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Server

Server#

If you want to use Draco in an environment other than Python, you can access its capabilities through a dedicated REST API, built with FastAPI.

Starting the Server#

Based on your needs, you can start the server directly from the command line or as a standalone Python program.

  • For simpler use cases such as general exploration of the project or making use of the default Draco model we recommend starting the server from the command line

  • For more complex use cases such as customizing Draco’s model or extending the API routes, you can start a custom server instance as a standalone Python program

Command Line Interface#

You can start a default instance of the server without passing any arguments:

python -m draco.server

A comprehensive OpenAPI documentation of the API will be available at http://127.0.0.1:8000/docs, also allowing for sending requests directly from the browser to get a better idea of how the API works.

You can access the CLI options by executing python -m draco.server --help.

usage: python -m draco.server [options]

FastAPI Server exposing the capabilities of Draco

options:
  -h, --help   show this help message and exit
  --host HOST  Host to run server on. Defaults to 127.0.0.1
  --port PORT  Port to run server on. Defaults to 8000
  --reload     Enable auto-reloading of the server on code changes.

Please note that the --reload option is only relevant for local server development.

Standalone Python Program#

The main purpose of Draco’s server component is to provide a minimal REST API to be able to use it in a client-agnostic way. That being said, there is a good chance that the core server does not fit all your needs. While we focused on simplicity we also did not want to compromise on extensibility. That is why we implemented the server to be fully compatible with FastAPI and Uvicorn.

Before diving into creating a custom Draco server it might be useful to familiarize yourself with the module’s API.

Please note that for all the following examples we assume that you have already installed Draco and its dependencies.

Minimal Example#

Via Quick Command#

Create a Python file called my_server.py and add the following code:

# my_server.py
from draco.server import DracoAPI

draco_api = DracoAPI()

Run by executing the following command:

uvicorn my_server:draco_api.app --reload

Note

The command uvicorn my_server:my_app --reload refers to:

  • my_server: the file my_server.py (the Python “module”).

  • draco_api.app: the internal FastAPI app of the draco_api instance, declared with the line draco_api = DracoAPI().

  • --reload: make the server restart after code changes. Only use for development.

Via __main__#

The example below demonstrates how to spin up a server instance using a Python module as __main__ using uvicorn. This might be useful if you would like to programmatically set server configurations such as host, port, workers, etc.

Create a Python file called my_server.py and add the following code:

# my_server.py
from draco.server import DracoAPI
import uvicorn

draco_api = DracoAPI()

if __name__ == '__main__':
    uvicorn.run("my_server:draco_api.app", host='127.0.0.1', port=8000, reload=True)

Customizing Existing Routes#

If you are satisfied with the functionality of the existing routes but would like to customize their metadata (endpoint name, OpenAPI tags, etc.), you can do so by creating custom instances of our BaseDracoRouter implementations. The core routers listed below.

The example below demonstrates how you can modify the endpoint prefix and OpenAPI tags of core routers.

# my_server.py
from draco import Draco
from draco.server.routers import DracoRouter, UtilityRouter
from draco.server import DracoAPI

draco = Draco()
draco_router = DracoRouter(draco,
                           prefix='/my-draco',
                           tags=['My Draco Tag'])
utility_router = UtilityRouter(draco,
                               prefix='/my-utility',
                               tags=['My Utility Tag'])
my_base_routers = [draco_router, utility_router]
my_api = DracoAPI(draco=draco, base_routers=my_base_routers)

You can run the server using the following command:

uvicorn my_server:my_api.app

Navigate to http://localhost:8000/docs to see the updated endpoint names and tags.

Warning

Since we did not import the ClingoRouter and passed it into the my_base_routers list in the example above, the /clingo endpoint will not be available. However, you can import it and add a default instance of it to the list if you wish to do so.

Adding New Routes#

As DracoAPI makes heavy use of FastAPI, all its rules for adding new routes apply to DracoAPI as well. You can familiarize yourself with the FastAPI documentation to learn more about how to add new routes the “FastAPI way”.

In this example we are focusing on adding a new route by creating a custom BaseDracoRouter implementation. The code below is the implementation of an extremely simple endpoint, available at /metadata/doc which will return the module documentation of the used Draco instance.

Create a Python file called my_server.py and add the following code:

# my_server.py
import pydantic

import draco.server.routers as routers
from draco import Draco
from draco.server import DracoAPI


class DracoDocReturn(pydantic.BaseModel):
    """Pydantic model for our custom endpoint."""

    content: str


class DracoMetadataRouter(routers.BaseDracoRouter):
    @staticmethod
    def _register(router: routers.BaseDracoRouter):
        """
        Method for registering the endpoints.

        We are using a static method here,
        since we expect the endpoint structure to be the same
        for all instances of this router,
        hence we are defining it in a class-scoped method.

        However, we are not expecting that each router will use the
        same dependencies, therefore we are passing a pre-configured `router` instance
        as a parameter to this method, allowing us to use it to register the endpoints
        while being able to transparently use its custom dependencies, such as
        a customized `Draco` instance.
        """

        @router.get("/doc")
        def draco_doc() -> DracoDocReturn:
            # Note that we can access the server's Draco instance through the router
            return DracoDocReturn(content=router.draco.__doc__)


# This instance might be customized via constructor params
my_draco = Draco()

# the core routers provided by `draco.server`, configured with the `my_draco` instance
core_routers = [
    routers.ClingoRouter(my_draco),
    routers.DracoRouter(my_draco),
    routers.UtilityRouter(my_draco),
]

# our custom router, configured with the `my_draco` instance
custom_routers = [DracoMetadataRouter(my_draco, prefix="/metadata", tags=["Metadata"])]

# a list of all routers to be used by the server which inherit from `BaseDracoRouter`
base_routers = core_routers + custom_routers

# Constructing our server instance with the custom routers
my_api = DracoAPI(draco=my_draco, base_routers=base_routers)

You can run the server using the following command:

uvicorn my_server:my_api.app

Navigate to http://localhost:8000/docs to see the custom endpoint /metadata/doc tagged with Metadata as well as the core endpoints.

Further Customization#

As the examples above demonstrate, DracoAPI is highly customizable and extensible, allowing for treating routers as building blocks for your own custom server implementation. If the examples here are not enough to satisfy your needs, you can always take a look at the capabilities of the underlying FastAPI framework.

If you have suggestions more specific to Draco or DracoAPI, feel free to open an issue for it.

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