Develop Reference

Peewee - Access an intermediary table easily

Say I have peewee models like so:
class Users(_BaseModel):
id = AutoField(primary_key=True, null=False, unique=True)
first_name = CharField(null=False)
last_name = CharField(null=False)
# Cut short for clarity
class Cohorts(_BaseModel):
id = AutoField(primary_key=True, null=False, unique=True)
name = CharField(null=False, unique=True)
# Cut short for clarity
class CohortsUsers(_BaseModel):
cohort = ForeignKeyField(Cohorts)
user = ForeignKeyField(Users)
is_primary = BooleanField(default=True)
I need to access easily from the user what cohort they are in and for example the cohort's name.
If a user could be in just one cohort, it would be easy but here, having it be many2many complicates things.
Here's what I got so far, which is pretty ugly and inefficient
Users.select(Users, CohortsUsers).join(CohortsUsers).where(Users.id == 1)[0].cohortsusers.cohort.name
Which will do what I require it to but I'd like to find a better way to do it.
Is there a way to have it so I can do Users.get_by_id(1).cohort.name ?
EDIT: I'm thinking about making methods to access them easily on my Users class but I am not really sure it's the best way of doing it nor how to go about it
If it do it like so, it's quite ugly because of the import inside the method to avoid circular imports
#property
def cohort(self):
from dst_datamodel.cohorts import CohortsUsers
return Users.select(Users, CohortsUsers).join(CohortsUsers).where(Users.id == self.id)[0].cohortsusers.cohort
But having this ugly method allows me to do Users.get_by_id(1).cohort easily

This is all covered in the documentation here: http://docs.peewee-orm.com/en/latest/peewee/relationships.html#implementing-many-to-many
You have a many-to-many relationship, where a user can be in zero, one or many cohorts, and a cohort may have zero, one or many users.
If there is some invariant where a user only has one cohort, then just do this:
# Get all cohorts for a given user id and print their name(s).
q = Cohort.select().join(CohortUsers).where(CohortUsers.user == some_user_id)
for cohort in q:
print(cohort.name)
More specific to your example:
#property
def cohort(self):
from dst_datamodel.cohorts import CohortsUsers
cohort = Cohort.select().join(CohortsUsers).where(CohortUsers.user == self.id).get()
return cohort.name

Flask multiple parameters how to avoid multiple if statements when querying multiple columns of a database from one url

