SQLAlchemy - an Architectural Retrospective

This talk walks through some highlights of SQLAlchemy internal design and methodology, based on the (now published) chapter for the "Architecture of Open Source Applications" book. We'll have a little bit of SQLAlchemy philosophy, an overview of the Core, and then a 500-ft view of how the ORM goes about things, with plenty of cool looking diagrams.

1. SQLAlchemy: an Architectural Retrospective
2. Front Matter • This talk is loosely based on the SQLAlchemy chapter I'm writing for The Architecture of Open Source Applications • http://www.aosabook.org/ en/index.html
3. Introduction • SQLAlchemy, the Database Toolkit for Python • Introduced in 2005 • End-to-end system for working with the Python DBAPI • Got early attention fast: fluent SQL, ORM with Unit of Work pattern
4. Part I - Philosophy
5. "Abstraction" • When we talk about relational database tools, the term "database abstraction layer" is often used. • What is implied by "Abstraction" ? • Conceal details of how data is stored and queried? • Should an abstraction layer conceal even that the database is relational ? • Should it talk to S3, MongoDB, DBM files just like a SQL database ? • In this definition, "abstraction" means "hiding".
6. Problems with "abstraction=hiding" • SQL language involves "relations" (i.e. tables, views, SELECT statements) that can be sliced into subsets, intersected on attributes (i.e. joins) • Ability to organize and query for data in a relational way is the primary feature of relational databases. • Hiding it means you no longer have that capability. • Why use a relational database then? Many alternatives now. • We don't want "hiding". We want "automation"!
7. Automation • Provide succinct patterns that automate the usage of lower level systems • Establish single points of behavioral variance • We still need to do work, know how everything works, design all strategies! • But we work efficiently, instructing our tools to do the grunt work we give them. • Use our own schema/design conventions, not someone else's
8. SQLAlchemy's Approach • The developer must consider the relational form of the target data. • Query and schema design decisions are all made by the developer. Tools don't make decisions. • Provide a rich, detailed vocabulary to express these decisions • Developer creates patterns and conventions based on this vocabulary. • Opposite to the approach of providing defaults + ways to override some of them
9. An out of the box mapping class User(Base): __tablename__ = 'user' id = Column(Integer, primary_key=True) username = Column(String(50), nullable=False) addresses = relationship("Address", backref="user", cascade="all, delete-orphan") class Address(Base): __tablename__ = 'address' id = Column(Integer, primary_key=True) user_id = Column(Integer, ForeignKey('user.id'), nullable=False) street = Column(String(50)) city = Column(String(50)) state = Column(CHAR(2)) zip = Column(String(15))
10. Dealing with Verbosity • But what about how verbose that was ? • Is that verbosity a problem when... • Your whole app has just the two classes ? No. • You have a large app, using those same patterns over and over again - yes. • Then we're writing a large app. Large apps should have foundations!
11. Use a base that defines the conventions for all tables and classes Building a Foundation from sqlalchemy import Column, Integer from sqlalchemy.ext.declarative import declarative_base class Base(object): """Define the base conventions for all tables/classes.""" @declared_attr def __tablename__(cls): """Table is named after the class name""" return cls.__name__.lower() id = Column(Integer, primary_key=True) """Surrogate primary key column named 'id'""" Base = declarative_base(cls=Base)
12. Use functions to represent common idioms, like foreign key columns, datatypes that are common Building a Foundation def fk(tablename, nullable=False): """Define a convention for all foreign key columns. Just give it the table name.""" return Column("%s_id" % tablename, Integer, ForeignKey("%s.id" % tablename), nullable=nullable)
13. Use prototypes and similar techniques for particular table structures that are common Building a Foundation class AddressPrototype(object): """Lots of objects will have an 'address'. Let's build a prototype for it.'""" street = Column(String(50)) city = Column(String(50)) state = Column(CHAR(2)) zip = Column(String(15))
14. Use mixins to define table/class attributes common to subsets of the domain model Building a Foundation class HasAddresses(object): """Define classes that have a collection of addresses via the AddressPrototype foundation.""" @declared_attr def addresses(cls): cls.Address = type("%sAddress" % cls.__name__, (AddressPrototype, Base), {'%s_id' % cls.__tablename__:fk(cls.__tablename__)} ) return relationship(cls.Address, backref=cls.__name__.lower(), cascade="all, delete-orphan")
15. With our conventions in place, the actual mapping for both user/address looks like this Use the Foundation from myapp.base import ( HasAddresses, Base, Column, String ) class User(HasAddresses, Base): username = Column(String(50), nullable=False) Address = User.Address
16. More Foundation • More examples of convention-oriented "helpers", including pre-fab one_to_many()/many_to_one()/ many_to_many() helpers, at http:// techspot.zzzeek.org/2011/05/17/magic-a-new-orm/
17. Exposing Relational Constructs • SQLAlchemy's querying system doesn't try to hide that a relational database is in use. • Like "power steering" for SQL. Doesn't teach you how to drive! • Developer should be very aware of the SQL being emitted. SQLAlchemy makes this easy via logging or "echo" flag. • Just like your car has windows to see where you're going!
