Unit 2.4a Using Programs with Data, SQLAlchemy
Using Programs with Data is focused on SQL and database actions. Part A focuses on SQLAlchemy and an OOP programming style,
- Database and SQLAlchemy
- Imports and Flask Objects
- Notes and Observations #1
- Model Definition
- Notes and Observations #2
- Initial Data
- Notes and Observations #3
- Check for given Credentials in users table in sqlite.db
- Notes and Observations #4
- Create a new User in table in Sqlite.db
- Notes and Observations #5
- Reading users table in sqlite.db
- Notes and Observations #6
- Hacks
Database and SQLAlchemy
In this blog we will explore using programs with data, focused on Databases. We will use SQLite Database to learn more about using Programs with Data. Use Debugging through these examples to examine Objects created in Code.
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College Board talks about ideas like
- Program Usage. "iterative and interactive way when processing information"
- Managing Data. "classifying data are part of the process in using programs", "data files in a Table"
- Insight "insight and knowledge can be obtained from ... digitally represented information"
- Filter systems. 'tools for finding information and recognizing patterns"
- Application. "the preserve has two databases", "an employee wants to count the number of book"
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PBL, Databases, Iterative/OOP
- Iterative. Refers to a sequence of instructions or code being repeated until a specific end result is achieved
- OOP. A computer programming model that organizes software design around data, or objects, rather than functions and logic
- SQL. Structured Query Language, abbreviated as SQL, is a language used in programming, managing, and structuring data
"""
These imports define the key objects
"""
from flask import Flask
from flask_sqlalchemy import SQLAlchemy
"""
These object and definitions are used throughout the Jupyter Notebook.
"""
# Setup of key Flask object (app)
app = Flask(__name__)
# Setup SQLAlchemy object and properties for the database (db)
database = 'sqlite:///sqlite.db' # path and filename of database
app.config['SQLALCHEMY_TRACK_MODIFICATIONS'] = False
app.config['SQLALCHEMY_DATABASE_URI'] = database
app.config['SECRET_KEY'] = 'SECRET_KEY'
db = SQLAlchemy()
# This belongs in place where it runs once per project
db.init_app(app)
Notes and Observations #1
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Imports Flask and SQLAlchemy libraries.
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Creates a Flask application instance.
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Sets up a database URI for an SQLite database
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Disables SQLAlchemy modification tracking
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Sets a secret key
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Initializes a SQLAlchemy instance
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Associates it with the Flask application.
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Flask framework is used for creating web applications in Python.
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Flask_SQLAlchemy extension is used to integrate SQLAlchemy with Flask.
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SQLite database is used as the backend database.
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SQLALCHEMY_TRACK_MODIFICATIONS configuration option is set to False, SQLAlchemy will not track modifications by default.
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SECRET_KEY is set as a configuration option, which is used for secure session management.
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db object is initialized and associated with the Flask application using init_app method.
""" database dependencies to support sqlite examples """
import datetime
from datetime import datetime
import json
from sqlalchemy.exc import IntegrityError
from werkzeug.security import generate_password_hash, check_password_hash
''' Tutorial: https://www.sqlalchemy.org/library.html#tutorials, try to get into a Python shell and follow along '''
# Define the User class to manage actions in the 'users' table
# -- Object Relational Mapping (ORM) is the key concept of SQLAlchemy
# -- a.) db.Model is like an inner layer of the onion in ORM
# -- b.) User represents data we want to store, something that is built on db.Model
# -- c.) SQLAlchemy ORM is layer on top of SQLAlchemy Core, then SQLAlchemy engine, SQL
class User(db.Model):
__tablename__ = 'users' # table name is plural, class name is singular
# Define the User schema with "vars" from object
id = db.Column(db.Integer, primary_key=True)
_name = db.Column(db.String(255), unique=False, nullable=False)
_uid = db.Column(db.String(255), unique=True, nullable=False)
_password = db.Column(db.String(255), unique=False, nullable=False)
_dob = db.Column(db.Date)
# constructor of a User object, initializes the instance variables within object (self)
def __init__(self, name, uid, password="123qwerty", dob=datetime.today()):
self._name = name # variables with self prefix become part of the object,
self._uid = uid
self.set_password(password)
if isinstance(dob, str): # not a date type
dob = date=datetime.today()
self._dob = dob
# a name getter method, extracts name from object
@property
def name(self):
return self._name
# a setter function, allows name to be updated after initial object creation
@name.setter
def name(self, name):
self._name = name
# a getter method, extracts uid from object
@property
def uid(self):
return self._uid
# a setter function, allows uid to be updated after initial object creation
@uid.setter
def uid(self, uid):
self._uid = uid
# check if uid parameter matches user id in object, return boolean
def is_uid(self, uid):
return self._uid == uid
@property
def password(self):
return self._password[0:10] + "..." # because of security only show 1st characters
# update password, this is conventional method used for setter
def set_password(self, password):
"""Create a hashed password."""
