Greetings stack overflow community, I am currently working on a flask app and I am trying to retrieve a file from a helper function with the send_file method in flask.
I have a route that goes like so:
#app.route("/process",methods=['GET','POST'])
def do_something():
process = threading.Thread(target=function_name,args=[arg1,arg2])
process.start()
return render_template("template.html")
The function_name (which is on a different file) function is suposed to return a file like so
def function_name():
filename = 'ohhey.pdf'
return send_file(filename,as_attachment=True,cache_timeout=0)
When I run my app like this I get the following error
RuntimeError: Working outside of application context.
This typically means that you attempted to use functionality that needed
to interface with the current application object in some way. To solve
this, set up an application context with app.app_context(). See the
documentation for more information.
So I try to change the function for the following:
def function_name():
filename = 'ohhey.pdf'
with app.app_context():
return send_file(filename,as_attachment=True,cache_timeout=0)
and get this new error
RuntimeError: Working outside of request context.
This typically means that you attempted to use functionality that needed
an active HTTP request. Consult the documentation on testing for
information about how to avoid this problem.
so I try the following:
def function_name():
filename = 'ohhey.pdf'
with app.test_request_context():
return send_file(filename,as_attachment=True,cache_timeout=0)
After making this final change my app doesn't return a file or an error. I appreciate your help.
Building from Reading config file as dictionary in Flask I'm attempting to define a custom configuration file in order to customize my Flask app.
Running code :
from flask import Flask
app = Flask(__name__)
import os
my_config = app.config.from_pyfile(os.path.join('.', 'config/app.conf'), silent=False)
#app.route('/')
def hello_world():
with app.open_instance_resource('app.cfg') as f:
print(type(f.read()))
return 'Hello World! {}'.format(app.config.get('LOGGING'))
if __name__ == '__main__':
app.run()
In config/app.conf these properties are added :
myvar1="tester"
myvar2="tester"
myvar3="tester"
Invoking the service for hello_world() function returns :
Hello World! None
Shouldn't the contents of the file be returned instead of None ?
I attempt to access a property using app.config.get('myvar1') but None is also returned in this case.
From the official Flask documentation:
The configuration files themselves are actual Python files. Only values in uppercase are actually stored in the config object later on. So make sure to use uppercase letters for your config keys.
Therefore, set structure your ./config/app.conf variables as:
VARIABLE_NAME = "variable value"
Load as:
app.config.from_pyfile(os.path.join(".", "config/app.conf"), silent=False)
NOTE: If you're not using instance specific configuration you don't actually need to build the path as it will take the Flask app path as its root.
And access the values later as:
app.config.get("VARIABLE_NAME")
I wanted to create a simple app using webapp2. Because I have Google App Engine installed, and I want to use it outside of GAE, I followed the instructions on this page: http://webapp-improved.appspot.com/tutorials/quickstart.nogae.html
This all went well, my main.py is running, it is handling requests correctly. However, I can't access resources directly.
http://localhost:8080/myimage.jpg or http://localhost:8080/mydata.json
always returns a 404 resource not found page.
It doesn't matter if I put the resources on the WebServer/Documents/ or in the folder where the virtualenv is active.
Please help! :-)
(I am on a Mac 10.6 with Python 2.7)
(Adapted from this question)
Looks like webapp2 doesn't have a static file handler; you'll have to roll your own. Here's a simple one:
import mimetypes
class StaticFileHandler(webapp2.RequestHandler):
def get(self, path):
# edit the next line to change the static files directory
abs_path = os.path.join(os.path.dirname(__file__), path)
try:
f = open(abs_path, 'r')
self.response.headers.add_header('Content-Type', mimetypes.guess_type(abs_path)[0])
self.response.out.write(f.read())
f.close()
except IOError: # file doesn't exist
self.response.set_status(404)
And in your app object, add a route for StaticFileHandler:
app = webapp2.WSGIApplication([('/', MainHandler), # or whatever it's called
(r'/static/(.+)', StaticFileHandler), # add this
# other routes
])
Now http://localhost:8080/static/mydata.json (say) will load mydata.json.
Keep in mind that this code is a potential security risk: It allows any visitors to your website to read everything in your static directory. For this reason, you should keep all your static files to a directory that doesn't contain anything you'd like to restrict access to (e.g. the source code).
I'm using the flask to built a web app ,it hold all the input message(user send it the xml message) and find the right plugin to response and return the response to user, the app had provided the basic plugins, but i want the user to write their own plugins under the my defined apis, below is the architecture:
plugins
common_plugins1.py
common_plugins2.py
templates
actions
myapp.py
but i faced several problems:
i only want the user call his plugin not others and other plugins is invisible to him
i only want the user call the defined functions or modules i defined
i want to make it scalable
if is it possible to let the user upload their plugins write by python? and make the app dynamically load it.
thanks for your help!
below is the plugin example:
#coding: utf-8
import somemodule
from somemodule import *
def do(dmessage,context,default,**option):
import re
try:
_l=default.split('%|placeholder|%')
message=ModuleRequestVoice(dmessage)
r=ModuleResponseMusic()
return r.render(message,_l[0],_l[1],_l[2],_l[2])
except Exception,e:
print 'match voice error:%s'%e
return False
By default, when running Flask application using the built-in server (Flask.run), it monitors its Python files and automatically reloads the app if its code changes:
* Detected change in '/home/xion/hello-world/app.py', reloading
* Restarting with reloader
Unfortunately, this seems to work for *.py files only, and I don't seem to find any way to extend this functionality to other files. Most notably, it would be extremely useful to have Flask restart the app when a template changes. I've lost count on how many times I was fiddling with markup in templates and getting confused by not seeing any changes, only to find out that the app was still using the old version of Jinja template.
