Hi all!
I wanted to highlight a new Dash 2 preview feature has landed in the version 0.3.0 of Dash Labs.
It is a new callback decorator called @app.long_callback. I’ve included the current documentation inline below.
As with other Dash Labs features, the API will not be final/stable until the feature is released as part of Dash 2, but we would really appreciate your feedback! Thanks!
Dash Labs introduces a new callback decorator called @long_callback. This decorator is designed to make it easier to create callback functions that take a long time to run, without locking up the Dash app or timing out.
@long_callback is designed to support multiple backend executors. Two backends are currently implemented:
- A Flask-Caching backend that runs callback logic in a separate process and stores the results in a Flask-Caching cache. This is the easiest backend to use for local development.
- A Celery backend that runs callback logic in a celery worker and returns results to the Dash app through a Celery broker like RabbitMQ or Redis.
The @long_callback decorator supports the same arguments as the normal @callback decorator, but also includes support for 3 additional arguments that will be discussion below: running, cancel, and progress.
Enabling long-callback support
In Dash Labs, the @long_callback decorator is enabled using the LongCallback plugin. To support multiple backends, the LongCallback plugin is, itself, configured with either a FlaskCachingCallbackManager or CeleryCallbackManager object. Furthermore, in addition to the LongCallback plugin, the FlexibleCallback and HiddenComponents plugins must be enabled as well. Here is an example of configuring an app to enable the @long_callback decorator using the Flask-Caching backend.
import dash
import dash_labs as dl
# ## FlaskCaching
from flask_caching import Cache
flask_cache = Cache(config={"CACHE_TYPE": "filesystem", "CACHE_DIR": "./cache"})
long_callback_manager = FlaskCachingCallbackManager(flask_cache)
app = dash.Dash(__name__, plugins=[
dl.plugins.FlexibleCallbacks(),
dl.plugins.HiddenComponents(),
dl.plugins.LongCallback(long_callback_manager)
])
This configuration requires the Flask-Caching package which can be installed with:
$ pip install Flask-Caching
Example 1: Simple background callback
Here is a simple example of using the @long_callback decorator to register a callback function that updates an html.P element with the number of times that a button has been clicked. The callback uses time.sleep to simulate a long-running operation.
import time
import dash
import dash_html_components as html
import dash_labs as dl
from dash_labs.plugins import FlaskCachingCallbackManager
# ## FlaskCaching
from flask_caching import Cache
flask_cache = Cache(config={"CACHE_TYPE": "filesystem", "CACHE_DIR": "./cache"})
long_callback_manager = FlaskCachingCallbackManager(flask_cache)
app = dash.Dash(__name__, plugins=[
dl.plugins.FlexibleCallbacks(),
dl.plugins.HiddenComponents(),
dl.plugins.LongCallback(long_callback_manager)
])
app.layout = html.Div([
html.Div([
html.P(id="paragraph_id", children=["Button not clicked"])
]),
html.Button(id='button_id', children="Run Job!"),
])
@app.long_callback(
output=dl.Output("paragraph_id", "children"),
args=dl.Input("button_id", "n_clicks"),
)
def callback(n_clicks):
time.sleep(2.0)
return [f"Clicked {n_clicks} times"]
if __name__ == "__main__":
app.run_server(debug=True)
Example 2: Disable button while callback is running
In the previous example, there is no visual indication that the long callback was running. It is also possible to click the “Run Job!” button multiple times before the original job has the chance to complete. This example addresses these shortcomings by disabling the button while the callback is running, and re-enabling it when the callback completes.
This is accomplished using the running argument to @long_callback. This argument accepts a list of 3-element tuples. The first element of each tuple should be an Output dependency object referencing a property of a component in the app layout. The second elements is the values that the property should be set to while the callback is running, and the third element is the value the property should be set to when the callback completes.
This example uses running to set the disabled property of the button to True while the callback is running, and False when it completes.
import time
import dash
import dash_html_components as html
import dash_labs as dl
from dash_labs.plugins import FlaskCachingCallbackManager
# ## FlaskCaching
from flask_caching import Cache
flask_cache = Cache(config={"CACHE_TYPE": "filesystem", "CACHE_DIR": "./cache"})
long_callback_manager = FlaskCachingCallbackManager(flask_cache)
app = dash.Dash(__name__, plugins=[
dl.plugins.FlexibleCallbacks(),
dl.plugins.HiddenComponents(),
dl.plugins.LongCallback(long_callback_manager)
])
app.layout = html.Div([
html.Div([
html.P(id="paragraph_id", children=["Button not clicked"])
]),
html.Button(id='button_id', children="Run Job!"),
])
@app.long_callback(
output=dl.Output("paragraph_id", "children"),
args=dl.Input("button_id", "n_clicks"),
running=[
(dl.Output("button_id", "disabled"), True, False),
],
)
def callback(n_clicks):
time.sleep(2.0)
return [f"Clicked {n_clicks} times"]
if __name__ == "__main__":
app.run_server(debug=True)
Example 3: Cancelable callback
This example builds on the previous example, adding support for canceling a long-running callback using the cancel argument to the @long_callback decorator. The cancel argument should be set to a list of Input dependency objects that reference a property of a component in the app’s layout. When the value of this property changes while a callback is running, the callback is canceled. Note that the value of the property is not significant, any change in value will result in the cancellation of the running job (if any).