self._password = generate_password_hash(password, method='sha256')
# check password parameter against stored/encrypted password
def is_password(self, password):
"""Check against hashed password."""
result = check_password_hash(self._password, password)
return result
# dob property is returned as string, a string represents date outside object
@property
def dob(self):
dob_string = self._dob.strftime('%m-%d-%Y')
return dob_string
# dob setter, verifies date type before it is set or default to today
@dob.setter
def dob(self, dob):
if isinstance(dob, str): # not a date type
dob = date=datetime.today()
self._dob = dob
# age is calculated field, age is returned according to date of birth
@property
def age(self):
today = datetime.today()
return today.year - self._dob.year - ((today.month, today.day) < (self._dob.month, self._dob.day))
# output content using str(object) is in human readable form
# output content using json dumps, this is ready for API response
def __str__(self):
return json.dumps(self.read())
# CRUD create/add a new record to the table
# returns self or None on error
def create(self):
try:
# creates a person object from User(db.Model) class, passes initializers
db.session.add(self) # add prepares to persist person object to Users table
db.session.commit() # SqlAlchemy "unit of work pattern" requires a manual commit
return self
except IntegrityError:
db.session.remove()
return None
# CRUD read converts self to dictionary
# returns dictionary
def read(self):
return {
"id": self.id,
"name": self.name,
"uid": self.uid,
"dob": self.dob,
"age": self.age,
}
# CRUD update: updates user name, password, phone
# returns self
def update(self, name="", uid="", password=""):
"""only updates values with length"""
if len(name) > 0:
self.name = name
if len(uid) > 0:
self.uid = uid
if len(password) > 0:
self.set_password(password)
db.session.commit()
return self
# CRUD delete: remove self
# None
def delete(self):
db.session.delete(self)
db.session.commit()
return None
Notes and Observations #2
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Defines a SQLAlchemy model class named User that represents a user in a web application.
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User class has several properties and methods that define its behavior:
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__tablename__
attribute: set tousers
,the name of the table in the database that corresponds to this model. -
Properties that represent attributes of the user such as name, uid, password, dob, and age.
- These properties have getter and setter methods.
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__init__
method: defined to set default values for some of the attributes of the User class, such as password and dob. Initializes the class with values provided by the caller. -
set_password
method: sets a hash of the user's password using thewerkzeug.security
library. -
is_password
method: checks if a given password matches the user's stored password. -
CRUD:
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Adds a new user to the database.
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Returns a dictionary representation of the user object.
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Updates the properties of the user object and commits the changes to the database.
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Deletes the user object from the database.
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db object: a SQLAlchemy instance.
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is_uid
method not used in the code. -
__str__
method: returns a JSON string representation of the user object. -
IntegrityError
exception is caught in the create method, indicating that a user with the same_uid
attribute may already exist in the database.
"""Database Creation and Testing """
# Builds working data for testing
def initUsers():
with app.app_context():
"""Create database and tables"""
db.create_all()
"""Tester data for table"""
u1 = User(name='Thomas Edison', uid='toby', password='123toby', dob=datetime(1847, 2, 11))
u2 = User(name='Nikola Tesla', uid='niko', password='123niko')
u3 = User(name='Alexander Graham Bell', uid='lex', password='123lex')
u4 = User(name='Eli Whitney', uid='whit', password='123whit')
u5 = User(name='Indiana Jones', uid='indi', dob=datetime(1920, 10, 21))
u6 = User(name='Marion Ravenwood', uid='raven', dob=datetime(1921, 10, 21))
users = [u1, u2, u3, u4, u5, u6]
"""Builds sample user/note(s) data"""
for user in users:
try:
'''add user to table'''
object = user.create()
print(f"Created new uid {object.uid}")
except: # error raised if object nit created
'''fails with bad or duplicate data'''
print(f"Records exist uid {user.uid}, or error.")
initUsers()
Notes and Observations #3
-
Defines a function called
initUsers()
.- Initializes user records in the database.
