I am making a simple sqlite database for storing some non-sensitive client information. I am very familiar with python+sqlite and would prefer to stick with this combo on this project. I would like to create an simple GUI interface for data entry and searching of the database... something very similar to what MS Access provides. I want my wife to be able to enter/search data easily, so PHPmyadmin style things are out of the question.
I understand I could just give in and get MS Access, but if reasonbly possible would rather just write the code myself so it will run on my computers (*nix) and is flexible (so I can later integrate it with a web application and our smart phones.)
Can you developers recommend any interfaces/packages/etc (preferably pythonic) that can accomplish this with reasonable ease?
Thanks!
Since you're interested in future integration with a web application, you might consider using a Python web framework and running the app locally on your machine, using your web browser as the interface. In that case, one easy option would be web2py. Just download, unzip, and run, and you can use the web-based IDE (demo) to create a simple CRUD app very quickly (if you really want to keep it simple, you can even use the "New application wizard" (demo) to build the app). It includes its own server, so you can run your app locally, just like a desktop app.
You can use the web2py DAL (database abstraction layer) to define and create your SQLite database and tables (without writing any SQL). For example:
db = DAL('sqlite://storage.db')
db.define_table('customer',
Field('name', requires=IS_NOT_IN_DB(db, 'customer.name')),
Field('address'),
Field('email', requires=IS_EMAIL()))
The above code will create a SQLite database called storage.db and create a table called 'customer'. It also specifies form validators for the 'name' and 'email' fields, so whenever those fields are filled via a form, the entries will be validated ('name' cannot already be in the DB, and 'email' must be a valid email address format) -- if validation fails, the form will display appropriate error messages (which can be customized).
The DAL will also handle schema migrations automatically, so if you change your table definitions, the database schema will be updated (if necessary, you can turn off migrations completely or on a per table basis).
Once you have your data models defined, you can use web2py's CRUD system to handle all the data entry and searching. Just include these two lines (actually, they're already included in the 'welcome' scaffolding application):
from gluon.tools import Crud
crud = Crud(db)
And in a controller, define the following action:
def data():
return dict(form=crud())
That will expose a set of pre-defined URLs that will enable you to create, list, search, view, update, and delete records in any table.
Of course, if you don't like some of the default behavior, there are lots of ways to customize the CRUD forms/displays, or you can use some of web2py's other forms functionality to build a completely custom interface. And web2py is a full-stack framework, so it will be easy to add functionality to your app as your needs expand (e.g., access control, notifications, etc.).
Note, web2py requires no installation or configuration and has no dependencies, so it's very easy to distribute your app to other machines -- just zip up the entire web2py folder (which will include your app folder) and unzip it on another machine. It will run on *nix, Mac, and Windows (on Windows, you will either need to install Python or download the web2py Windows binary instead of the source version -- the Windows binary includes its own Python interpreter).
If you have any questions, there's a very helpful and responsive mailing list. You might also get some ideas from some existing web2py applications.
I normally use GTK+ that has well documented Python bindings.
The biggest advantage is that you can use a fairly intuitive GUI editor (Glade) and automagically link callbacks to events (to be honest most other major graphical toolkits have this possibility too, like for example QT, but my perception is that GTK+ enjoys wider adoption in the Python community). EDIT: additionally GTK is used by Gnome and many other desktop environments (KDE uses QT though).
That said, if all you need is truly just data insertion from a trusted person, you could use something already done like SQLite manager (it's a FireFox plugin).
Radically alternative solution: use django and you can literally pass from reading the tutorial to have your app up and running in a matter of hours, inclusive of user authentications, back-end administrative interface etc. (your project is exactly what I did with it to allow my wife to insert expenses in our family budget).
Django is written in Python and you can use SQLite as a back-end.
Related
I am developing a Cloud based data analysis tool, and I am using Django(1.10) for that.
I have to add columns to the existing tables, create new tables, change data-type of columns(part of data-cleaning activity) at the run time and can't figure out a way to update/reflect those changes, in run time, in the Django model, because those changes will be required in further analysis process.
I have looked into 'inspectdb' and 'syncdb', but all of these options would require taking the portal offline and then making those changes, which I don't want.
Please can you suggest a solution or a work-around of how to achieve this.
Also, is there a way in which I can select what database I want to work from the list of databases on my MySQL server, after running Django.
Django's ORM might not be the right tool for you if you need to change your schema (or db) online - the schema is defined in python modules and loaded once when Django's web server starts.
You can still use Django's templates, forms and other libraries and write your own custom DB access layer that manipulates a DB dynamically using python.
Let's say I am creating a python-based CMS on GAE (similar to Squarespace/Shopify) which allows users to create a website.
The platform will (automatically?) create a subdomain for each new user and duplicates the application.
Now there are two options:
1) Create a new Database for the new user, WITHIN the master GAE project. (I'm worried that if one user gets a lot of traffic it might slow down ALL websites.)
2) Duplicate the entire project. (This method seems difficult to accomplish because either I have to manually create an instance of the application for each user, or I have to figure out how to hijack gcloud.py (or appcfg.py) somehow and store my login credentials in the code.)
