One of the biggest drawbacks of Anvil for me has been the ambiguity about which features of Python are available in the client-side code based on Skulpt. Currently, the best way to know for sure seems to be to test out the code you want to use. (For instance, you can create an app with a Module as the startup and use print statements to double-check that that bit of Python is working as expected.)
I wish there were a console-like REPL available in the context of each app to make this kind of gut-check testing quicker and easier. I’m picturing something like the “Interactive” demo at http://skulpt.org/, but with the latest Anvil implementation and the ability to import my Anvil modules. (The ability to load and interact with GUI objects would be a bonus but not critical for the purpose I have in mind.)
More broadly, I think making a client-side Python REPL (or notebook) easily available might appeal to the Python developers that I imagine are Anvil’s primary target audience.
Okay great. Now we have FR for client and server side. Unfortunately uplink may not represent a solution to the linked FRs (as David alludes to). Either way, this is a nice FR for sure and I voted for it.
For a list of all importable modules, you can type:
import sys
sys.modules
Relative references to your app modules don’t (currently) seem to work, but they can be accessed as [your_app's_package_name].[your_module_name] (replacing the square-bracketed names with your actual names).
Are there any Docs on how to use the Client Repl? I’ve been trying to access actual variables in my forms as they are running and crashing and burning pretty spectacularly, lol. To be fair, this might also be me just not understanding the Python going into this, but regardless, some direction would be appreciated
If you want to access live elements that are on the screen you’ll always have to start from get_open_form() and work your way down the component hierarchy.
New session:
>>> f = get_open_form() # or anvil.get_open_form()
>>> f
<my_project.Form1 object>
>>> b = f.button_1
>>> b
<Button object>
>>> b.text = "foo"
New session:
>>> f = get_open_form() # or anvil.get_open_form()
>>> f.content_panel.get_components()[0] # get the form loaded into the conent_panel
<my_project.Form2 object>
>>> g = _ # last stored repl value
>>> g
<my_project.Form2 object>
If you want to import a module, you can’t do relative imports.
Instead you’ll need to do absolute imports.
New session:
>>> import my_project.Module1 as m
>>> m.my_func()
1
>>> _ # last stored repl value
1
This means you can access global variables if you’ve put them in a module somewhere.
Autocompletion in the client repl is something we’re working on .
If you wonder what my_project is, you can find it in the “settings” - “dependencies” page, in the “use this app as a library” - “package name” text box.
This is especially useful if your app has a long name with spaces and other special characters.
It strikes me that if you’re using hash routing (everyone should be), you could also get access to cached forms from the routing library, and inspect the data on those. Sort of like a stack of called route forms.
Are there any functions in the routing library to make that easy through the REPL, or would it be examining the private globals?
.