import time
import dash
import dash_html_components as html
import dash_labs as dl
from dash_labs.plugins import FlaskCachingCallbackManager
# ## FlaskCaching
from flask_caching import Cache
flask_cache = Cache(config={"CACHE_TYPE": "filesystem", "CACHE_DIR": "./cache"})
long_callback_manager = FlaskCachingCallbackManager(flask_cache)
app = dash.Dash(__name__, plugins=[
dl.plugins.FlexibleCallbacks(),
dl.plugins.HiddenComponents(),
dl.plugins.LongCallback(long_callback_manager)
])
app.layout = html.Div([
html.Div([
html.P(id="paragraph_id", children=["Button not clicked"])
]),
html.Button(id='button_id', children="Run Job!"),
html.Button(id='cancel_button_id', children="Cancel Running Job!"),
])
@app.long_callback(
output=dl.Output("paragraph_id", "children"),
args=dl.Input("button_id", "n_clicks"),
running=[
(dl.Output("button_id", "disabled"), True, False),
(dl.Output("cancel_button_id", "disabled"), False, True),
],
cancel=[dl.Input("cancel_button_id", "n_clicks")],
)
def callback(n_clicks):
time.sleep(2.0)
return [f"Clicked {n_clicks} times"]
if __name__ == "__main__":
app.run_server(debug=True)
Example 4: Progress bar
This example uses the progress argument to the @long_callback decorator to update a progress bar while the callback is running. The progress argument should be set to an Output dependency object that references a tuple of two properties of a component in the app’s layout. The first property will be set to the current iteration of the task that the decorated function is executing, and the second property will be set to the total number of iterations.
When a dependency object is assigned to the progress argument of @long_callback, the decorated function will be called with a new special argument as the first argument to the function. This special argument, named set_progress in the example below, is a function handle that the decorated function should call in order to provide updates to the app on its current progress. The set_progress function accepts two positional argument, which correspond to the two properties specified in the Output dependency object passed to the progress argument of @long_callback. The first argument to set_progress should be the current iteration of the task that the decorated function is executing, and the second argument should be the total number of iterations.
import time
import dash
import dash_html_components as html
import dash_labs as dl
from dash_labs.plugins import FlaskCachingCallbackManager, CeleryCallbackManager
# ## FlaskCaching
from flask_caching import Cache
flask_cache = Cache(config={"CACHE_TYPE": "filesystem", "CACHE_DIR": "./cache"})
long_callback_manager = FlaskCachingCallbackManager(flask_cache)
# ## FlaskCaching
flask_cache = Cache(config={"CACHE_TYPE": "filesystem", "CACHE_DIR": "./cache"})
long_callback_manager = FlaskCachingCallbackManager(flask_cache)
app = dash.Dash(__name__, plugins=[
dl.plugins.FlexibleCallbacks(),
dl.plugins.HiddenComponents(),
dl.plugins.LongCallback(long_callback_manager)
])
app.layout = html.Div([
html.Div([
html.P(id="paragraph_id", children=["Button not clicked"]),
html.Progress(id="progress_bar"),
]),
html.Button(id='button_id', children="Run Job!"),
html.Button(id='cancel_button_id', children="Cancel Running Job!"),
])
@app.long_callback(
output=dl.Output("paragraph_id", "children"),
args=dl.Input("button_id", "n_clicks"),
running=[
(dl.Output("button_id", "disabled"), True, False),
(dl.Output("cancel_button_id", "disabled"), False, True),
(dl.Output("paragraph_id", "style"), {"visibility": "hidden"}, {"visibility": "visible"}),
(dl.Output("progress_bar", "style"), {"visibility": "visible"}, {"visibility": "hidden"}),
],
cancel=[dl.Input("cancel_button_id", "n_clicks")],
progress=dl.Output("progress_bar", ("value", "max")),
)
def callback(set_progress, n_clicks):
total = 10
for i in range(total):
time.sleep(0.5)
set_progress(str(i + 1), str(total))
# Set progress back to indeterminate state for next time
set_progress(None, None)
return [f"Clicked {n_clicks} times"]
if __name__ == "__main__":
app.run_server(debug=True)
Celery configuration
Here is an example of configuring the LongCallback plugin to use Celery as the execution backend rather than a background process with FlaskCaching.
import dash
import dash_labs as dl
from dash_labs.plugins import CeleryCallbackManager, FlaskCachingCallbackManager
## Celery on RabbitMQ
from celery import Celery
celery_app = Celery(__name__, backend='rpc://', broker='pyamqp://')
long_callback_manager = CeleryCallbackManager(celery_app)
app = dash.Dash(__name__, plugins=[
dl.plugins.FlexibleCallbacks(),
dl.plugins.HiddenComponents(),
dl.plugins.LongCallback(long_callback_manager)
])
See the Celery documentation for more information on configuring a Celery app instance.
