Add Endpoints#

Methods decorated with @requests are mapped to network endpoints while serving.

Decorator#

Executor methods decorated with requests are bound to specific network requests, and respond to network queries.

Both def or async def functions can be decorated with requests.

You can import the @requests decorator via

from jina import requests

requests is a decorator that takes an optional on= parameter. It binds the decorated method of the Executor to the specified route.

from jina import Executor, requests
import asyncio


class RequestExecutor(Executor):
    @requests(
        on=['/index', '/search']
    )  # foo is bound to `/index` and `/search` endpoints
    def foo(self, **kwargs):
        print(f'Calling foo')

    @requests(on='/other')  # bar is bound to `/other` endpoint
    async def bar(self, **kwargs):
        await asyncio.sleep(1.0)
        print(f'Calling bar')

from jina import Flow

f = Flow().add(uses=RequestExecutor)

with f:
    f.post(on='/index', inputs=[])
    f.post(on='/other', inputs=[])
    f.post(on='/search', inputs=[])

────────────────────────── 🎉 Flow is ready to serve! ──────────────────────────
╭────────────── 🔗 Endpoint ───────────────╮
│  ⛓     Protocol                    GRPC  │
│  🏠       Local           0.0.0.0:55925  │
│  🔒     Private     192.168.1.187:55925  │
│  🌍      Public    212.231.186.65:55925  │
╰──────────────────────────────────────────╯

Calling foo
Calling bar
Calling foo

Default binding#

A class method decorated with plain @requests (without on=) is the default handler for all endpoints. This means it is the fallback handler for endpoints that are not found. f.post(on='/blah', ...) invokes MyExecutor.foo.

from jina import Executor, requests
import asyncio


class MyExecutor(Executor):
    @requests
    def foo(self, **kwargs):
        print(kwargs)

    @requests(on='/index')
    async def bar(self, **kwargs):
        await asyncio.sleep(1.0)
        print(f'Calling bar')

No binding#

A class with no @requests binding plays no part in the Flow. The request simply passes through without any processing.

Arguments#

All Executor methods decorated by @requests need to follow the signature below to be usable as a microservice inside a Flow. The async definition is optional.

from typing import Dict, Union, List, Optional
from jina import Executor, requests, DocumentArray


class MyExecutor(Executor):
    @requests
    async def foo(
        self,
        docs: DocumentArray,
        parameters: Dict,
        docs_matrix: Optional[List[DocumentArray]],
        docs_map: Optional[Dict[str, DocumentArray]],
    ) -> Union[DocumentArray, Dict, None]:
        pass

    @requests
    def bar(
        self,
        docs: DocumentArray,
        parameters: Dict,
        docs_matrix: Optional[List[DocumentArray]],
        docs_map: Optional[Dict[str, DocumentArray]],
    ) -> Union[DocumentArray, Dict, None]:
        pass

Let’s take a look at these arguments:

docs: A DocumentArray that is part of the request. Since the nature of Executor is to wrap functionality related to DocumentArray, it’s usually the main processing unit inside Executor methods. It’s important to notice that these docs can be also changed in place, just like any other list-like object in a Python function.
parameters: A Dict object that passes extra parameters to Executor functions.
docs_matrix: This is one of the least common parameters to be used for an Executor. It is passed when multiple parallel branches lead into the Executor, and no_reduce=True is set. Each DocumentArray in the matrix is the output of one previous Executor.
docs_map: This is also one of the least common parameter to be used for an Executor. It has the same utility as docs_matrix but the information comes as a dict with previous Executor names as keys, and DocumentArrays as values.
tracing_context: Context needed if you want to add custom traces. Check how to add custom traces in your Executor.

Hint

If you don’t need some arguments, you can suppress them into **kwargs. For example:

from jina import Executor, requests


class MyExecutor(Executor):

    @requests
    def foo_using_docs_arg(self, docs, **kwargs):
        print(docs)

    @requests
    def foo_using_docs_parameters_arg(self, docs, parameters, **kwargs):
        print(docs)
        print(parameters)

    @requests
    def foo_using_no_arg(self, **kwargs):
        # the args are suppressed into kwargs
        print(kwargs['docs_matrix'])

Multiple DocumentArrays as input argument#

You have seen that Executor methods can receive multiple parameters.

docs_matrix and docs_map are only used in some special cases.