18. Users on a certain street with no address in NYC - a hypothetical "relational-agnostic" way Exposing Relational Constructs - An example my_user = User.\ filter(addresses__street = '123 Green Street').\ has_none(addresses__city = "New York")[0] # obvious SQL from the above SELECT * FROM user JOIN address ON user.id=address.user_id WHERE address.street == '123 Green Street' AND NOT EXISTS ( SELECT * FROM address WHERE city='New York' AND user_id=user.id )
19. Exposing Relational Constructs - An example • Now I want: • Give me all households in New York with exactly two occupants where neither occupant has any residences outside of the city. • Our model isn't terrifically optimized for this query, since the "address" rows are not normalized • This query needs to be built relationally,referencing relational structures explicitly and building from the inside out • This is why we like relational databases !
20. Build a query from the inside out -- New York addresses that have two -- occupants SELECT street, city, zip FROM address WHERE city='New York' GROUP BY street, city, zip HAVING count(user_id) = 2
21. Build a query from the inside out -- users who are different from each other SELECT * FROM user AS u_1 JOIN user AS u_2 ON u_1.id > u_2.id
22. Build a query from the inside out -- join them to their addresses, join addresses -- to the two occupant NY addresses SELECT * FROM user AS u_1 JOIN user AS u_2 ON u_1.id > u_2.id JOIN address AS a_1 ON u_1.id = a_1.user_id JOIN address AS a_2 ON u_2.id = a_2.user_id JOIN (SELECT street, city, zip FROM address WHERE city='New York' GROUP BY street, city, zip HAVING count(user_id) = 2 ) AS two_occupant_ny ON ( a_1.street=two_occupant_ny.street AND a_1.city=two_occupant_ny.city AND a_1.zip=two_occupant_ny.zip AND a_2.street=two_occupant_ny.street AND a_2.city=two_occupant_ny.city AND a_2.zip=two_occupant_ny.zip )
23. Build a query from the inside out -- ... who don't have a house outside of New York SELECT * FROM user AS u_1 JOIN user AS u_2 ON u_1.id > u_2.id JOIN address AS a_1 ON u_1.id = a_1.user_id JOIN address AS a_2 ON u_2.id = a_2.user_id JOIN (SELECT street, city, zip FROM address WHERE city='New York' GROUP BY street, city, zip HAVING count(user_id) = 2 ) AS two_occupant_ny ON ( a_1.street == two_occupant_ny.street AND a_1.city == two_occupant_ny.city AND a_1.zip == two_occupant_ny.zip AND a_2.street == two_occupant_ny.street AND a_2.city == two_occupant_ny.city AND a_2.zip == two_occupant_ny.zip ) AND NOT EXISTS (SELECT * FROM address WHERE city!='New York' AND user_id=u_1.id OR user_id=u_2.id)
24. Build a query from the inside out • SQLAlchemy gives you this same "inside out" paradigm - you think in terms of SQL relations and joins in the same way as when constructing plain SQL. • SQLAlchemy can then apply automated enhancements like eager loading, row limiting, further relational transformations
25. Build a Query() from the inside out # New York addresses that have two # occupants two_occupant_ny = \ Session.query(Address.street, Address.city, Address.zip).\ filter(Address.city == 'New York').\ group_by(Address.street, Address.city, Address.zip).\ having(func.count(Address.user_id) == 2).\ subquery()