I am trying to build an accounting database using flask as the front end. The main page is the ledger, with nine columns "date" "description" "debit" "credit" "amount" "account" "reference" "journal" and "year", I need to be able to query each and some times two at once, there are over 8000 entries, and growing. My code so far displays all the rows, 200 at a time with pagination, I have read "pep 8" which talks about readable code, I have read this multiple parameters and this multiple parameters and like the idea of using
request.args.get
But I need to display all the rows until I query, I have also looked at this nested ifs and I thought perhaps I could use a function for each query and "If" out side of the view function and then call each in the view function, but I am not sure how to. Or I could have a view function for each query. But I am not sure how that would work, here is my code so far,
#bp.route('/books', methods=['GET', 'POST'])
#bp.route('/books/<int:page_num>', methods=['GET', 'POST'])
#bp.route('/books/<int:page_num>/<int:id>', methods=['GET', 'POST'])
#bp.route('/books/<int:page_num>/<int:id>/<ref>', methods=['GET', 'POST'])
#login_required
def books(page_num, id=None, ref=None):
if ref is not None:
books = Book.query.order_by(Book.date.desc()).filter(Book.REF==ref).paginate(per_page=100, page=page_num, error_out=True)
else:
books = Book.query.order_by(Book.date.desc()).paginate(per_page=100, page=page_num, error_out=True)
if id is not None:
obj = Book.query.get(id) or Book()
form = AddBookForm(request.form, obj=obj)
if form.validate_on_submit():
form.populate_obj(obj)
db.session.add(obj)
db.session.commit()
return redirect(url_for('books.books'))
else:
form = AddBookForm()
if form.validate_on_submit():
obj = Book(id=form.id.data, date=form.date.data, description=form.description.data, debit=form.debit.data,\
credit=form.credit.data, montant=form.montant.data, AUX=form.AUX.data, TP=form.TP.data,\
REF=form.REF.data, JN=form.JN.data, PID=form.PID.data, CT=form.CT.data)
db.session.add(obj)
db.session.commit()
return redirect(url_for('books.books', page_num=1))
return render_template('books/books.html', title='Books', books=books, form=form)
With this code there are no error messages, this is a question asking for advice on how to keep my code as readable and as simple as possible and be able to query nine columns of the database whilst displaying all the rows queried and all the rows when no query is activated
All help is greatly appreciated. Paul
I am running this on debian 10 with python 3.7
Edit: I am used to working with Libre Office Base
My question is How do I search one or two columns at a time in My database where I have nine columns out of twelve that I want to be able to search, I want to be able to search one or more at a time, example: column "reference" labels a document reference like "A32", and "account" by a the name of the supplier "FILCUI", possibly both at the same time. I have carried out more research and found that most people advocate a "fulltext" search engine such as "Elastic or Whoosh", But in my case I feel if I search "A32" ( a document number) I will get anything in the model of 12 columns with A 1 2. I have looked at Flask Tutorial 101 search Whoosh all very good tutorials, by excellent people, I thought about trying to use SQLAlchemy as a way, but in the first "Flask Tutorial" he says
but given the fact that SQLAlchemy does not support this functionality,
I thought that this SQLAlchemy-Intergrations will not work either.
So therefor is there a way to "search" "query" "filter" multiple different columns of a model with possibly a form for each search without ending up with a "sack of knots" like code impossible to read or test? I would like to stick to SQLAlchemy if possible
I need just a little pointer in the right direction or a simple personal opinion that I can test.
Warm regards.
EDIT:
I have not answered my question but I have advanced, I can query one row at a time and display all the results on the one page, with out a single "if" statement, i think my code is clear and readable (?) I divided each query into its own view function returning to the same main page, each function has its own submitt button. This has enabled me to render the same page. here is my routes code.
#bp.route('/search_aux', methods=['GET', 'POST'])
#login_required
def search_aux():
page_num = request.args.get('page_num', default = 1, type = int)
books = Book.query.order_by(Book.date.desc()).paginate(per_page=100, page=page_num, error_out=True)
add_form = AddBookForm()
aux_form = SearchAuxForm()
date_form = SearchDateForm()
debit_form = SearchDebitForm()
credit_form = SearchCreditForm()
montant_form = SearchMontantForm()
jn_form = SearchJNForm()
pid_form = SearchPIDForm()
ref_form = SearchREForm()
tp_form = SearchTPForm()
ct_form = SearchCTForm()
des_form = SearchDescriptionForm()
if request.method == 'POST':
aux = aux_form.selectaux.data
books = Book.query.order_by(Book.date.desc()).filter(Book.AUX == str(aux)).paginate(per_page=100, page=page_num, error_out=True)
return render_template('books/books.html', books=books, add_form=add_form, aux_form=aux_form, date_form=date_form, debit_form=debit_form,
credit_form=credit_form, montant_form=montant_form, jn_form=jn_form, pid_form=pid_form, ref_form=ref_form,
tp_form=tp_form, ct_form=ct_form, des_form=des_form)
There is a simple form for each query, it works a treat for each single query. Here is the form and html code:
class SearchAuxForm(FlaskForm):
selectaux = QuerySelectField('Aux', query_factory=AUX, get_label='id')
submitaux = SubmitField('submit')
def AUX():
return Auxilliere.query
html:
<div class="AUX">
<form action="{{ url_for('books.search_aux') }}" method="post">
{{ aux_form.selectaux(class="input") }}{{ aux_form.submitaux(class="submit") }}
</form>
</div>
I tried to do this as a single function with one submit button, but it ended in disaster. I have not submitted this as an answer, Because it does not do all I asked but it is a start.
FINAL EDIT:
I would like to thank the person(s) who reopened this question, allowing mr Lucas Scott to provide a fascinating and informative answer to help me and others.

