For this tutorial, we’ll use a test Postgres database hosted by the Anvil team.

Hit ‘Create test database’ below to set yours up:

This creates a user and database in our server for you to use for this tutorial. The three-word ID shown above is used for both the username and database name.

It’s hosted at 18.133.244.120.

Make a note of your ID and password, as you’ll need it later.

Wherever this tutorial uses ‘your_database_id’, replace it with your own ID.

That’s the database part of the system already set up.

We’ve set up the database, ready to accept connections.

We’ve set up the database, ready to accept connections.

Optional: connect and take a look

If you have a postgres client installed, you can connect to your database and take a look at it. For example, if you have psql you can connect using this command:

psql -h 18.133.244.120 -U your_database_id

You’ll find that the database contains a table called inventory containing some items and quantities, such as you might use in a stock auditing app.

your_database_id=> select * from inventory;
 id |   item_name    | quantity
----+----------------+----------
  1 | Vase           |       10
  2 | Bookcase       |        5
  3 | Bathtowel      |       20
  4 | Frying Pan     |       20
  5 | Large Saucepan |       25
  6 | Small Saucepan |       25
  7 | Dinner Plate   |       15
  8 | Dining Chair   |       10
(8 rows)

If you don’t have a postgres client installed, don’t worry. You’ll connect to your database using Python in the next two steps.