Python Flask implements background tasks to easily build efficient API applications

Hello everyone, today we will learn to create Python background tasks using the Flask API.

In Python, there are several solutions that can implement background tasks, such as Celery or Redis Queue, which are good ways to implement task queue systems. But using both is more troublesome. Imagine a scenario where we use Flask to create an API to invoke background tasks from one terminal and stop background tasks from another terminal.

A simple API was built using Flask, with two main methods, one for starting background tasks and the other for stopping.

To manage the life cycle of a task, we useEvent Objects, This is a simple inter-thread communication mechanism.

The following are the libraries, thread event declarations and background task methods that need to be imported:

from time import sleep
from flask import Flask
from flask_cors import CORS
import threading
thread_event = ()
def backgroundTask():
    while thread_event.is_set():
        print('Background task running!')
        sleep(5)

The key here isis_set()Method, it will return the value of the internal thread event flag:trueorfalse。

First, useset()Method set the flag totrue, it will start a thread and run continuouslybackgroundTaskmethod.

@("/start", methods=["POST"])
def startBackgroundTask():
    try:
        thread_event.set()
        thread = (target=backgroundTask)
        ()
        return "Background task started!"
    except Exception as error:
        return str(error)

If you want to stop the task, callclear()Method set flag tofalseto stop the running thread.

@("/stop", methods=["POST"])
def stopBackgroundTask():
    try:
        thread_event.clear()
        return "Background task stopped!"
    except Exception as error:
        return str(error)

The above is the code solution for background tasks, which is much simpler than implementing background tasks with task queues. You can use the above code to build an API with one or more background tasks, which you can practice on your own.

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