There are many ways to achieve your desired result of being able to query/filter multiple columns in a table. I will give you an example of how I would approach creating an endpoint that will allow you to filter on one column, or multiple columns.
Here is our basic Books model and the /books endpoint as a stub
import flask
from flask_sqlalchemy import SQLAlchemy
app = flask.Flask(__name__)
db = SQLAlchemy(app) # uses in memory sqlite3 db by default
class Books(db.Model):
__tablename__ = "book"
id = db.Column(db.Integer, primary_key=True, autoincrement=True)
title = db.Column(db.String(255), nullable=False)
author = db.Column(db.String(255), nullable=False)
supplier = db.Column(db.String(255))
published = db.Column(db.Date, nullable=False)
db.create_all()
#app.routes("/books", methods=["GET"])
def all_books():
pass
The first step is to decide on a method of querying a collection by using url parameters. I will use fact that multiple instances of the same key in a query parameter are given as lists to allow us to filter on multiple columns.
For example /books?filter=id&filter=author will turn into {"filter": ["id", "author"]}.
For our querying syntax we will use comma separated values for the filter value.
example:
books?filter=author,eq,jim&suplier,eq,self published
Which turns into {"filter": ["author,eq,jim", "supplier,eq,self published"]}. Notice the space in self published. flask will handle the url-encoding for us and give back a string with a space instead of %20.
Let's clean this up a bit by adding a Filter class to represent our filter query parameter.
class QueryValidationError(Exception):
""" We can handle specific exceptions and
return a http response with flask """
pass
class Filter:
supported_operators = ("eq", "ne", "lt", "gt", "le", "ge")
def __init__(self, column, operator, value):
self.column = column
self.operator = operator
self.value = value
self.validate()
def validate(self):
if operator not in self.supported_operators:
# We will deal with catching this later
raise QueryValidationError(
f"operator `{operator}` is not one of supported "
f"operators `{self.supported_operators}`"
)
Now we will create a function for processing our list of filters into a list of Filter objects.
def create_filters(filters):
filters_processed = []
if filters is None:
# No filters given
return filters_processed
elif isinstance(filters, str):
# if only one filter given
filter_split = filters.split(",")
filters_processed.append(
Filter(*filter_split)
)
elif isinstance(filters, list):
# if more than one filter given
try:
filters_processed = [Filter(*_filter.split(",")) for _filter in filters]
except Exception:
raise QueryValidationError("Filter query invalid")
else:
# Programer error
raise TypeError(
f"filters expected to be `str` or list "
f"but was of type `{type(filters)}`"
)
return filters_processed
and now we can add our helper functions to our endpoint.
#app.route("/books", methods=["GET"])
def all_books():
args = flask.request.args
filters = create_filters(args.get("filter"))
SQLAlchemy allows us to do filtering by using operator overloading. That is using filter(Book.author == "some value"). The == here does not trigger the default == behaviour. Instead the creator of SQLAlchemy has overloaded this operator and instead it creates the SQL query that checks for equality and adds it to the
query. We can leverage this behaviour by using the Pythons operator module. For example:
import operator
from models import Book
authors = Book.query.filter(operator.eq(Book.author, "some author")).all()
This does not seem helpful by it's self, but gets us a step closer to creating a generic and dynamic filtering mechanism. The next important step to making this more dynamic is with the built-in getattr which allows us to look up attributes on a given object using strings. Example:
class Anything:
def say_hi(self):
print("hello")
