Develop Reference

How I can use Airflow template reference in the DAG python code

I am new in the Airflow world and trying to understand one thing. For example I have a DAG that contains 2 tasks. The first task is submitting spark job, and the second one is Sensor that waits for a file in s3.
RUN_DATE_ARG = datetime.utcnow().strftime(DATE_FORMAT_PY)
DATE = datetime.strptime(RUN_DATE_ARG, DATE_FORMAT_PY) - timedelta(hours=1)
with DAG() as dag:
submit_spark_job = EmrContainerOperator(
task_id="start_job",
virtual_cluster_id=VIRTUAL_CLUSTER_ID,
execution_role_arn=JOB_ROLE_ARN,
release_label="emr-6.3.0-latest",
job_driver=JOB_DRIVER_ARG,
configuration_overrides=CONFIGURATION_OVERRIDES_ARG,
name=f"spark-{RUN_DATE_ARG}",
retries=3
)
validate_s3_success_file = S3KeySensor(
task_id='check_for_success_file',
bucket_name="bucket-name",
bucket_key=f"blabla/date={DATE.strftime('%Y-%m-%d')}/hour={DATE.strftime('%H')}/_SUCCESS",
poke_interval=10,
timeout=60,
verify=False,
)
I have a RUN_DATE_ARG that by default should be taken from datetime.utcnow() and this is one of sparks java arguments that I should provide to my job.
I want to add an ability to submit job with custom date argument (via airflow UI).
When I am trying to retrieve it as '{{ dag_run.conf["date"] | None}}' it replaces with value inside task configuration (bucket_key=f"blabla/date={DATE.strftime('%Y-%m-%d')}/hour={DATE.strftime('%H')}/_SUCCESS",), but not for DAG's python code if I do following:
date='{{ dag_run.conf["date"] | None}}'
if date is None:
RUN_DATE_ARG = datetime.utcnow().strftime(DATE_FORMAT_PY)
else:
RUN_DATE_ARG = date
Do I have any way to use this value as a code variable?

You can not use templating outside of operators scope.
You should use Jinja if statements in the operator templated parameter. The following is just a general idea:
submit_spark_job = EmrContainerOperator(
task_id="start_job",
...
name="spark-{{ dag_run.conf["date"] if dag_run.conf["date"] is not None else jinja_utc_now }}",
)
You will need to replace jinja_utc_now with code that retrieve the timestamp probably something like what is shown in this answer.
You can also use:
{% if something %}
code
{% else %}
another code
{% endif %}
From Airflow point of view it takes the parameter and pass it though Jinja engine for templating so the key issue here is just to use the proper Jinja syntax.

Use XCOM Value In Operators

I want to use XCOM values as a parameter of my Operator.
Firstly, was executed OracleReadOperator, which read table from db, and return values.
This is value in XCOM:
[{'SOURCE_HOST': 'TEST_HOST'}]
Using this function I want to get value from xcom
def print_xcom(**kwargs):
ti = kwargs['ti']
ti.xcom_pull(task_ids='task1')
Then use values as as parameter:
with DAG(
schedule_interval='#daily',
dagrun_timeout=timedelta(minutes=120),
default_args=args,
template_searchpath=tmpl_search_path,
catchup=False,
dag_id='test'
) as dag:
test_l = OracleLoadOperator(
task_id = "task1",
oracle_conn_id="orcl_conn_id",
object_name='table'
)
test_l
def print_xcom(**kwargs):
ti = kwargs['ti']
ti.xcom_pull(task_ids='task1', value='TARGET_TABLE')
load_from_db = MsSqlToOracleTransfer(
task_id= 'task2',
mssql_conn_id = "{task_instance.xcom_pull(task_ids='task1') }",
oracle_conn_id = 'conn_def_orc',
sql= 'test.sql',
oracle_table = "oracle_table"
tasks.append(load_from_db)
I don't know do I need print_xcom function.
Or I can get value without it, if yes how?
I got this error:
airflow.exceptions.AirflowNotFoundException: The conn_id `{ task_instance.xcom_pull(task_ids='task1') }` isn't defined

To resolve the immediate NameError exception, Jinja expressions are strings so the arg for oracle_table needs to be updated to:
oracle_table = "{{ task_instance.xcom_pull(task_ids='print_xcom', key='task1') }}"
EDIT
(Since the question and problem changed.)
Only template_fields declared for an operator can use Jinja expressions. It looks like MsSqlToOracleTransfer is a custom operator and if you want to use a Jinja template for the mssql_conn_id arg, it needs to be declared as part of template_fields otherwise the literal string is used as the arg value (which is what you're seeing). Also you need the expression in the "{{ ... }}" format as well.
Here is some guidance on Jinja templating with custom operators if you find it helpful.
However, it seems like there is more to this picture than what we have context for. What is task1? Are you simply trying to retrieve a connection ID? What is it exactly you are trying to accomplish accessing XComs in the DAG?