-
with app.app_context()
sets the application context for the database. -
db.create_all()
creates the table if it doesn't exist yet. -
Creates six user records with attributes such as name, uid, password, and date of birth.
- If no password or dob is provided, the function sets default values.
-
user objects stored in a list called users.
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Loop iterates over the users and attempts to create each one using the
create()
method of the User class.-
If the create operation is successful, the function prints a message with the uid of the newly created user.
-
If the create operation fails due to an integrity error, the function prints a message indicating that the record already exists or an error occurred.
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def find_by_uid(uid):
with app.app_context():
user = User.query.filter_by(_uid=uid).first()
return user # returns user object
# Check credentials by finding user and verify password
def check_credentials(uid, password):
# query email and return user record
user = find_by_uid(uid)
if user == None:
return False
if (user.is_password(password)):
return True
return False
#check_credentials("indi", "123qwerty")
Notes and Observations #4
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Defines two functions
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find_by_uid
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Takes a uid parameter and returns a User object with the matching _uid.
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Uses Flask's application context to create a new context and then uses SQLAlchemy to query the User table for the matching _uid.
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check_credentials
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Takes a uid and password parameter and returns True if there is a user with matching _uid and password, and False otherwise.
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Uses
find_by_uid
to get the User object with the matching _uid, and then checks if the given password matches the user's password using the is_password method defined in the User class.
-
-
def create():
# optimize user time to see if uid exists
uid = input("Enter your user id:")
user = find_by_uid(uid)
try:
print("Found\n", user.read())
return
except:
pass # keep going
# request value that ensure creating valid object
name = input("Enter your name:")
password = input("Enter your password")
# Initialize User object before date
user = User(name=name,
uid=uid,
password=password
)
# create user.dob, fail with today as dob
dob = input("Enter your date of birth 'YYYY-MM-DD'")
try:
user.dob = datetime.strptime(dob, '%Y-%m-%d').date()
except ValueError:
user.dob = datetime.today()
print(f"Invalid date {dob} require YYYY-mm-dd, date defaulted to {user.dob}")
# write object to database
with app.app_context():
try:
object = user.create()
print("Created\n", object.read())
except: # error raised if object not created
print("Unknown error uid {uid}")
create()
Notes and Observations #5
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Defines a function create() that interacts with the user to create a new user in the database.
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Prompts the user for their user ID and checks if the user already exists in the database using the find_by_uid() function.
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If the user already exists, the function prints out the user's information and returns. Otherwise, the function prompts the user for their name and password, creates a new User object, and prompts the user for their date of birth.
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If the date of birth is entered in an invalid format, the default date is set to the current date.
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The new user is added to the database using the create() method of the User object.
According to ChatGPT:an issue with the code is that it assumes that the
find_by_uid()
function always returns a valid User object. If thefind_by_uid()
function returns None, then an error will occur when trying to call the read() method on None. It would be better to check if the user variable is None before trying to print out the user's information.
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The new user is added to the database using the create() method of the User object.
-
-
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# SQLAlchemy extracts all users from database, turns each user into JSON
def read():
with app.app_context():
table = User.query.all()
json_ready = [user.read() for user in table] # "List Comprehensions", for each user add user.read() to list
return json_ready
read()
Notes and Observations #6
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Reads all the rows from the User table and returns a list of dictionary objects, where each dictionary contains user data in a format that can be easily converted to JSON:
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Create a context for the Flask app.
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Use the query.all() method of the User object to retrieve all rows from the User table.
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Iterate over the rows and call the read() method of each row, which returns a dictionary object containing user data in a format that can be easily converted to JSON.
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Return a list of all the dictionary objects.
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