# use getattr to say hello
getattr(Anything, "say_hi") # returns the function `say_hi`
getattr(Anything, "say_hi")() # calls the function `say_hi`
We can now tie this all together by creating a generic filtering function:
def filter_query(filters, query, model):
for _filter in filters:
# get our operator
op = getattr(operator, _filter.operator)
# get the column to filter on
column = getattr(model, _filter.column)
# value to filter for
value = _filter.value
# build up a query by adding multiple filters
query = query.filter(op(column, value))
return query
We can filter any model with our implementation, and not just by one column.
#app.route("/books", methods=["GET"])
def all_books():
args = flask.request.args
filters = create_filters(args.get("filter"))
query = Books.query
query = filter_query(filters, query, Books)
result = []
for book in query.all():
result.append(dict(
id=book.id,
title=book.title,
author=book.author,
supplier=book.supplier,
published=str(book.published)
))
return flask.jsonify(result), 200
Here is everything all together, and including the error handling of validation errors
import flask
import json
import operator
from flask_sqlalchemy import SQLAlchemy
app = flask.Flask(__name__)
db = SQLAlchemy(app) # uses in memory sqlite3 db by default
class Books(db.Model):
__tablename__ = "book"
id = db.Column(db.Integer, primary_key=True, autoincrement=True)
title = db.Column(db.String(255), nullable=False)
author = db.Column(db.String(255), nullable=False)
supplier = db.Column(db.String(255))
published = db.Column(db.Date, nullable=False)
db.create_all()
class QueryValidationError(Exception):
pass
class Filter:
supported_operators = ("eq", "ne", "lt", "gt", "le", "ge")
def __init__(self, column, operator, value):
self.column = column
self.operator = operator
self.value = value
self.validate()
def validate(self):
if self.operator not in self.supported_operators:
raise QueryValidationError(
f"operator `{self.operator}` is not one of supported "
f"operators `{self.supported_operators}`"
)
def create_filters(filters):
filters_processed = []
if filters is None:
# No filters given
return filters_processed
elif isinstance(filters, str):
# if only one filter given
filter_split = filters.split(",")
filters_processed.append(
Filter(*filter_split)
)
elif isinstance(filters, list):
# if more than one filter given
try:
filters_processed = [Filter(*_filter.split(",")) for _filter in filters]
except Exception:
raise QueryValidationError("Filter query invalid")
else:
# Programer error
raise TypeError(
f"filters expected to be `str` or list "
f"but was of type `{type(filters)}`"
)
return filters_processed
def filter_query(filters, query, model):
for _filter in filters:
# get our operator
op = getattr(operator, _filter.operator)
# get the column to filter on
column = getattr(model, _filter.column)
# value to filter for
value = _filter.value
# build up a query by adding multiple filters
query = query.filter(op(column, value))
return query
#app.errorhandler(QueryValidationError)
def handle_query_validation_error(err):
return flask.jsonify(dict(
errors=[dict(
title="Invalid filer",
details=err.msg,
status="400")
]
)), 400
#app.route("/books", methods=["GET"])
def all_books():
args = flask.request.args
filters = create_filters(args.get("filter"))
query = Books.query
query = filter_query(filters, query, Books)
result = []
for book in query.all():
result.append(dict(
id=book.id,
title=book.title,
author=book.author,
supplier=book.supplier,
published=str(book.published)
))
return flask.jsonify(result), 200
I hope this answers your question, or gives you some ideas on how to tackle your problem.
I would also recommend looking at serialising and marshalling tools like marshmallow-sqlalchemy which will help you simplify turning models into json and back again. It is also helpful for nested object serialisation which can be a pain if you are returning relationships.