26. Build a Query() from the inside out # users who are different from each other u_1, u_2 = aliased(User), aliased(User) user_q = Session.query(u_1, u_2).\ select_from(u_1).\ join(u_2, u_1.id > u_2.id)
27. Build a Query() from the inside out # join them to their addresses, join addresses # to the two occupant NY addresses a_1, a_2 = aliased(Address), aliased(Address) user_q = user_q.\ join(a_1, u_1.addresses).\ join(a_2, u_2.addresses).\ join( two_occupant_ny, and_( a_1.street==two_occupant_ny.c.street, a_1.city==two_occupant_ny.c.city, a_1.zip==two_occupant_ny.c.zip, a_2.street==two_occupant_ny.c.street, a_2.city==two_occupant_ny.c.city, a_2.zip==two_occupant_ny.c.zip, ) )
28. Build a Query() from the inside out # who don't have a house outside of New York user_q = user_q.filter( ~exists([Address.id]). where(Address.city != 'New York').\ where(or_( Address.user_id==u_1.id, Address.user_id==u_2.id )) )
29. Build a Query() from the inside out # pre-load all the Address objects for each # User too ! user_q = user_q.options( joinedload(u_1.addresses), joinedload(u_2.addresses)) users = user_q.all()
30. What's it look like ? SELECT user_1.id AS user_1_id, user_1.username AS user_1_username, user_2.id AS user_2_id, user_2.username AS user_2_username, address_1.id AS address_1_id, address_1.street AS address_1_street, address_1.city AS address_1_city, address_1.zip AS address_1_zip, address_1.user_id AS address_1_user_id, address_2.id AS address_2_id, address_2.street AS address_2_street, address_2.city AS address_2_city, address_2.zip AS address_2_zip, address_2.user_id AS address_2_user_id FROM user AS user_1 JOIN user AS user_2 ON user_1.id > user_2.id JOIN address AS address_3 ON user_1.id = address_3.user_id JOIN address AS address_4 ON user_2.id = address_4.user_id JOIN (SELECT address.street AS street, address.city AS city, address.zip AS zip FROM address WHERE address.city = ? GROUP BY address.street, address.city, address.zip HAVING count(address.user_id) = ?) AS anon_1 ON address_3.street = anon_1.street AND address_3.city = anon_1.city AND address_3.zip = anon_1.zip AND address_4.street = anon_1.street AND address_4.city = anon_1.city AND address_4.zip = anon_1.zip LEFT OUTER JOIN address AS address_1 ON user_1.id = address_1.user_id LEFT OUTER JOIN address AS address_2 ON user_2.id = address_2.user_id WHERE NOT (EXISTS (SELECT address.id FROM address WHERE address.city != ? AND (address.user_id = user_1.id OR address.user_id = user_2.id))) --params: ('New York', 2, 'New York') # result ! User(name=u5, addresses=s1/New York/12345, s2/New York/12345, s3/New York/12345) / User(name=u2, addresses=s2/New York/12345, s4/New York/12345, s5/New York/12345)
31. "Leaky Abstraction" • Is this "leaky abstraction ?" • You bet ! • Joel On Software - "All non-trivial abstractions, to some degree, are leaky." • SQLAlchemy works with this reality up front to create the best balance possible. • The goal is controlled automation, reduced boilerplate, succinct patterns of usage. Not "don't make me understand things".
