Just Add Await: Retrofitting Async Into Django

A talk I gave at PyCon Australia 2019 (and then later gave a modified version of at DjangoCon US 2019)

1. JUST ADD AWAIT ANDREW GODWIN // @andrewgodwin RETROFITTING ASYNC INTO DJANGO
2. Hi, I’m Andrew Godwin • Django contributor (Migrations/Channels) • Principal Engineer at • I see Python threads in my sleep now
4. async def view(request): return TemplateResponse( request, "template.html", {"article": await api_call(pk=5)} )
5. Django In Depth 1. 2. 3. Threading, cooperation, and intrigue Spanning two worlds with one vision Handlers, Requests, Middleware & Views Big Framework Problems Async In Brief
6. ASYNC IN BRIEF 1.
7. You don't know when it'll switch! Threads are preemptive
8. You don't know when it'll switch! Threads are preemptive
9. You don't know when it'll switch! Threads are preemptive Coroutines are cooperative They only yield at an await.
10. Coroutines are cooperative They only yield at an await.
11. You don't know when it'll switch! Threads are preemptive Coroutines are cooperative They only yield at an await.
12. Coroutines need an event loop It's where the program idles between tasks
13. An event loop runs in a single thread Yes, you can have threads and coroutines!
14. Sync Thread Sync Thread Async Thread
15. Threads are slow! The more you add, the worse it gets.
16. Async is fast... As long as you are I/O bound!
17. Async functions are different to sync They are not cross-compatible!
18. # Call sync from sync result = function() # Call async from async result = await function()
19. # Call async from sync in Python 3.7 result = asyncio.run(function()) # Python 3.6 loop = asyncio.new_event_loop() asyncio.set_event_loop(loop) result = loop.run_until_complete(function())
20. # Call sync from async executor = ThreadPoolExecutor(max_workers=3) loop = asyncio.get_event_loop() result = await loop.run_in_executor( executor, function, *args, )
21. Async calling Sync is dangerous It has to be in a separate thread or it'll block the event loop
22. Sync Thread Async Thread
23. Sync Thread Async Thread
24. It's complicated This is why I encourage writing sync code at first!
25. BIG FRAMEWORK PROBLEMS 2.
26. Backwards compatibility is crucial Throw it away, and nobody will adopt your new thing
27. A function cannot be both sync and async You have to pick one. I've tried.
28. # You can have this... result = cache.get("my-key") # Or this. Not both. result = await cache.get("my-key")
29. Totally different libraries And there's not even standards like DBAPI2
30. # Even sleep is different! time.sleep(0.01) await asyncio.sleep(0.1)
31. Lack of standards It's just too early on for things to coalesce.
32. async def application(scope, receive, send): await receive() ... send({"type": "http.response", ...})
33. Different language features No more attribute access
34. # While this can have an async version... instance = await Model.objects.get() # There's no async way of doing this print(instance.foreign_key.name)
35. Threads matter! Sync code all wants to run in the same thread still.
36. Async has to add, not replace Sync Django is still important Things need to look familiar We don't want a wildly different API feel Things need to be safe Deadlocking or blocking is easier than ever
37. DJANGO IN DEPTH 3.
38. Handler ASGI / WSGI Server Middleware View ORM Template URL Router Forms
39. Outside-in approach Async outside, sync inside
40. Handler ASGI / WSGI Server Middleware View ORM Template URL Router Forms Phase One Phase Two Phase Three
41. Phase One: ASGI Support Allowing Django to be async at all Phase Two: Async Views Unlocking async use in normal apps Phase Three: The ORM High-level async use for the most common case
42. Phase One: Django 3.0 It's already committed! Phase Two: Django 3.1 Unless things really do turn out nicely... Phase Three: Django 3.2/4.0 There's a lot of work here.
43. Each phase brings concrete benefits Even if we stop!
44. Phase One: ASGI
45. Django predates WSGI Which turns out to actually help, in the end
46. “ James Bennett, "Django and NIH", 2006 Just so you know, Django is a smug, arrogant framework that doesn’t play nice with others.
47. “ James Bennett, "Django and NIH", 2006 Just so you know, Django is a smug, arrogant framework that doesn’t play nice with others. [...] Or at least, that’s the impression you’d get from reading the rants...
48. Custom request/response objects Most other frameworks did this too Custom "handler" classes Abstracts away WSGI Custom middleware Wow, was this contentious at the time!