Can I inspect a sqlalchemy query object to find the already joined tables?

I'm trying to programmatically build a search query, and to do so, I'm joining a table.
class User(db.Model):
id = db.Column(db.Integer(), primary_key=True)
class Tag(db.Model):
id = db.Column(db.Integer(), primary_key=True)
user_id = db.Column(db.Integer(), db.ForeignKey('user.id'))
title = db.Column(db.String(128))
description = db.Column(db.String(128))
This is a bit of a contrived example - I hope it makes sense.
Say my search function looks something like:
def search(title_arg, desc_arg):
query = User.query
if title_arg:
query = query.join(Tag)
query = query.filter(Tag.title.contains(title_arg))
if desc_arg:
query = query.join(Tag)
query = query.filter(Tag.description.contains(desc_arg))
return query
Previously, I’ve kept track of what tables that have already been joined in a list, and if the table is in the list, assume it’s already joined, and just add the filter.
It would be cool if I could look at the query object, see that Tag is already joined, and skip it if so. I have some more complex query building that would really benefit from this.
If there’s a completely different strategy for query building for searches that I’ve missed, that would be great too. Or, if the above code is fine if I join the table twice, that's great info as well. Any help is incredibly appreciated!!!

You can find joined tables in query._join_entities
joined_tables = [mapper.class_ for mapper in query._join_entities]

Since SQLAlchemy 1.4, the earlier proposed solutions including _join_entities don't work anymore.
SQLAlchemy 1.4
I tried to solve this in SQLAlchemy 1.4, but there is a caveat:
This approach includes all entities in the query, so not only joined entities
from sqlalchemy.sql import visitors
from contextlib import suppress
def _has_entity(self, model) -> bool:
for visitor in visitors.iterate(self.statement):
# Checking for `.join(Parent.child)` clauses
if visitor.__visit_name__ == 'binary':
for vis in visitors.iterate(visitor):
# Visitor might not have table attribute
with suppress(AttributeError):
# Verify if already present based on table name
if model.__table__.fullname == vis.table.fullname:
return True
# Checking for `.join(Child)` clauses
if visitor.__visit_name__ == 'table':
# Visitor might be of ColumnCollection or so,
# which cannot be compared to model
with suppress(TypeError):
if model == visitor.entity_namespace:
return True
# Checking for `Model.column` clauses
if visitor.__visit_name__ == "column":
with suppress(AttributeError):
if model.__table__.fullname == visitor.table.fullname:
return True
return False
def unique_join(self, model, *args, **kwargs):
"""Join if given model not yet in query"""
if not self._has_entity(model):
self = self.join(model, *args, **kwargs)
return self
Query._has_entity = _has_entity
Query.unique_join = unique_join
SQLAlchemy <= 1.3
For SQLAlchemy 1.3 and before, #mtoloo and #r-m-n had perfect answers, I've included them for the sake of completeness.
Some where in your initialization of your project, add a unique_join method to the sqlalchemy.orm.Query object like this:
def unique_join(self, *props, **kwargs):
if props[0] in [c.entity for c in self._join_entities]:
return self
return self.join(*props, **kwargs)
Now use query.unique_join instead of query.join:
Query.unique_join = unique_join

According to the r-m-n answer:
Some where in your initialization of your project, add a unique_join method to the sqlalchemy.orm.Query object like this:
def unique_join(self, *props, **kwargs):
if props[0] in [c.entity for c in self._join_entities]:
return self
return self.join(*props, **kwargs)
Query.unique_join = unique_join
Now use query.unique_join instead of query.join:
query = query.unique_join(Tag)

sqlalchemy generic foreign key (like in django ORM)

Does sqlalchemy have something like django's GenericForeignKey? And is it right to use generic foreign fields.
My problem is: I have several models (for example, Post, Project, Vacancy, nothing special there) and I want to add comments to each of them. And I want to use only one Comment model. Does it worth to? Or should I use PostComment, ProjectComment etc.? Pros/cons of both ways?
Thanks!

