Flask-Executor 1.0.0
An easy to use Flask wrapper for concurrent.futures
License: MIT
Keywords: flask,concurrent.futures

Flask-Executor
==============

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Sometimes you need a simple task queue without the overhead of separate worker processes or powerful-but-complex libraries beyond your requirements. Flask-Executor is an easy to use wrapper for the `concurrent.futures` module that lets you initialise and configure executors via common Flask application patterns. It's a great way to get up and running fast with a lightweight in-process task queue.

Installation
------------

Flask-Executor is available on PyPI and can be installed with:

    pip install flask-executor


Quick start
-----------

Here's a quick example of using Flask-Executor inside your Flask application:

```python
from flask import Flask
from flask_executor import Executor

app = Flask(__name__)

executor = Executor(app)


def send_email(recipient, subject, body):
    # Magic to send an email
    return True


@app.route('/signup')
def signup():
    # Do signup form
    executor.submit(send_email, recipient, subject, body)
```


Contexts
--------

When calling `submit()` or `map()` Flask-Executor will wrap `ThreadPoolExecutor` callables with a
copy of both the current application context and current request context. Code that must be run in
these contexts or that depends on information or configuration stored in `flask.current_app`,
`flask.request` or `flask.g` can be submitted to the executor without modification.

Note: due to limitations in Python's default object serialisation and a lack of shared memory space between subprocesses, contexts cannot be pushed to `ProcessPoolExecutor()` workers.


Futures
-------

You may want to preserve access to Futures returned from the executor, so that you can retrieve the
results in a different part of your application. Flask-Executor allows Futures to be stored within
the executor itself and provides methods for querying and returning them in different parts of your
app::

```python
@app.route('/start-task')
def start_task():
    executor.submit_stored('calc_power', pow, 323, 1235)
    return jsonify({'result':'success'})

@app.route('/get-result')
def get_result():
    if not executor.futures.done('calc_power'):
        return jsonify({'status': executor.futures._state('calc_power')})
    future = executor.futures.pop('calc_power')
    return jsonify({'status': done, 'result': future.result()})
```


Decoration
----------

Flask-Executor lets you decorate methods in the same style as distributed task queues like
Celery:

```python
@executor.job
def fib(n):
    if n <= 2:
        return 1
    else:
        return fib(n-1) + fib(n-2)

@app.route('/decorate_fib')
def decorate_fib():
    fib.submit(5)
    fib.submit_stored('fibonacci', 5)
    fib.map(range(1, 6))
    return 'OK'
```


Default Callbacks
-----------------

Future objects can have callbacks attached by using `Future.add_done_callback`. Flask-Executor
lets you specify default callbacks that will be applied to all new futures created by the executor:

```python
def some_callback(future):
    # do something with future

executor.add_default_done_callback(some_callback)

# Callback will be added to the below task automatically
executor.submit(pow, 323, 1235)
```


Propagate Exceptions
--------------------

Normally any exceptions thrown by background threads or processes will be swallowed unless explicitly
checked for. To instead surface all exceptions thrown by background tasks, Flask-Executor can add
a special default callback that raises any exceptions thrown by tasks submitted to the executor::

```python
app.config['EXECUTOR_PROPAGATE_EXCEPTIONS'] = True
```


Documentation
-------------

Check out the full documentation at [flask-executor.readthedocs.io](https://flask-executor.readthedocs.io)!