49. WSGIHandler __call__ WSGI Server WSGIRequest BaseHandler get_response URLs Middleware View __call__ HTTP protocol Socket handling Transfer encodings Headers-to-META Upload file wrapping GET/POST parsing Exception catching Atomic view wrapper
50. WSGIHandler __call__ WSGI Server WSGIRequest BaseHandler get_response URLs Middleware View __call__ ASGIHandler __call__ ASGI Server ASGIRequest
51. WSGIHandler __call__ WSGI Server WSGIRequest BaseHandler get_response URLs Middleware View __call__ ASGIHandler __call__ ASGI Server ASGIRequest Asynchronous
52. ASGI is mostly WSGI-compatible With better definitions of bytes versus unicode
53. if self.scope.get('client'): self.META['REMOTE_ADDR'] = self.scope['client'][0] self.META['REMOTE_HOST'] = self.META['REMOTE_ADDR'] self.META['REMOTE_PORT'] = self.scope['client'][1]
54. body_file = tempfile.SpooledTemporaryFile(max_size=..., mode='w+b') while True: message = await receive() if message['type'] == 'http.disconnect': # Early client disconnect. raise RequestAborted() # Add a body chunk from the message, if provided. if 'body' in message: body_file.write(message['body']) # Quit out if that's the end. if not message.get('more_body', False): break body_file.seek(0) return body_file
55. if response.streaming: # Access `__iter__` and not `streaming_content` directly in case # it has been overridden in a subclass. for part in response: for chunk, _ in self.chunk_bytes(part): await send({ 'type': 'http.response.body', 'body': chunk, # Ignore "more" as there may be more parts; instead, # use an empty final closing message with False. 'more_body': True, }) # Final closing message. await send({'type': 'http.response.body'})
56. WSGIHandler __call__ WSGI Server WSGIRequest BaseHandler get_response URLs Middleware View __call__ ASGIHandler __call__ ASGI Server ASGIRequest Asynchronous
57. “ Me, earlier in this talk Async calling sync is dangerous!
58. from asgiref.sync import sync_to_async result = await sync_to_async(callable)(arg1, name=arg2)
59. Propagates exceptions nicely Really helps with debugging! Proxies threadlocals down correctly Because people really love threadlocals. Stickies sync code into one thread We'll get back to this. It's nasty.
60. Result: Django 3.0 can speak ASGI But it can't do much else async... yet.
61. Phase Two: Views
62. WSGIHandler __call__ WSGI Server WSGIRequest BaseHandler get_response URLs Middleware View __call__ ASGIHandler __call__ ASGI Server ASGIRequest Asynchronous
63. WSGIHandler __call__ WSGI Server WSGIRequest BaseHandler get_response URLs Middleware Async View __call__ ASGIHandler __call__ ASGI Server ASGIRequest Asynchronous Sync View __call__
64. WSGIHandler __call__ BaseHandler get_response URLs Middleware Async View __call__ ASGIHandler __call__ Sync View __call__ TestClient get/post
65. BaseHandler get_response Sync View __call__ TestClient get/post Main Thread Event Loop Sub Thread asyncio.run ThreadPool
66. SQLite hates this Try This One Weird Trick To Help Thread-Sensitive Libraries
67. result = async_to_sync(awaitable)(arg1, name=arg2) result = await sync_to_async(callable)(arg1, name=arg2)
68. BaseHandler get_response Sync View __call__ TestClient get/post Main Thread Event Loop Main Thread async_to_sync sync_to_async
69. There's a whole talk in how this works! Also, it's not pretty or nice and it really shouldn't be necessary.
70. M I D D L E W A R E
71. get_response Middleware 1 Middleware 2 View
72. get_response Sync Middleware Async Middleware Async View async_to_sync sync_to_async
73. Transactions Views are auto-wrapped in them with ATOMIC_REQUESTS Templates Direct calls from error handlers Tracebacks They're really long with all the switch functions
74. Goal: Django 3.1 has async def views They already work on the branch right now!
75. Phase Three: ORM
76. API Design is crucial It must be familiar, yet safe.
77. # Iteration is the one transparent thing for result in Model.objects.filter(name="Andrew"): >>> QuerySet.__iter__ # This can work in the same codebase! async for result in Model.objects.filter(name="Andrew"): >>> QuerySet.__aiter__
78. # But some things will never work - # we'll need to force select_related result = instance.foreign_key.name
79. QuerySet Query Compiler Connection
80. QuerySet Query Compiler Connection
81. QuerySet Query Compiler Connection
82. In the meantime, async-safety You just try calling the ORM from async code in 3.0!
83. async def random_code(): result = Model.objects.get(pk=5) >>> SynchronousOnlyOperation("You cannot call this from an async context - use a thread or sync_to_async.")
84. This needs a lot more research It's also not going to happen straight away.
85. LOOKING AHEAD 4.
86. Cache? Templates? Forms? Some will benefit from async, some will not
87. Some things don't need to be async URL routing is just fine as it is.
88. Async views are the cornerstone Once we get those working, all other paths open up
89. Being careful about performance Things could easily slow down for synchronous applications
90. Being careful about people We need to bring on new faces, and not burn out others
91. Documentation Async needs to be clear, safe, and clearly optional
92. Funding Async expertise is rare. We need to pay people for their knowledge.
93. Organisation One of the largest changes in Django's history.
94. aeracode.org/2018/02/19/python-async-simplified/ A deeper dive into async vs. sync functions github.com/django/deps/blob/master/accepted/0009-async.rst DEP 0009, the proposal for async in Django code.djangoproject.com/wiki/AsyncProject Where to go to help
95. Thanks. Andrew Godwin @andrewgodwin // aeracode.org