The simplest pattern which I use most often is that you actually have separate Comment tables for each relationship. This may seem frightening at first, but it doesn't incur any additional code versus using any other approach - the tables are created automatically, and the models are referred to using the pattern Post.Comment, Project.Comment, etc. The definition of Comment is maintained in one place. This approach from a referential point of view is the most simple and efficient, as well as the most DBA friendly as different kinds of Comments are kept in their own tables which can be sized individually.
Another pattern to use is a single Comment table, but distinct association tables. This pattern offers the use case that you might want a Comment linked to more than one kind of object at a time (like a Post and a Project at the same time). This pattern is still reasonably efficient.
Thirdly, there's the polymorphic association table. This pattern uses a fixed number of tables to represent the collections and the related class without sacrificing referential integrity. This pattern tries to come the closest to the Django-style "generic foreign key" while still maintaining referential integrity, though it's not as simple as the previous two approaches.
Imitating the pattern used by ROR/Django, where there are no real foreign keys used and rows are matched using application logic, is also possible.
The first three patterns are illustrated in modern form in the SQLAlchemy distribution under examples/generic_associations/.
The ROR/Django pattern, since it gets asked about so often, I will also add to the SQLAlchemy examples, even though I don't like it much. The approach I'm using is not exactly the same as what Django does as they seem to make use of a "contenttypes" table to keep track of types, that seems kind of superfluous to me, but the general idea of an integer column that points to any number of tables based on a discriminator column is present. Here it is:
from sqlalchemy.ext.declarative import declarative_base, declared_attr
from sqlalchemy import create_engine, Integer, Column, \
String, and_
from sqlalchemy.orm import Session, relationship, foreign, remote, backref
from sqlalchemy import event
class Base(object):
"""Base class which provides automated table name
and surrogate primary key column.
"""
#declared_attr
def __tablename__(cls):
return cls.__name__.lower()
id = Column(Integer, primary_key=True)
Base = declarative_base(cls=Base)
class Address(Base):
"""The Address class.
This represents all address records in a
single table.
"""
street = Column(String)
city = Column(String)
zip = Column(String)
discriminator = Column(String)
"""Refers to the type of parent."""
parent_id = Column(Integer)
"""Refers to the primary key of the parent.
This could refer to any table.
"""
#property
def parent(self):
"""Provides in-Python access to the "parent" by choosing
the appropriate relationship.
"""
return getattr(self, "parent_%s" % self.discriminator)
def __repr__(self):
return "%s(street=%r, city=%r, zip=%r)" % \
(self.__class__.__name__, self.street,
self.city, self.zip)
class HasAddresses(object):
"""HasAddresses mixin, creates a relationship to
the address_association table for each parent.
"""
#event.listens_for(HasAddresses, "mapper_configured", propagate=True)
def setup_listener(mapper, class_):
name = class_.__name__
discriminator = name.lower()
class_.addresses = relationship(Address,
primaryjoin=and_(
class_.id == foreign(remote(Address.parent_id)),
Address.discriminator == discriminator
),
backref=backref(
"parent_%s" % discriminator,
primaryjoin=remote(class_.id) == foreign(Address.parent_id)
)
)
#event.listens_for(class_.addresses, "append")
def append_address(target, value, initiator):
value.discriminator = discriminator
class Customer(HasAddresses, Base):
name = Column(String)
class Supplier(HasAddresses, Base):
company_name = Column(String)
engine = create_engine('sqlite://', echo=True)
Base.metadata.create_all(engine)
session = Session(engine)
session.add_all([
Customer(
name='customer 1',
addresses=[
Address(
street='123 anywhere street',
city="New York",
zip="10110"),
Address(
street='40 main street',
city="San Francisco",
zip="95732")
]
),
Supplier(
company_name="Ace Hammers",
addresses=[
Address(
street='2569 west elm',
city="Detroit",
zip="56785")
]
),
])
session.commit()
for customer in session.query(Customer):
for address in customer.addresses:
print(address)
print(address.parent)

I know this is probably a terrible way to do this, but it was a quick fix for me.
class GenericRelation(object):
def __init__(self, object_id, object_type):
self.object_id = object_id
self.object_type = object_type
def __composite_values__(self):
return (self.object_id, self.object_type)
class Permission(AbstractBase):
#__abstract__ = True
_object = None
_generic = composite(
GenericRelation,
sql.Column('object_id', data_types.UUID, nullable=False),
sql.Column('object_type', sql.String, nullable=False),
)
permission_type = sql.Column(sql.Integer)
#property
def object(self):
session = object_session(self)
if self._object or not session:
return self._object
else:
object_class = eval(self.object_type)
self._object = session.query(object_class).filter(object_class.id == self.object_id).first()
return self._object
#object.setter
def object(self, value):
self._object = value
self.object_type = value.__class__.__name__
self.object_id = value.id

Google app engine python problem

I'm having a problem with the datastore trying to replicate a left join to find items from model a that don't have a matching relation in model b:
class Page(db.Model):
url = db.StringProperty(required=True)
class Item(db.Model):
page = db.ReferenceProperty(Page, required=True)
name = db.StringProperty(required=True)
I want to find any pages that don't have any associated items.

You cannot query for items using a "property is null" filter. However, you can add a boolean property to Page that signals if it has items or not:
class Page(db.Model):
url = db.StringProperty(required=True)
has_items = db.BooleanProperty(default=False)
Then override the "put" method of Item to flip the flag. But you might want to encapsulate this logic in the Page model (maybe Page.add_item(self, *args, **kwargs)):
class Item(db.Model):
page = db.ReferenceProperty(Page, required=True)
name = db.StringProperty(required=True)
def put(self):
if not self.page.has_items:
self.page.has_items = True
self.page.put()
return db.put(self)
Hence, the query for pages with no items would be:
pages_with_no_items = Page.all().filter("has_items =", False)

The datastore doesn't support joins, so you can't do this with a single query. You need to do a query for items in A, then for each, do another query to determine if it has any matching items in B.

Did you try it like :
Page.all().filter("item_set = ", None)
Should work.