The Airflow tasks has implemented the output attribute that returns an intance of XComArs. For example:
def push_xcom(ti):
return {"key": "value"}
def pull_xcom(input):
print(f'XCom: {input}')
with DAG(...) as dag:
start = PythonOperator(task_id='dp_start', python_callable=push_xcom)
end = PythonOperator(task_id='dp_start', python_callable=pull_xcom,
op_kwargs={'input': start.output})
start >> end
Maybe you could use test_l.output in load_from_db.mssql_conn_id, But I think in the case of whatever_conn_id parameters, the value should be the ID of an Airflow connection.

Accessing airflow operator value outside of operator

Outside of an operator, I need to call a SubdagOperator and pass it an operator's return value, using xcom. I've seen tons of solutions (Airflow - How to pass xcom variable into Python function, How to retrieve a value from Airflow XCom pushed via SSHExecuteOperator, etc).
They all basically say 'variable_name': "{{ ti.xcom_pull(task_ids='some_task_id') }}"
But my Jinja template keeps getting rendered as a string, and not returning the actual variable. Any ideas why?
Here is my current code in the main dag:
PARENT_DAG_NAME = 'my_main_dag'
CHILD_DAG_NAME = 'run_featurization_dag'
run_featurization_task = SubDagOperator(
task_id=CHILD_DAG_NAME,
subdag=run_featurization_sub_dag(PARENT_DAG_NAME, CHILD_DAG_NAME, default_args, cur_date, "'{{ ti.xcom_pull(task_ids='get_num_accounts', dag_id='" + PARENT_DAG_NAME + "') }}'" ),
default_args=default_args,
dag=main_dag
)

Too many quotes? Try this one
"{{ ti.xcom_pull(task_ids='get_num_accounts', dag_id='" + PARENT_DAG_NAME + "') }}"

Jinja templating works only for certain parameters, not all.
You can use Jinja templating with every parameter that is marked as “templated” in the documentation. Template substitution occurs just before the pre_execute function of your operator is called.
https://airflow.apache.org/concepts.html#jinja-templating
So I'm afraid you can't pass a variable this way.

Airflow: pass {{ ds }} as param to PostgresOperator

i would like to use execution date as parameter to my sql file:
i tried
dt = '{{ ds }}'
s3_to_redshift = PostgresOperator(
task_id='s3_to_redshift',
postgres_conn_id='redshift',
sql='s3_to_redshift.sql',
params={'file': dt},
dag=dag
)
but it doesn't work.

dt = '{{ ds }}'
Doesn't work because Jinja (the templating engine used within airflow) does not process the entire Dag definition file.
For each Operator there are fields which Jinja will process, which are part of the definition of the operator itself.
In this case, you can make the params field (which is actually called parameters, make sure to change this) templated if you extend the PostgresOperator like this:
class MyPostgresOperator(PostgresOperator):
template_fields = ('sql','parameters')
Now you should be able to do:
s3_to_redshift = MyPostgresOperator(
task_id='s3_to_redshift',
postgres_conn_id='redshift',
sql='s3_to_redshift.sql',
parameters={'file': '{{ ds }}'},
dag=dag
)

PostgresOperator / JDBCOperator inherit from BaseOperator.
One of the input parameters of BaseOperator is params:
self.params = params or {} # Available in templates!
So, you should be able to use it without creating a new class:
(even though params is not included into template_fields)
t1 = JdbcOperator(
task_id='copy',
sql='copy.sql',
jdbc_conn_id='connection_name',
params={'schema_name':'public'},
dag=dag
)
SQL statement (copy.sql) might look like:
copy {{ params.schema_name }}.table_name
from 's3://.../table_name.csv'
iam_role 'arn:aws:iam::<acc_num>:role/<role_name>'
csv
IGNOREHEADER 1
Note:
copy.sql resides at the same location where the DAG is located.
OR
you can define "template_searchpath" variable in "default_args" and specify absolute path to the folder where template file resides.
For example: 'template_searchpath': '/home/user/airflow/templates/'

How do I format a date in Jinja2?

