SymPy Gamma is a simple web application based on Google App Engine that executes and displays the results of SymPy expressions as well as additional related computations, in a fashion similar to that of Wolfram|Alpha. For instance, entering an integer will display prime factors, digits in the base-10 expansion, and a factorization diagram. Entering a function will give its docstring; in general, entering an arbitrary expression will provide the derivative, integral, series expansion, plot, and roots.
Google App Engine has intrinsic 30 second request handling limit, so each evaluation request is a subject to this limit. There are also other limits related to memory consumption, output size, etc. (see Google App Engine documentation for details). Each result is evaluated in a separate request, so (for instance) an integral that takes too long will not prevent the other information from loading.
Download and unpack most recent Google App Engine SDK for Python from http://code.google.com/appengine/downloads.html, e.g.:
$ wget http://googleappengine.googlecode.com/files/google_appengine_1.5.1.zip $ unzip google_appengine_1.5.1.zip
On the Mac, it is a disk image with an application, which you should drag to your Applications folder. Open the program and install the symlinks (it should ask you the first time you open the application, but if it doesn't, choose "Make Symlinks..." from the GoogleAppEngineLauncher menu). Note that you will have to do this again each time you update the AppEngine program.
Then clone sympy_gamma repository:
$ git clone git://github.com/sympy/sympy_gamma.git $ cd sympy_gamma
We use submodules to include external libraries in sympy_gamma:
$ git submodule init $ git submodule update
This is sufficient to clone appropriate repositories in correct versions into sympy_gamma (see git documentation on submodules for information).
Generate a configuration file for App Engine (needed to run the development web server):
$ python deploy.py --generate-only --generate-test 1000
(the number does not matter unless you are deploying, see below). DO not
commit the generated app.yaml file.
Now you are ready to run development web server:
$ ../google_appengine/dev_appserver.py .
On the Mac, just run:
$ dev_appserver.py .
(make sure you installed the symlinks as described above).
I couldn't figure out how to make it work in the GUI (it won't find the sympy git submodule). If you figure out how to do it, please update this file and send a patch describing how to do it.
This is a local server that runs on port 8080 (use --port option to
change this). Open a web browser and go to http://localhost:8080. You
should see GUI of SymPy Gamma.
Travis-CI is used to deploy automatically to the official server. To upload the application manually, you need to do a few things. First, tag the current commit with the App Engine application version (this is not necessary unless you are deploying to the official server):
$ git tag -a version-42
Second, you need to generate an app.yaml (App Engine configuration) file
using deploy.py:
$ python deploy.py --generate-only --generate-production
The script will determine the version from the tag; it can also be manually
specified (--generate-production VERSION_NUMBER). You will also want to
change the application name if you are not deploying to the test
application. DO not commit the generated app.yaml file.
Second, you need to go to the Versions section of the
sympy_gamma dashboard at appspot.com and delete the oldest version, as we
can only upload ten versions at a time.
Assuming that sympy_gamma works properly (also across different mainstream web browsers), you can upload your changes to Google App Engine:
$ ../appcfg.py update .
Or, in Mac OS X, just open the GoogleAppEngineLauncher program, add the project if you haven't already, and click "Deploy" in the toolbar. And then it should just work (follow the log that comes up to see.
This requires admin privileges to http://sympy-gamma-hrd.appspot.com. If you don't have access to this App Engine application, but want to test it, see the instructions in the Testing on the App Engine section below.
The deploy script can generate the configuration and deploy in one step if given the App Engine SDK location:
$ SDK_LOCATION=/path/to/sdk python deploy.py --generate-production
Finally, go to http://NN.sympy-gamma-hrd.appspot.com, where NN is the
version you just uploaded, and make sure that it works. If it does, go to
the Versions section of the sympy_gamma dashboard, and set this as the
new default version. If there are any issues, you can roll back to the
previous version from this same screen.
