[omaha] Django question

[Steve Young]

Thanks to everyone for the comments and suggestions!!

Firstly, Mike

> There may be a way around it (use Django for views and Anki db for
> database access)


This is what I am attempting.  More of a proof of concept, with converting
to Django models later (maybe)... I am using Django auth for users and
permissions.

Jeff and Shawn -

>  From the sounds of it you have a bunch of flash cards that are stored in a
> single or  multiple SQLite databases.  You want to make these flash cards
> web accessible.  What I am not clear on is whether you want users to be
> able to customize flash cards or you want them to be able to use
> pre-canned flash card sets.


So 1 SQLite database per deck, and the ability to create and edit decks.
 Each user will have his own decks.  I am thinking about trying the
FileField approach to associate the users with their decks.  Encoding is
overkill at the moment, but I might try it, as it would be useful if I ever
deploy this publicly.

BUT back to my original question about multi-user - the error I was getting
originally when trying to open 2 decks at once was a file in use error - I
was mistakenly trying to open the same deck/db file in each instance.  So I
corrected this, and am able to open 2 different decks/files at the same
time.

So in the load_deck view, I create a deck and render it in the template:
def load_deck(request):
    from anki.deck import DeckStorage
    deck = DeckStorage.Deck('media/test10.anki')
    return render(request, 'flfanki/load_deck.html', { 'deck': deck })

I now need to be able to have a link in the rendered template that says
something like - I am finished studying - and pulls up the close_deck view
and closes the deck.   But how do I pass the deck object into the view so
it knows which deck to close?  I tried adding the deck to request object:
    request.session['deckObject'] = deck
but get an error saying you can't pickle an instancemethod.

Or if I implement the FileField approach, will that help with the issue?

I am stuck once again...

Steve


On Thu, Jun 7, 2012 at 7:52 PM, Shawn Hermans <shawnhermans at gmail.com>wrote:

> I am going to start off by saying I am probably guessing on what you are
> trying to do.  From the sounds of it you have a bunch of flash cards that
> are stored in a single or multiple SQLite databases.  You want to make
> these flash cards web accessible.  What I am not clear on is whether you
> want users to be able to customize flash cards or you want them to be able
> to use pre-canned flash card sets.
>
> All that being said, one idea is to store the flash cards on disk and use a
> Django filefield to access the stored database.  Below is a quick example
> of a Django model.  I am going off memory and so I wouldn't trust this
> code. Plus the indentation probably is off too.
>
> class FlashCard(models.Model):
>   sqlitedb = FileField()
>   name = CharField()
>   description = CharField()
>   user = ForeignKey(User)
>
> Alternatively, you could store the SQLite database as a binary object
> within your database. Here is a recipe for creating a blob field using
> base64 encoding
> http://djangosnippets.org/snippets/1597/.
>
> I am not saying these are the most elegant solutions out there, but they
> have a chance of working.  If that doesn't work, try duct tape. That always
> seems to work for me.
>
> Cheers,
> Shawn
>
> I can only guess to the impacts to performance using this type of approach.
> My guess is you would be okay as long as the SQLite databases are small and
> change infrequently.  If they are relatively static, you should be able to
> use Django's cache framework to cache the files and not need to hit the DB
> or the file system.
>
>
>
> On Thu, Jun 7, 2012 at 4:30 PM, Mike Hostetler <mike at hostetlerhome.com
> >wrote:
>
> >
> > You don't have a choice -- you have to use Django models to access the
> > database.  There may be a way around it (use Django for views and Anki db
> > for database access) but then you are using heavy-weight Django with a
> > by-pass. So you may have to deal with Django's problems and not reap any
> > of it's benefits.
> >
> > Maybe try web.py or Flask. They are supposed to be lighter-weight. They
> > could handle the web portion and you could roll our own (or use Anki's)
> db
> > backend.
> >
> >
> >
> > Steve Young wrote:
> > > Hey Guys,
> > >
> > > I am trying to create a flashcard web app.  There is a python open
> source
> > > flashcard program called Anki that the author has made available, and
> has
> > > also conveniently separated the backend code. I would like to use it's
> > > library code if possible.  It loads the flashcard decks, has spaced
> > > repetition, stats, and many other nice features. But it was created
> for a
> > > desktop app - not a web app with many users connecting at the same time
> > > (although no deck will be accessed concurrently).
> > >
> > > I have been able to create a django project, load the anki code into it
> > as
> > > app, and create a page loading a sample deck.  I am not sure the best
> way
> > > to proceed in making this work for multi-users, or even if this is a
> good
> > > idea.  Since I am not using django models (the anki code uses sqlite3
> > > db's,
> > > one for each deck) I am not sure how to proceed (all the books and
> docs I
> > > have studied have been using django models).
> > >
> > > Any ideas, tips, links??
> > >
> > > Thanks.
> > >
> > > Steve
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> >
> >
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