32. Part II Architectural Overview
33. The Core / ORM Dichotomy • SQLAlchemy has two distinct areas • Core • Object Relational Mapper (ORM)
34. The Core / ORM Dichotomy SQLAlchemy Core SQLAlchemy ORM SQL Expression Language Dialect Connection Pooling DBAPI Schema / Types Engine Object Relational Mapper (ORM)
35. Core/ORM Dichotomy - Core • All DBAPI interaction • Schema description system (metadata) • SQL expression system • Fully usable by itself as the basis for any database- enabled application, other ORMs, etc. • A Core-oriented application is schema-centric • Biggest example of a custom Core-only persistence layer is Reddit
36. Core/ORM Dichotomy - ORM • Built on top of Core. Knows nothing about DBAPI. • Maps user-defined classes in terms of table metadata defined with core constructs • Maintains a local set of in-Python objects linked to an ongoing transaction, passes data back and forth within the transactional scope,using a unit-of-work pattern. • Data passed uses queries that ultimately are generated and emitted using the Core • An ORM-oriented application is domain model centric.
37. Core/ORM Dichotomy - Pros • ORM is built agnostic of SQL rendering / DBAPI details. All SQL/DBAPI behavior can be maintained and extended without any ORM details being involved • Core concepts are exposed within the ORM, allowing one to "drop down" to more SQL/DBAPI-centric usages within the context of ORM usage • Early ORM was able to be highly functional, as missing features were still possible via Core usage.
38. Core/ORM Dichotomy - Cons • New users need to be aware of separation • Performance. ORM and Core both have their own object constructs and method calls, leading to a greater number of objects generated, deeper call stacks. CPython is heavily impacted by function calls. • Pypy hopes to improve this situation - SQLAlchemy is Pypy compatible • Alex Gaynor hangs on #sqlalchemy-devel and runs our tests against Pypy constantly
39. Selected Architectural Highlights
40. Taming the DBAPI • DBAPI is the pep-249 specification for database interaction. • Most Python database client libraries conform to the DBAPI specification. • Lots of "suggestions", "guidelines", areas left open to interpretation • Unicode, numerics, dates, bound parameter behavior, behavior of execute(), result set behavior, all have wide ranges of inconsistent behaviors.
41. A rudimentary SQLAlchemy Engine interaction SQLAlchemy's Dialect System engine = create_engine( "postgresql://user:pw@host/dbname") connection = engine.connect() result = connection.execute( "select * from user_table where name=?", "jack") print result.fetchall() connection.close()
42. SQLAlchemy's Dialect System Engine Dialect psycopg2 DBAPI <<uses>> ExecutionContext DBAPI cursor <<uses>> sqlalchemy.engine psycopg2 <<produces>> Connection <<creates>> <<creates>> ResultProxy <<creates>> <<uses>> DBAPI connection <<produces>> <<uses>> <<uses>> Pool sqlalchemy.pool <<uses>> <<maintains>> <<uses>>
43. Dealing with database and DBAPI Variability Dialect DefaultDialect PGDialect_psycopg2 PGDialect ExecutionContext DefaultExecutionContext PGExecutionContext PGExecutionContext_psycopg2 sqlalchemy.dialects.postgresql sqlalchemy.engine <<uses>> Two levels of variance
44. DBAPIs with Multiple Backends Dialect DefaultDialect MSDialect_pyodbc MSDialect sqlalchemy.dialects.mssql sqlalchemy.engine PyODBCConnector sqlalchemy.connectors MySQLDialect MySQLDialect_pyodbc sqlalchemy.dialects.mysql
45. SQL Expression Constructs • Wasn't clear in the early days how SQL expressions should be constructed • Strings ? Hibernate HQL ? • statement.addWhereClause(isGreaterThan(x, 5)) ? • ... • Ian Bicking's SQLObject has a great idea !! Let's do that !
