django session check for existance - python

I am trying to check if the session does have anything in it. What I did is:
if request.session:
# do something
but it is not working. Is there any way of knowing whether the session contains something at that moment?
If I do request.session['some_name'], it works, but in some cases, I just need to know if the session is empty or not.
Asking with some specific names is not always a wanted thing.
Eg. if there is no session, it returns an error, since some_name doesn't exist.

request.session is an instance of SessionBase object which behaves like dictionary but it it is not a dictionary. This object has a "private" field ( actually it's a property ) called _session which is a dictionary which holds all data.
The reason for that is that Django does not load session until you call request.session[key]. It is lazily instantiated.
So you can try doing that:
if request.session._session:
# do something
or you can do it by looking at keys like this:
if request.session.keys():
# do something
Note how .keys() works:
django/contrib/sessions/backends/base.py
class SessionBase(object):
# some code
def keys(self):
return self._session.keys()
# some code
I always recommend reading the source code directly.

Nowadays there's a convenience method on the session object
request.session.is_empty()

Related

Drawbacks of executing code in an SQLAlchemy managed session and if so why?

I have seen different "patterns" in handling this case so I am wondering if one has any drawbacks comapred to the other.
So lets assume that we wish to create a new object of class MyClass and add it to the database. We can do the following:
class MyClass:
pass
def builder_method_for_myclass():
# A lot of code here..
return MyClass()
my_object=builder_method_for_myclass()
with db.managed_session() as s:
s.add(my_object)
which seems that only keeps the session open for adding the new object but I have also seen cases where the entire builder method is called and executed within the managed session like so:
class MyClass:
pass
def builder_method_for_myclass():
# A lot of code here..
return MyClass()
with db.managed_session() as s:
my_object=builder_method_for_myclass()
are there any downsides in either of these methods and if yes what are they? Cant find something specific about this in the documentation.
When you build objects depending on objects fetched from a session you have to be in a session. So a factory function can only execute outside a session for the simplest cases. Usually you have to pass the session around or make it available on a thread local.
For example in this case to build a product I need to fetch the product category from the database into the session. So my product factory function depends on the session instance. The new product is created and added to the same session that the category is also in. An implicit commit should also occur when the session ends, ie the context manager completes.
def build_product(session, category_name):
category = session.query(ProductCategory).where(
ProductCategory.name == category_name).first()
return Product(category=category)
with db.managed_session() as s:
my_product = build_product(s, "clothing")
s.add(my_product)

MongoEngine: Create Pickle field

I'm using MongoEngine and trying to create a field that works like SQLAlchemy's PickleType field. Basically, I just need to pickle objects before they're written to the database, and unpickle them when they're loaded.
However it looks like MongoEngine's fields don't provide proper conversion methods I could override, instead having two coercion methods (to_python and to_mongo). If I understand correctly, these functions can be called anytime, that is, a call to to_python(v) does not guarantee that v comes from the database. I've thought of writing something like this:
class PickleField(fields.BinaryField):
def to_python(self, value):
value = super().to_python(value)
if <<value was pickled by the field>>
return pickle.loads(value)
else:
return value
Unfortunately, if I want to be as general as possible, I don't see a way to check whether the value should be unpickled or not. For instance,
a = pickle.dumps(x)
PickleField().to_python(a) # should return a, will return x
I also don't think I can store any state in the PickleField, since that's shared by all instances.
Is there a way around this?

Instance is not bound to a Session after expunge_all called [duplicate]