One case is when an Executor receives messages from more than one incoming Executor in the Flow:

If you set no_reduce to True and the Executor has more than one incoming Executor, the Executor will receive all the DocumentArrays coming from previous Executors independently under docs_matrix and docs_map. If no_reduce is not set or set to False, docs_map and docs_matrix will be None and the Executor will receive a single DocumentArray resulting from the reducing of all the incoming ones.

from jina import Flow, Executor, requests, Document, DocumentArray


class Exec1(Executor):
    @requests
    def foo(self, docs, **kwargs):
        for doc in docs:
            doc.text = 'Exec1'


class Exec2(Executor):
    @requests
    def foo(self, docs, **kwargs):
        for doc in docs:
            doc.text = 'Exec2'


class MergeExec(Executor):
    @requests
    def foo(self, docs_matrix, **kwargs):
        documents_to_return = DocumentArray()
        for doc1, doc2 in zip(*docs_matrix):
            print(
                f'MergeExec processing pairs of Documents "{doc1.text}" and "{doc2.text}"'
            )
            documents_to_return.append(
                Document(text=f'Document merging from "{doc1.text}" and "{doc2.text}"')
            )
        return documents_to_return


f = (
    Flow()
    .add(uses=Exec1, name='exec1')
    .add(uses=Exec2, name='exec2')
    .add(uses=MergeExec, needs=['exec1', 'exec2'], no_reduce=True)
)

with f:
    returned_docs = f.post(on='/', inputs=Document())

print(f'Resulting documents {returned_docs[0].text}')

────────────────────────── 🎉 Flow is ready to serve! ──────────────────────────
╭────────────── 🔗 Endpoint ───────────────╮
│  ⛓     Protocol                    GRPC  │
│  🏠       Local           0.0.0.0:55761  │
│  🔒     Private     192.168.1.187:55761  │
│  🌍      Public    212.231.186.65:55761  │
╰──────────────────────────────────────────╯

MergeExec processing pairs of Documents "Exec1" and "Exec2"
Resulting documents Document merging from "Exec1" and "Exec2"

When merging Documents from more than one upstream Executor, sometimes you want to control which Documents come from which Executor. Executor will receive the docs_map as a dictionary where the key will be the last Executor processing that previous request and the DocumentArray of the request as the values.

from jina import Flow, Executor, requests, Document


class Exec1(Executor):
    @requests
    def foo(self, docs, **kwargs):
        for doc in docs:
            doc.text = 'Exec1'


class Exec2(Executor):
    @requests
    def foo(self, docs, **kwargs):
        for doc in docs:
            doc.text = 'Exec2'


class MergeExec(Executor):
    @requests
    def foo(self, docs_map, **kwargs):
        print(docs_map)


f = (
    Flow()
    .add(uses=Exec1, name='exec1')
    .add(uses=Exec2, name='exec2')
    .add(uses=MergeExec, needs=['exec1', 'exec2'], no_reduce=True)
)

with f:
    f.post(on='/', Document())

────────────────────────── 🎉 Flow is ready to serve! ──────────────────────────
╭────────────── 🔗 Endpoint ───────────────╮
│  ⛓     Protocol                    GRPC  │
│  🏠       Local           0.0.0.0:56286  │
│  🔒     Private     192.168.1.187:56286  │
│  🌍      Public    212.231.186.65:56286  │
╰──────────────────────────────────────────╯

{'exec1': <DocumentArray (length=1) at 140270975034640>, 'exec2': <DocumentArray (length=1) at 140270975034448>}

Async coroutines#

You can naturally call async coroutines within Executor’s, allowing you to leverage the power of asynchronous Python to write concurrent code.

from jina import Executor, requests


class MyExecutor(Executor):
    @requests
    async def encode(self, docs, *kwargs):
        await some_coroutines()

This example has a heavy lifting API which we call several times, and we leverage the async Python features to speed up the Executor’s call by calling the API multiple times concurrently. As a counterpart, in an example without coroutines, all 50 API calls are queued and nothing is done concurrently.

Async coroutines

import asyncio

from jina import Flow, Executor, requests, Document, DocumentArray


class DummyAsyncExecutor(Executor):
    @requests
    async def process(self, docs: DocumentArray, **kwargs):
        await asyncio.sleep(1)
        for doc in docs:
            doc.text = doc.text.upper()


f = Flow().add(uses=DummyAsyncExecutor)

with f:
    f.index(
        inputs=DocumentArray([Document(text="hello") for _ in range(50)]),
        request_size=1,
        show_progress=True,
    )

────────────────────────── 🎉 Flow is ready to serve! ──────────────────────────
╭────────────── 🔗 Endpoint ───────────────╮
│  ⛓     Protocol                    GRPC  │
│  🏠       Local           0.0.0.0:54153  │
│  🔒     Private     192.168.1.187:54153  │
│  🌍      Public    212.231.186.65:54153  │
╰──────────────────────────────────────────╯

