A Python API approach

An Application Programming Interface in Python
My main programming language for general use on the Mac is XOJO. In general, my XOJO applications use a MySQL database resident on the web server, (see my page about that. The database is fast and works well for these web pages, but I find that a local XOJO application can be slow to retrieve data from the database.

On the other hand, I found that a Python approach to the database was fast and efficient. So I wondered if I could combine the efficiency and GUI-capable approach of XOJO with an underlying Python database API. I experimented.

Like, I am sure, most programming languages, XOJO has the ability to run an application in a shell and to retrieve that application's result, if any. I experimented, and wrote a small Python application and experimented with it using a XOJO test application. Yes, of course it worked. How could I leverage this into my main XOJO apps?

As I continued to experiment I decided to further my experiments using my Glucose data. I have an extensive XOJO appliation which both records glucose readings as well as analyses them. See my diabetes page which explains how glucose readings are used.

The Python program starts:


			import mysql.connector

			import sys

			import functions  #Personal set of manipulation functions

			

			if len(sys.argv)==1:

			  print("Bad call")  

			  #First argv will always be program name - we want at least 2

			  sys.exit()

			

			what=sys.argv[1]  #This will be the name of the function to execute

			

			#Connect:

			db=mysql.connector.connect(user='1234',password='1234',
host='1234',database='1234')

			#Cursor:

			base=db.cursor()

Then right at the bottom of the Python code is


			eval(what+())  #Execute the function in what

			db.close

Here are a couple of my Python functions for glucose:

Here, in a terminal window, is the output from function glucose10():

Function glucavg() simply returns a single floating point (in a string) value: 6.490937996820354, to be rounded in the XOJO side.

So we know that Python gives us what we want. Now, how to get the Python output into XOJO? I have a function called api() in XOJO (called a Method) which is:


			var sh as new shell

			sh.execute("/usr/local/bin/python3 /Volumes/Molybdenum/Python/api.py "+param)

			return sh.result

Here, param is the value passed to the method.

In the mainline code in XOJO we have:


			var a() as string

			var b() as string

			var w as string

			var x as integer

			var readwhen as string


			result.text=api("glucose10")

			a=result.text.split(chr(10))

			

			for x=0 to ubound(a)-1

  		  b=a(x).split(",") 

  		  if b(0)="E" then readwhen="After dinner" else readwhen="Afternoon   "

  		  w=b(1)+" "+b(2)+"  "+readwhen+"  "+b(3)

  		  lbox.addrow(w)

			next

Explanation:
result is a textarea; it receives the Python output
a() is an array; it receives the split by line break of the Python output, which is seen above
Then, each of a() is further split by comma into b(), another array
readwhen discriminates between Afternoon and Evening glucose readings from b(0)
In w we construct an output line from b(1), b(2) and b(3)
Finally, in listbox lbox on the main screen we add w as a complete row

And this is how it looks in the XOJO screen, including a sanitised output from glucavg():

As I write this I'm leveraging my API by adding all of my database reads as API calls. I'm also experimenting with database inserts and updates. I don't know if it's good Python (or indeed XOJO) code - I'm no expert, but hey, it works! And it's fast. So I'll continue my API journey.