46. We can use Python expressions and overload operators! SQLBuilder from sqlobject.sqlbuilder import EXISTS, Select select = Test1.select(EXISTS(Select(Test2.q.col2, where=(Test1.q.col1 == Test2.q.col2))))
47. This expression does not produce True or False Operator Overloading column('a') == 2
48. Instead, __eq__() is overloaded so it's equivalent to... Operator Overloading column('a') == 2 from sqlalchemy.sql.expression import \ _BinaryExpression from sqlalchemy.sql import column, bindparam from sqlalchemy.operators import eq _BinaryExpression( left=column('a'), right=bindparam('a', value=2, unique=True), operator=eq )
49. Example SQL Expression Statement: SELECT id FROM user WHERE name = ? SQL Expression: from sqlalchemy import select stmt = select([user.c.id]).where(user.c.name=='ed')
50. Example SQL Expression TableClause Select name='user' ColumnClause name='id' ColumnClause name='name' _BindParam value='ed' _BinaryExpression left right operator=eq _whereclause _raw_columns columns _froms
51. In original SQLAlchemy, mappings looked like this: first define "table metadata": Intro to Mapping from sqlalchemy import (MetaData, String, Integer, CHAR, Column, Table, ForeignKey) metadata = MetaData() user = Table('user', metadata, Column('id', Integer, primary_key=True), Column('name', String(50), nullable=False) ) address = Table('address', metadata, Column('id', Integer, primary_key=True), Column('user_id', Integer, ForeignKey('user.id'), nullable=False) Column('street', String(50)), Column('city', String(50)), Column('state', CHAR(2)), Column('zip', String(14))
52. ... then, define classes and "map" them to the tables using the mapper() function: Intro to Mapping from sqlalchemy.orm import mapper, relationship class User(object): def __init__(self, name): self.name = name class Address(object): def __init__(self, street, city, state, zip): self.street = street self.city = city self.state = state self.zip = zip mapper(User, user, properties={ 'addresses':relationship(Address) }) mapper(Address, address)
53. This strict separation of database metadata and class definition, linked by the also separate mapper() step, we now call classical mapping.
54. In modern SQLAlchemy, we usually use the Declarative system to "declare" Table metadata and class mapping at the same time... Declarative Mapping from sqlalchemy.ext.declarative import declarative_base Base = declarative_base() class User(Base): __tablename__ = 'user' id = Column(Integer, primary_key=True) name = Column(String(50), nullable=False) addresses = relationship("Address") class Address(Base): __tablename__ = 'address' id = Column(Integer, primary_key=True) user_id = Column(Integer, ForeignKey('user.id'), nullable=False) # ...
55. ... or at least, the class definition and mapping. Table metadata can still be separate... Declarative Mapping class User(Base): __table__ = user addresses = relationship("Address", backref="user", cascade="all, delete-orphan") class Address(Base): __table__ = address
56. ... or inline like this if preferred Declarative Mapping class User(Base): __table__ = Table('user', Base.metadata, Column('id', Integer, primary_key=True), Column('name', String(50), nullable=False) ) addresses = relationship("Address", backref="user", cascade="all, delete-orphan") class Address(Base): __table__ = Table('address', Base.metadata, Column('id', Integer, primary_key=True), Column('user_id', Integer, ForeignKey('user.id'), nullable=False), # ... )
57. What do classical mapping, declarative mapping, declarative with __table__ etc. all have in common ?
58. They all create a mapper() and instrument the class in the identical way! The mapper() Object for the User class >>> from sqlalchemy.orm import class_mapper >>> class_mapper(User) <Mapper at 0x1267970; User>
59. They all create a mapper() and instrument the class in the identical way! Attributes are "instrumented" - when using Declarative, this replaces the Column object originally placed in the class for the "username" attribute. >>> User.username <sqlalchemy.orm.attributes.InstrumentedAttribute object at 0x1267c50>
60. Anatomy of a Mapping Mapper Instrumented Attribute Scalar AttributeImpl ColumnProperty ColumnLoader Table Column __get__() __set__() __del__() Relationship Property LazyLoader OneToManyDP Instrumented Attribute Collection AttributeImpl _sa_class_state/ class_ __get__() __set__() __del__() manager/ mapper mapped_table _props columns property property columns target related mapper id related (dict) sqlalchemy.orm.instrumentation sqlalchemy.orm.attributes sqlalchemy.orm.mapper sqlalchemy.orm.properties sqlalchemy.schema SomeClass ClassManager sqlalchemy.orm.strategies sqlalchemy.orm.dependency
61. Fun facts about Declarative • A "SQLObject"-like declarative layer was always planned, since the beginning. It was delayed so that focus could be placed on classical mappings first. • An early extension, ActiveMapper, was introduced and later superseded by Elixir - a declarative layer that redefined basic mapping semantics. • Declarative was introduced as a "one click away from classical mapping" system, which retains standard SQLA constructs - only rearranging how they are combined. • zzzeek had to be convinced by Chris Withers to support Declarative "mixins" - thanks Chris !
