it to the DB, if it didn't work, rollback, if it did, close the connection. Here's a tutorial.
With connections, as with file handles the rule of thumb is open late, close early.
So I would recommend share connections only where they are trying to do one thing. Or if you multiprocess, then each process gets a connection, again following open late, close early. And if you are doing sequential operation (say in a loop) open and close outside the loop. Having global connections can get messy. Mainly because now you have to keep track of which function uses it at what time, and what it tries to do with it.
The issue of "cannot run command now", is because your keyboard interrupt kills the active connection.
As to part one of your question - endlessly could be anywhere. Each instance of python will get its own connection. So when you run it the second time it should get its own connection. Open up a mysql client and do
show full processlist
to see whats going on.

Python re establishment after Server shuts down

I have a python script running on my server which accessed a database, executes a fetch query and runs a learning algorithm to classify and updates certain values and means depending on the query.
I want to know if for some reason my server shuts down in between then my python script would shut down and my query lost.
How do i get to know where to continue from once I re-run the script and i want to carry on the updated means from the previous queries that have happened.
First of all: the question is not really related to Python at all. It's a general problem.
And the answer is simple: keep track of what your script does (in a file or directly in db). If it crashes continue from the last step.

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