I am trying to get an collection of objects out of a database and pass it to another process that is not connected to the database. My code looks like the one below but I keep getting:
sqlalchemy.exc.UnboundExecutionError: Instance <MyClass at 0x8db7fec> is not bound to a Session; attribute refresh operation cannot proceed
When I try to look at the elements of my list outside of the get_list() method.
def get_list (obj):
sesson = Session()
lst = session.query(MyClass).all()
session.close()
return lst
However, if I use this:
def get_list_bis (obj)
session = Session()
return session.query(MyClass).all()
I am able to use the elements but worry about the state of the session since it was not closed.
What am I missing here?
If you want a bunch of objects produced by querying a session to be usable outside the scope of the session, you need to expunge them for the session.
In your first function example, you will need to add a line:
session.expunge_all()
before
session.close()
More generally, let's say the session is not closed right away, like in the first example. Perhaps this is a session that is kept active during entire duration of a web request or something like that. In such cases, you don't want to do expunge_all. You will want to be more surgical:
for item in lst:
session.expunge(item)
This often happens due to objects being in expired state, objects get expired for example after committing, then when such expired objects are about to get used the ORM tries to refresh them, but this cannot be done when objects are detached from session (e.g. because that session was closed). This behavior can be managed by creating session with expire_on_commit=False param.
>>> from sqlalchemy import inspect
>>> insp = inspect(my_object)
>>> insp.expired
True # then it will be refreshed...
In my case, I was saving a related entity as well, and this recipe helped me to refresh all instances within a session, leveraging the fact that Session is iterable:
map(session.refresh, iter(session)) # call refresh() on every instance
This is extremely ineffective, but works. Should be fine for unit-tests.
Final note: in Python3 map() is a generator and won't do anything. Use real loops of list comprehensions

SQLAlchemy, get object not bound to a Session

I am trying to get an collection of objects out of a database and pass it to another process that is not connected to the database. My code looks like the one below but I keep getting:
sqlalchemy.exc.UnboundExecutionError: Instance <MyClass at 0x8db7fec> is not bound to a Session; attribute refresh operation cannot proceed
When I try to look at the elements of my list outside of the get_list() method.
def get_list (obj):
sesson = Session()
lst = session.query(MyClass).all()
session.close()
return lst
However, if I use this:
def get_list_bis (obj)
session = Session()
return session.query(MyClass).all()
I am able to use the elements but worry about the state of the session since it was not closed.
What am I missing here?
If you want a bunch of objects produced by querying a session to be usable outside the scope of the session, you need to expunge them for the session.
In your first function example, you will need to add a line:
session.expunge_all()
before
session.close()
More generally, let's say the session is not closed right away, like in the first example. Perhaps this is a session that is kept active during entire duration of a web request or something like that. In such cases, you don't want to do expunge_all. You will want to be more surgical:
for item in lst:
session.expunge(item)
This often happens due to objects being in expired state, objects get expired for example after committing, then when such expired objects are about to get used the ORM tries to refresh them, but this cannot be done when objects are detached from session (e.g. because that session was closed). This behavior can be managed by creating session with expire_on_commit=False param.
>>> from sqlalchemy import inspect
>>> insp = inspect(my_object)
>>> insp.expired
True # then it will be refreshed...
In my case, I was saving a related entity as well, and this recipe helped me to refresh all instances within a session, leveraging the fact that Session is iterable:
map(session.refresh, iter(session)) # call refresh() on every instance
This is extremely ineffective, but works. Should be fine for unit-tests.
Final note: in Python3 map() is a generator and won't do anything. Use real loops of list comprehensions

How do I get the key value of a db.ReferenceProperty without a database hit?

Is there a way to get the key (or id) value of a db.ReferenceProperty, without dereferencing the actual entity it points to? I have been digging around - it looks like the key is stored as the property name preceeded with an _, but I have been unable to get any code working. Examples would be much appreciated. Thanks.
EDIT: Here is what I have unsuccessfully tried:
class Comment(db.Model):
series = db.ReferenceProperty(reference_class=Series);
def series_id(self):
return self._series
And in my template:
more
The result:
more
Actually, the way that you are advocating accessing the key for a ReferenceProperty might well not exist in the future. Attributes that begin with '_' in python are generally accepted to be "protected" in that things that are closely bound and intimate with its implementation can use them, but things that are updated with the implementation must change when it changes.
However, there is a way through the public interface that you can access the key for your reference-property so that it will be safe in the future. I'll revise the above example:
class Comment(db.Model):
series = db.ReferenceProperty(reference_class=Series);
def series_id(self):
return Comment.series.get_value_for_datastore(self)
When you access properties via the class it is associated, you get the property object itself, which has a public method that can get the underlying values.
You're correct - the key is stored as the property name prefixed with '_'. You should just be able to access it directly on the model object. Can you demonstrate what you're trying? I've used this technique in the past with no problems.
Edit: Have you tried calling series_id() directly, or referencing _series in your template directly? I'm not sure whether Django automatically calls methods with no arguments if you specify them in this context. You could also try putting the #property decorator on the method.

Categories