Using Jinja2, how do I format a date field? I know in Python I can simply do this:
print(car.date_of_manufacture.strftime('%Y-%m-%d'))
But how do I format the date in Jinja2?

There are two ways to do it. The direct approach would be to simply call (and print) the strftime() method in your template, for example
{{ car.date_of_manufacture.strftime('%Y-%m-%d') }}
Another, sightly better approach would be to define your own filter, e.g.:
from flask import Flask
import babel
app = Flask(__name__)
#app.template_filter()
def format_datetime(value, format='medium'):
if format == 'full':
format="EEEE, d. MMMM y 'at' HH:mm"
elif format == 'medium':
format="EE dd.MM.y HH:mm"
return babel.dates.format_datetime(value, format)
(This filter is based on babel for reasons regarding i18n, but you can use strftime too). The advantage of the filter is, that you can write
{{ car.date_of_manufacture|format_datetime }}
{{ car.date_of_manufacture|format_datetime('full') }}
which looks nicer and is more maintainable. Another common filter is also the "timedelta" filter, which evaluates to something like "written 8 minutes ago". You can use babel.dates.format_timedelta for that, and register it as filter similar to the datetime example given here.

Here's the filter that I ended up using for strftime in Jinja2 and Flask
#app.template_filter('strftime')
def _jinja2_filter_datetime(date, fmt=None):
date = dateutil.parser.parse(date)
native = date.replace(tzinfo=None)
format='%b %d, %Y'
return native.strftime(format)
And then you use the filter like so:
{{car.date_of_manufacture|strftime}}

I think you have to write your own filter for that. It's actually the example for custom filters in the documentation.

If you are dealing with a lower level time object (I often just use integers), and don't want to write a custom filter for whatever reason, an approach I use is to pass the strftime function into the template as a variable, where it can be called where you need it.
For example:
import time
context={
'now':int(time.time()),
'strftime':time.strftime } # Note there are no brackets () after strftime
# This means we are passing in a function,
# not the result of a function.
self.response.write(jinja2.render_template('sometemplate.html', **context))
Which can then be used within sometemplate.html:
<html>
<body>
<p>The time is {{ strftime('%H:%M%:%S',now) }}, and 5 seconds ago it was {{ strftime('%H:%M%:%S',now-5) }}.
</body>
</html>

You can use it like this in template without any filters
{{ car.date_of_manufacture.strftime('%Y-%m-%d') }}

Google App Engine users : If you're moving from Django to Jinja2, and looking to replace the date filter, note that the % formatting codes are different.
The strftime % codes are here: http://docs.python.org/2/library/datetime.html#strftime-and-strptime-behavior

You can use it like this in jinja template
{{ row.session_start_date_time.strftime('%d-%m-%Y %H:%M:%S')}}
In this code the field name is row.session_start_date_time.

in flask, with babel, I like to do this :
#app.template_filter('dt')
def _jinja2_filter_datetime(date, fmt=None):
if fmt:
return date.strftime(fmt)
else:
return date.strftime(gettext('%%m/%%d/%%Y'))
used in the template with {{mydatetimeobject|dt}}
so no with babel you can specify your various format in messages.po like this for instance :
#: app/views.py:36
#, python-format
msgid "%%m/%%d/%%Y"
msgstr "%%d/%%m/%%Y"

I use this filter, it's in Spanish but you may change the names as you need.
#app.template_filter('datetime')
def date_format(value):
months = ('Enero','Febrero',"Marzo","Abril","Mayo","Junio","Julio","Agosto","Septiembre","Octubre","Noviembre","Diciembre")
month = months[value.month-1]
hora = str(value.hour).zfill(2)
minutos = str(value.minute).zfill(2)
return "{} de {} del {} a las {}:{}hs".format(value.day, month, value.year, hora, minutos)

There is a jinja2 extension you can use just need pip install (https://github.com/hackebrot/jinja2-time)