Which choice will most likely provide the most performance for the price? Is choice 2 allowed by Google (or even possible)?
Edit:
I've done some more research about this, and it's not documented very much. I found this in the docs https://cloud.google.com/sdk/docs/scripting-gcloud which talks about running gcloud from scripts, although I don't think that means from python. I am looking into appengine-jenkins to see if it will work for my purpose. Let me know if you have any additional information about this.
Also, it seems like gcloud is adding a create command within the projects command which might be useful for me if I can figure out how to run gcloud from my script. https://cloud.google.com/sdk/gcloud/reference/alpha/projects/create
I have been developing a fairly simple desktop application to be used by a group of 100-150 people within my department mainly for reporting. Unfortunately, I have to build it within some pretty strict confines similar to the specs called out in this post. The application will just be a self contained executable with no need to install.
The problem I'm running into is figuring out how to handle the database need. There will probably only be about 1GB of data for the app, but it needs to be available to everyone.
I would embed the database with the application (SQLite), but the data needs to be refreshed every week from a centralized process, so I figure it would be easier to maintain one database, rather than pushing updates down to the apps. Plus users will need to write to the database as well and those updates need to be seen by everyone.
I'm not allowed to set up a server for the database, so that rules out any good options for a true database. I'm restricted to File Shares or SharePoint.
It seems like I'm down to MS Access or SQLite. I'd prefer to stick with SQLite because I'm a fan of python and SQLAlchemy - but based on what I've read SQLite is not a good solution for multiple users accessing it over the network (or even possible).
Is there another option I haven't discovered for this setup or am I stuck working with MS Access? Perhaps I'll need to break down and work with SharePoint lists and apps?
I've been researching this for quite a while now, and I've run out of ideas. Any help is appreciated.
FYI, as I'm sure you can tell, I'm not a professional developer. I have enough experience in web / python / vb development that I can get by - so I was asked to do this as a side project.
SQLite can operate across a network and be shared among different processes. It is not a good solution when the application is write-heavy (because it locks the database file for the duration of a write), but if the application is mostly reporting it may be a perfectly reasonable solution.
As my options are limited, I decided to go with a built in database for each app using SQLite. The db will only need updated every week or two, so I figured a 30 second update by pulling from flat files will be OK. then the user will have all data locally to browse as needed.
I have a Plone instance (4.2.2) running and need to automate the creation of user accounts. I'd really like to do this using an external Python script or some other Linux-based command line utility (such as "curl").
If I use curl, I can authenticate to gain access to the "##new_user" page, but I can't seem to get the right POST setup in the headers.
If I don't use curl and use a Python script instead, are there any utilities or libraries that can do this? I've tried using libraries such as Products.CMFCore.utils.getToolByName and getting the "portal_registration" - but I can't seem to get that to work in a regular script (one that has no request/context).
This script needs to run once every N minutes on the server (where the user information is grabbed from an external database). I also need there to be no password - and select the option to email the user to set their own password, and I need to add this user to a pre-defined group.
Are there any suggestions - perhaps another utility or built-in library that would better suite these requirements?
There are many scripts floating around for batch imports of users. A good one is Tom Lazar's CSV import http://plone.org/documentation/kb/batch-adding-users . Tom's script could be very easily adapted to run as a Zope "run" script if you need to run it from the command line, say as a cron job. "Run" scripts are scripts processed via command like "bin/client5 run my_script.py" using a Zope or ZEO client instance.
However, a strategy like this is one-way. It sound's from the conversation you had with Martijn like you might be better off by creating a Pluggable Authentication System (PAS) plugin to provide a connection to your external database source. The great thing about this strategy is that you can very precisely determine which user properties have which source (external DB or Plone membership properties manager). Docs (as MJ indicated) are at http://plone.org/documentation/manual/developer-manual/users-and-security/pluggable-authentication-service/referencemanual-all-pages .
Make sure to look and see if there is already a plugin written for your external data source. There are already plugins for many auth schemes and dbs (like LDAP and SQLAlchemy).
I have a regular desktop application which is written in Python/GTK and SQLObject as ORM. My goal is to create a webinterface where a user can login and sync/edit the database. My application is split up in different modules, so the database and gtk code are completly separate, so I would like to run the same database code on the webserver too.
So, I would like to know if there's a webframework which could handle these criteria:
User authentication
Use my own database code/SQLObject
Some widgets to build a basic ui
This would be my first webproject, so I'm a bit confused by all searchresults. CherryPy, Turbogears, web2py, Pyramid? I would be happy if someone could give me some pointers what would be a good framework in my situation.
Any of the options you name would work. Scan through their docs, and decide what looks like the nicest to you.
Flask is another lightweight option: http://flask.pocoo.org/
Django would work too (just ignore its ORM for your own work, and configure it to look at a different database within your database server, to keep it separated from your own ORM).
Try the pyramid, it does not impose anything you like as opposed to Django. And has a wealth of features for building Web applications at any level.