Travis-CI deploys the application using OAuth credentials. These are stored
encrypted in the env section of .travis.yml, and are generated using
the Travis command-line tools:
travis encrypt 'OAUTH_REFRESH_TOKEN=TOKEN' -r sympy/sympy_gamma
The token is found in the JSON file $HOME/.appcfg_oauth2_tokens under
the key "refresh_token". This file is created after manually deploying
(or running any other command) using OAuth authorization:
$ ../appcfg.py update --oauth2 .
It's usually a good idea to test big changes on the App Engine itself before
deploying, as dev_appserver.py can only simulate the App Engine.
Currently, there is no testing server set up as there is for SymPy
Live. However, you can set up your own testing server (it's free, though it
requires a cell phone to set up).
Either way, to test, you will need to edit the app.yaml file. You should
edit the first line, application, to the name of the testing application
(like sympy-gamma-tests), and the second line to the version number you
want to use.
You should not actually commit app.yaml, as it is generated by the
deploy script. If you later want to commit an actual change to the
generated app.yaml (e.g., to modify some metadata), you should edit and
commit changes to app.yaml.template.
If you have a test app online, remember to update it every time you update a
pull request, so that others can easily review your work, without even having
to use dev_appserver.py.
Make sure SymPy Gamma works in major mainstream web browsers. This includes Chrome, Firefox, Safari and Internet Explorer. Be extra cautious about trailing commas in JavaScript object and arrays. IE doesn't allow them, so you have to remove them, if any were introduced. Also test on mobile browsers, such as Safari for iOS and Chrome for Android, on both smartphones and tablets; Gamma has layouts for phones, tablets, and desktop browsers. The viewport emulation built into the developer tools of desktop browsers can help with this testing, but there may be differences that need to be checked with an actual device. (In Google Chrome, for instance, open up the developer console, click the gear icon in the lower right, then select Overrides.)
GAE development server allows to use any Python interpreter, but Google App Engine uses Python 2.5, so if the default Python isn't 2.5, then make sure to test your changes to the server part, if it runs properly on 2.5. Also don't use any modules that aren't supported by GAE. Note that GAE now supports Python 2.7 and that this is what is currently deployed.
If the App Engine configuration needs to be changed (e.g. to update the
NumPy version), change app.yaml.template and generate again. The
Travis-CI script uses this to generate and deploy testing/production
versions automatically.
In projects that don't use submodules, pulling changes boils down to:
$ git pull origin master
in the simplest case. SymPy Gamma, however, requires additional effort:
$ git submodule update $ python deploy.py --generate-only --generate-test 1000
The former command assures that if there were any changes to submodules of the super-project, then those submodules will get updated to new versions. This is related to the following section. The latter command regenerates the configuration.
Make sure that you followed instructions above and SymPy's submodule is properly initialized. Assuming that you are in the directory where SymPy Gamma was cloned, issue:
$ cd sympy/ $ git fetch origin $ git checkout sympy-0.7.0 $ cd .. $ git add . $ git commit -m "Updated SymPy to version 0.7.0"
Now if you issue:
$ git show -v
you should get:
commit 5138e824dc9fd46c243eea2d7c9581a9e58feb08
Author: Mateusz Paprocki <mattpap@gmail.com>
Date: Wed Jul 6 07:45:19 2011 +0200
Updated SymPy to version 0.7.0
diff --git a/sympy b/sympy
index df7a135..c9470ac 160000
--- a/sympy
+++ b/sympy
@@ -1 +1 @@
-Subproject commit df7a135a4ff7eca361ebbb07ccbeabf8654a8d80
+Subproject commit c9470ac4f44e7dacfb026cf74529db3ec0822145
This was done for SymPy's version 0.7.0, so in future updates of SymPy replace
0.7.0 with appropriate newer version (e.g. 0.7.1) and you are done (of course
particular SHA signatures will be different in your case). If unsure, refer to
git help submodule or git book: http://book.git-scm.com/5_submodules.html.
Originally realized by Ondřej Čertík (a core SymPy developer) as an online Python notebook and Wolfram|Alpha clone for the Google App Engine that would showcase SymPy. The notebook was eventually removed in favor of using SymPy Live.