ashb commented on a change in pull request #6348: [AIRFLOW-XXX] GSoD: Adding 'Create a custom operator' doc URL: https://github.com/apache/airflow/pull/6348#discussion_r336952880
########## File path: docs/howto/custom-operator.rst ########## @@ -0,0 +1,192 @@ + .. Licensed to the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) under one + or more contributor license agreements. See the NOTICE file + distributed with this work for additional information + regarding copyright ownership. The ASF licenses this file + to you under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the + "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance + with the License. You may obtain a copy of the License at + + .. http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0 + + .. Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, + software distributed under the License is distributed on an + "AS IS" BASIS, WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY + KIND, either express or implied. See the License for the + specific language governing permissions and limitations + under the License. + + +Creating a custom Operator +========================== + + +Airflow allows you to create new operators to suit the requirements of you or your team. +The extensibility is one of the many reasons which makes Apache Airflow powerful. + +You can create any operator you want by extending the :class:`airflow.models.baseoperator.BaseOperator` + +There are two methods that you need to override in a derived class: + +* Constructor - Define the parameters required for the operator. You only need to specify the arguments specific to your operator. + Use ``@apply_defaults`` decorator function to fill unspecified arguments with ``default_args``. You can specify the ``default_args`` + in the dag file. See :ref:`Default args <default-args>` for more details. + +* Execute - The code to execute when the runner calls the operator. The method contains the + airflow context as a parameter that can be used to read config values. + +Let's implement an example ``HelloOperator`` in a new file ``hello_operator.py``: + +.. code:: python + + from airflow.models.baseoperator import BaseOperator + from airflow.utils.decorators import apply_defaults + + class HelloOperator(BaseOperator): + + @apply_defaults + def __init__( + self, + name: str, + *args, **kwargs) -> None: + super().__init__(*args, **kwargs) + self.name = name + + def execute(self, context): + message = "Hello {}".format(name) + print(message) + return message + +You can now use the derived custom operator as follows: + +.. code:: python + + from custom_operator.hello_operator import HelloOperator + + with dag: + hello_task = HelloOperator(task_id='sample-task', name='foo_bar') + +**Note**: For imports to work, you should place the file in a directory that +is present in the ``PATH`` env. Airflow adds ``dags``, ``plugins``, and ``config`` directories +in the Airflow home to ``PATH`` by default. e.g., In our example, +the file is placed in the ``custom_operator`` directory. + + +Hooks +^^^^^ +Hooks act as an interface to communicate with the external shared resources in a DAG. +For example, multiple tasks in a DAG can require access to a MySQL database. Instead of +creating a connection per task, you can retrieve a connection from the hook and utilize it. +Hook also helps to avoid storing connection auth parameters in a DAG. +See :doc:`connection/index` for how to create and manage connections. + +Let's extend our previous example to fetch name from MySQL: + +.. code:: python + + class HelloDBOperator(BaseOperator): + + @apply_defaults + def __init__( + self, + name: str, + conn_id: str, + database: str, + *args, **kwargs) -> None: + super().__init__(*args, **kwargs) + self.name = name + self.mysql_conn_id = mysql_conn_id + self.database = database + + def execute(self, context): + hook = MySqlHook(mysql_conn_id=self.mysql_conn_id, + schema=self.database) + sql = "select name from user" + result = hook.get_first(sql) + message = "Hello {}".format(result['name']) + print(message) + return message + +When the operator invokes the query on the hook object, a new connection gets created if it doesn't exist. +The hook retrieves the auth parameters such as username and password from Airflow +backend and passes the params to the :py:func:`airflow.hooks.base_hook.BaseHook.get_connection`. +You should create hook only in the ``execute`` method or any method which is called from ``execute``. +The constructor gets called whenever Airflow parses a DAG which happens frequently. +The ``execute`` gets called only during a DAG run. + +User interface +^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ +Airflow also allows the developer to control how the operator shows up in the DAG UI. +Override ``ui_color`` to change the background color of the operator in UI. +Override ``ui_fgcolor`` to change the color of the label. + +.. code:: python + + class HelloOperator(BaseOperator): + ui_color = '#ff0000' + ui_fgcolor = '#000000' + .... + +Templating +^^^^^^^^^^^ +You can use :ref:`Jinja templates <jinja-templating>` to parameterize your operator. +Airflow considers the field names present in ``template_fields`` for templating while rendering +the operator. + +.. code:: python + + class HelloOperator(BaseOperator): + + template_fields = ['name'] + + @apply_defaults + def __init__( + self, + name: str, + *args, **kwargs) -> None: + super().__init__(*args, **kwargs) + self.name = name + + def execute(self, context): + message = "Hello from {}".format(name) + print(message) + return message + +You can use the template as follows: + +.. code:: python + + with dag: + hello_task = HelloOperator(task_id='task_id_1', dag=dag, name='{{ task_id }}') + +In this example, Jinja looks for the ``name`` parameter and substitutes ``{{ task_id }}`` with +``task_id_1``. + + +The parameter can also contain a file name, for example, a bash script or a SQL file. You need to add +the extension of your file in ``template_ext``. If a ``template_field`` contains a string ending with +the extension mentioned in ``template_ext``, Jinja reads the content of the file and replace the templates +with actual value.Note that Jinja substitutes the operator attributes and not the args. Review comment: ```suggestion with actual value. Note that Jinja substitutes the attributes on the instance, and not the args passed to the constructor so make sure that `template_fields` contains the attribute names where you store the values. For example this would not work as you might intend: .. code:: python class HelloOperator(BaseOperator): template_fields = ['name'] @apply_defaults def __init__( self, name: str, *args, **kwargs) -> None: super().__init__(*args, **kwargs) self._name = name (It would fail with an ``AttributeError`` exception raised.) In this case you would need to have ``template_fields = ['_name']``, or to have ``self.name = name``. ``` Though I'm not sure if we want a positive example (do it this way) or a negative one (don't do it this way) ---------------------------------------------------------------- This is an automated message from the Apache Git Service. To respond to the message, please log on to GitHub and use the URL above to go to the specific comment. For queries about this service, please contact Infrastructure at: us...@infra.apache.org With regards, Apache Git Services