  DONE ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 0:00:01 100% ETA: 0:00:00 50 steps done in 1      
                                                        second  

Sync version

import time

from jina import Flow, Executor, requests, DocumentArray, Document


class DummyExecutor(Executor):
    @requests
    def process(self, docs: DocumentArray, **kwargs):
        time.sleep(1)
        for doc in docs:
            doc.text = doc.text.upper()


f = Flow().add(uses=DummyExecutor)

with f:
    f.index(
        inputs=DocumentArray([Document(text="hello") for _ in range(50)]),
        request_size=1,
        show_progress=True,
    )

────────────────────────── 🎉 Flow is ready to serve! ──────────────────────────
╭────────────── 🔗 Endpoint ───────────────╮
│  ⛓     Protocol                    GRPC  │
│  🏠       Local           0.0.0.0:52340  │
│  🔒     Private     192.168.1.187:52340  │
│  🌍      Public    212.231.186.65:52340  │
╰──────────────────────────────────────────╯

  DONE ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 0:00:50 100% ETA: 0:00:00 50 steps done in 50     
                                                        seconds        

Processing the data is 50x faster when using coroutines because it happens concurrently.

Call another Jina Flow#

To call other another Jina Flow using Client from an Executor, you also need to use async def and async Client.

from jina import Client, Executor, requests, DocumentArray


class DummyExecutor(Executor):

    c = Client(host='grpc://0.0.0.0:51234', asyncio=True)

    @requests
    async def process(self, docs: DocumentArray, **kwargs):
        self.c.post('/', docs)

Returns#

Every Executor method can return in three ways:

If you return a DocumentArray object, then it will be sent to the next Executor.
If you return None or don’t have a return in your method, then the original docs object (potentially mutated by your function) will be sent to the next Executor.
If you return a dict object, it will be considered as a result and returned on parameters['__results__'] to the client. __results__ key will not be available in subsequent Executors. The original docs object (potentially mutated by your function) will be sent to the next Executor.

from jina import requests, Executor, Flow


class MyExec(Executor):
    @requests(on='/status')
    def status(self, **kwargs):
        return {'internal_parameter': 20}


f = Flow().add(uses=MyExec, name='my_executor')

with f:
    print(f.post(on='/status').to_dict()["parameters"])

{"__results__": {"my_executor/rep-0": {"internal_parameter": 20.0}}}

Exception handling#

Exceptions raised inside @requests-decorated functions can simply be raised. The Flow handles it.

from jina import Executor, requests


class MyExecutor(Executor):
    @requests
    def foo(self, **kwargs):
        raise NotImplementedError('no time for it')

Example#

Let’s understand how Executor’s process DocumentArray’s inside a Flow, and how changes are chained and applied, affecting downstream Executors in the Flow.

from jina import Executor, requests, Flow, DocumentArray, Document


class PrintDocuments(Executor):
    @requests
    def foo(self, docs, **kwargs):
        for doc in docs:
            print(f' PrintExecutor: received document with text: "{doc.text}"')


class ProcessDocuments(Executor):
    @requests(on='/change_in_place')
    def in_place(self, docs, **kwargs):
        # This Executor only works on `docs` and doesn't consider any other arguments
        for doc in docs:
            print(f' ProcessDocuments: received document with text "{doc.text}"')
            doc.text = 'I changed the executor in place'

    @requests(on='/return_different_docarray')
    def ret_docs(self, docs, **kwargs):
        # This executor only works on `docs` and doesn't consider any other arguments
        ret = DocumentArray()
        for doc in docs:
            print(f' ProcessDocuments: received document with text: "{doc.text}"')
            ret.append(Document(text='I returned a different Document'))
        return ret


f = Flow().add(uses=ProcessDocuments).add(uses=PrintDocuments)

with f:
    f.post(on='/change_in_place', inputs=DocumentArray(Document(text='request1')))
    f.post(
        on='/return_different_docarray', inputs=DocumentArray(Document(text='request2'))
    )

────────────────────────── 🎉 Flow is ready to serve! ──────────────────────────
╭────────────── 🔗 Endpoint ───────────────╮
│  ⛓     Protocol                    GRPC  │
│  🏠       Local           0.0.0.0:58746  │
│  🔒     Private     192.168.1.187:58746  │
│  🌍      Public    212.231.186.65:58746  │
╰──────────────────────────────────────────╯

 ProcessDocuments: received document with text "request1"
 PrintExecutor: received document with text: "I changed the executor in place"
 ProcessDocuments: received document with text: "request2"
 PrintExecutor: received document with text: "I returned a different Document"