So, is there a way to have Flask monitor files in templates directory, or does it require diving into the framework's source?
Edit: I'm using Ubuntu 10.10. Haven't tried that on any other platforms really.
After further inquiry, I have discovered that changes in templates indeed are updated in real time, without reloading the app itself. However, this seems to apply only to those templates that are passed to flask.render_template.
But it so happens that in my app, I have quite a lot of reusable, parametrized components which I use in Jinja templates. They are implemented as {% macro %}s, reside in dedicated "modules" and are {% import %}ed into actual pages. All nice and DRY... except that those imported templates are apparently never checked for modifications, as they don't pass through render_template at all.
(Curiously, this doesn't happen for templates invoked through {% extends %}. As for {% include %}, I have no idea as I don't really use them.)
So to wrap up, the roots of this phenomenon seems to lie somewhere between Jinja and Flask or Werkzeug. I guess it may warrant a trip to bug tracker for either of those projects :) Meanwhile, I've accepted the jd.'s answer because that's the solution I actually used - and it works like a charm.
you can use
TEMPLATES_AUTO_RELOAD = True
From http://flask.pocoo.org/docs/1.0/config/
Whether to check for modifications of the template source and reload it automatically. By default the value is None which means that Flask checks original file only in debug mode.
In my experience, templates don't even need the application to restart to be refreshed, as they should be loaded from disk everytime render_template() is called. Maybe your templates are used differently though.
To reload your application when the templates change (or any other file), you can pass the extra_files argument to Flask().run(), a collection of filenames to watch: any change on those files will trigger the reloader.
Example:
from os import path, walk
extra_dirs = ['directory/to/watch',]
extra_files = extra_dirs[:]
for extra_dir in extra_dirs:
for dirname, dirs, files in walk(extra_dir):
for filename in files:
filename = path.join(dirname, filename)
if path.isfile(filename):
extra_files.append(filename)
app.run(extra_files=extra_files)
See here: http://werkzeug.pocoo.org/docs/0.10/serving/?highlight=run_simple#werkzeug.serving.run_simple
When you are working with jinja templates, you need to set some parameters. In my case with python3, I solved it with the following code:
if __name__ == '__main__':
app.jinja_env.auto_reload = True
app.config['TEMPLATES_AUTO_RELOAD'] = True
app.run(debug=True, host='0.0.0.0')
You need to set a TEMPLATES_AUTO_RELOAD property as True in your app config:
from flask import Flask
app = Flask(__name__)
app.config["TEMPLATES_AUTO_RELOAD"] = True
See more on http://flask.pocoo.org/docs/1.0/config/
Actually for me TEMPLATES_AUTO_RELOAD = True does not work (0.12 version). I use jinja2 and what i have done:
Create function before_request
def before_request():
app.jinja_env.cache = {}
Register it in application
app.before_request(before_request)
That's it.
Updated as of March 2021:
The flask CLI is recommended over app.run() for running a dev server, so if we want to use the CLI then the accepted solution can't be used.
In Flask 1.1 or later, the environment variable FLASK_RUN_EXTRA_FILES or the option --extra-files effectively do the same thing as the accepted answer. See also this github issue.
Example usage:
flask run --extra-files "app/templates/index.html"
# or
export FLASK_RUN_EXTRA_FILES="app/templates/index.html"
flask run
in Linux. To specify multiple extra files, separate file paths with colons., e.g.
export FLASK_RUN_EXTRA_FILES="app/templates/index.html:app/templates/other.html"
Whole directories are also supported:
flask run --extra-files app/templates/
What worked for me is just adding this:
#app.before_request
def before_request():
# When you import jinja2 macros, they get cached which is annoying for local
# development, so wipe the cache every request.
if 'localhost' in request.host_url or '0.0.0.0' in request.host_url:
app.jinja_env.cache = {}
(taken from #dikkini's answer)
To reload the application on the server AND in the browser I used the livereload package. Installed through the CLI with
$ pip install livereload
and running the code
from flask import Flask, render_template
app = Flask(__name__)
#app.route("/")
def hello():
return render_template("index.html")
if __name__ == '__main__':
from livereload import Server
server = Server(app.wsgi_app)
server.serve(host = '0.0.0.0',port=5000)
all answers here using the extra_files argument or TEMPLATES_AUTO_RELOAD config work to reload it on the server but for a smooth development experience without damaging your keyboard's F5 key I'd go with livereload
Using the latest version of Flask on Windows, using the run command and debug set to true; Flask doesn't need to be reset for changes to templates to be brought in to effect. Try Shift+F5 (or Shift plus the reload button) to make sure nothing it being cached.
See http://flask.pocoo.org/docs/1.0/quickstart/
and use FLASK_ENV=development
I had the same trouble. The solution is really simple though. Instead of this:
if __name__ == '__main__':
app.jinja_env.auto_reload = True
app.config["TEMPLATES_AUTO_RELOAD"] = True
app.run(debug=True)
Put
app.jinja_env.auto_reload = True
app.config["TEMPLATES_AUTO_RELOAD"] = True
above the main function. So final output for example:
from flask import Flask, app,render_template
app= Flask(__name__)
app.jinja_env.auto_reload = True
app.config["TEMPLATES_AUTO_RELOAD"] = True
#app.route('/')
def index():
return render_template('index.html')
if __name__ == '__main__':
app.run(debug=True)
Templates are reloaded automatically, why not doing ctrl+f5 to refresh the webpage,
cause web-browsers usually save cache.
Adding app.config['TEMPLATES_AUTO_RELOAD'] = True after if __name__ == '__main__': doesn't work for me!
What works is adding app.config['TEMPLATES_AUTO_RELOAD'] = True after app = Flask(__name__)
Notice that I am using app.run(debug=True)