62. Unit of Work • Unit of work's job is to find all pending data changes in a particular Session, and emit them to the database. • (the Session is an in-memory "holding zone" for the mapped objects we're working with) • Organizes pending changes into commands which emit batches of INSERT, UPDATE, DELETE statements • Organizes the statement batches such that dependent statements execute after their dependencies • In between blocks of statements, data is synchronized from the result of a completed statement into the parameter list of another yet to be executed.
63. Unit of work example from sqlalchemy.orm import Session session = Session(bind=some_engine) session.add_all([ User(name='ed'), User(name='jack', addresses=[address1, address2]) ]) # force a flush session.flush()
64. Unit of work example -- INSERT statements BEGIN (implicit) INSERT INTO user (name) VALUES (?) ('ed',) INSERT INTO user (name) VALUES (?) ('jack',) -- statements are batched if primary key already present INSERT INTO address (id, user_id, street, city, state, zip) VALUES (?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?) ((1, 2, '350 5th Ave.', 'New York', 'NY', '10118'), (2, 2, '900 Market Street', 'San Francisco', 'CA', '94102'))
65. Dependency Sorting • The core concept used by the UOW is the topological sort. • In this sort, an ordering is produced which is compatible with a "partial ordering" - pairs of values where one must come before the other.
66. Topological Sort , , , A D C ( , ) ( , ) B C ( , ) A D B C A D A C B Partial Ordering Topologically Sorted Sets "A" comes before "C" "B" comes before "C" "A" comes before "D" C A D B C B D A , , , , , , , , , , , , C D B A . . . etc
67. The Dependency Graph • The Unit of Work sees the mapping configuration as a "dependency graph" - Mapper objects represent nodes, relationship() objects represent edges. • For each "edge", the Mapper on the right is dependent on the Mapper on the left • A dependency usually corresponds to mapper B's table having a foreign key to that of mapper A • These pairs of Mapper objects form the "partial ordering" passed to the topological sort
68. Unit of work sorting per- mapper ( , ) User Address Partial Ordering User.addresses
69. Unit of work sorting per- mapper SaveUpdateAll (User) ProcessAll (User->Address) SaveUpdateAll (Address) INSERT INTO user INSERT INTO user INSERT INTO address INSERT INTO address copy user.id to address.user_id copy user.id to address.user_id Dependency: (user, address) Topological Sort DONE ( , ) User Address Partial Ordering User.addresses
70. UOW - Cycle Resolution • A cycle forms when a mapper is dependent on itself, or on another mapper that's ultimately dependent on it. • Those portions of the dependency graph with cycles are broken into inter-object sorts. • I used a function on Guido's blog to detect the cycles. • Rationale - don't waste time sorting individual items if we don't need it !
71. Unit of work sorting per-row ( , ) User Address Partial Ordering ( , ) User User Cycle User.addresses User.contact
72. Unit of work sorting per-row ( , ) ( , ) Address (mapper) User 2 (obj) Address (mapper) User 2 (obj) User 1 (obj) User 1 (obj) ( , ) Partial Ordering ( , ) User Address Partial Ordering ( , ) User User User.addresses User.contact
73. Unit of work sorting per-row ( , ) ( , ) Address (mapper) User 2 (obj) Address (mapper) User 2 (obj) User 1 (obj) User 1 (obj) ( , ) Partial Ordering
74. Unit of work sorting per-row Dependency: (user, address) Topological Sort Dependency: (user, user) DONE SaveUpdateState INSERT INTO user SaveUpdateState INSERT INTO user ProcessState (User->User) copy user.id to user.contact_id ProcessAll (User->Address) copy user.id to address.user_id copy user.id to address.user_id SaveUpdateAll (Address) INSERT INTO address INSERT INTO address ( , ) ( , ) Address (mapper) User 2 (obj) Address (mapper) User 2 (obj) User 1 (obj) User 1 (obj) ( , ) Partial Ordering
75. We're done ! Hope this was enlightening. http://www.sqlalchemy.org