I'm trying to learn how to run tasks concurrently using Python's asyncio module. In the following code, I've got a mock "web crawler" for an example. Basically, I am trying to make it where there are a max of two active fetch() requests happening at any given time, and I want process() to be called during the sleep() period.
import asyncio
class Crawler():
urlq = ['http://www.google.com', 'http://www.yahoo.com',
'http://www.cnn.com', 'http://www.gamespot.com',
'http://www.facebook.com', 'http://www.evergreen.edu']
htmlq = []
MAX_ACTIVE_FETCHES = 2
active_fetches = 0
def __init__(self):
pass
async def fetch(self, url):
self.active_fetches += 1
print("Fetching URL: " + url);
await(asyncio.sleep(2))
self.active_fetches -= 1
self.htmlq.append(url)
async def crawl(self):
while self.active_fetches < self.MAX_ACTIVE_FETCHES:
if self.urlq:
url = self.urlq.pop()
task = asyncio.create_task(self.fetch(url))
await task
else:
print("URL queue empty")
break;
def process(self, page):
print("processed page: " + page)
# main loop
c = Crawler()
while(c.urlq):
asyncio.run(c.crawl())
while c.htmlq:
page = c.htmlq.pop()
c.process(page)
However, the code above downloads the URLs one by one (not two at a time concurrently) and doesn't do any "processing" until after all URLs have been fetched. How can I make the fetch() tasks run concurrently, and make it so that process() is called in between during sleep()?
Your crawl
method is waiting after each individual task; you should change it to this:
async def crawl(self):
tasks = []
while self.active_fetches < self.MAX_ACTIVE_FETCHES:
if self.urlq:
url = self.urlq.pop()
tasks.append(asyncio.create_task(self.fetch(url)))
await asyncio.gather(*tasks)
EDIT: Here's a cleaner version with comments that fetches and processes all at the same time, while preserving the basic ability to put a cap on the maximum number of fetchers.
import asyncio
class Crawler:
def __init__(self, urls, max_workers=2):
self.urls = urls
# create a queue that only allows a maximum of two items
self.fetching = asyncio.Queue()
self.max_workers = max_workers
async def crawl(self):
# DON'T await here; start consuming things out of the queue, and
# meanwhile execution of this function continues. We'll start two
# coroutines for fetching and two coroutines for processing.
all_the_coros = asyncio.gather(
*[self._worker(i) for i in range(self.max_workers)])
# place all URLs on the queue
for url in self.urls:
await self.fetching.put(url)
# now put a bunch of `None`'s in the queue as signals to the workers
# that there are no more items in the queue.
for _ in range(self.max_workers):
await self.fetching.put(None)
# now make sure everything is done
await all_the_coros
async def _worker(self, i):
while True:
url = await self.fetching.get()
if url is None:
# this coroutine is done; simply return to exit
return
print(f'Fetch worker {i} is fetching a URL: {url}')
page = await self.fetch(url)
self.process(page)
async def fetch(self, url):
print("Fetching URL: " + url);
await asyncio.sleep(2)
return f"the contents of {url}"
def process(self, page):
print("processed page: " + page)
# main loop
c = Crawler(['http://www.google.com', 'http://www.yahoo.com',
'http://www.cnn.com', 'http://www.gamespot.com',
'http://www.facebook.com', 'http://www.evergreen.edu'])
asyncio.run(c.crawl())
You can make htmlq
an asyncio.Queue()
, and change htmlq.append
to htmlq.push
. Then your main
can be async, like this:
async def main():
c = Crawler()
asyncio.create_task(c.crawl())
while True:
page = await c.htmlq.get()
if page is None:
break
c.process(page)
Your top-level code boils down to a call to asyncio.run(main())
.
Once you are done with crawling, crawl()
can enqueue None
to notify the main coroutine that the work is done.