PreventUpdateIn certain situations, you don’t want to update the callback output. You can
achieve this by raising a PreventUpdate exception in the callback function.
import dash
import dash_html_components as html
from dash.dependencies import Input, Output
from dash.exceptions import PreventUpdate
external_stylesheets = ['https://codepen.io/chriddyp/pen/bWLwgP.css']
app = dash.Dash(__name__, external_stylesheets=external_stylesheets)
app.layout = html.Div([
html.Button('Click here to see the content', id='show-secret'),
html.Div(id='body-div')
])
@app.callback(
Output(component_id='body-div', component_property='children'),
Input(component_id='show-secret', component_property='n_clicks')
)
def update_output(n_clicks):
if n_clicks is None:
raise PreventUpdate
else:
return "Elephants are the only animal that can't jump"
if __name__ == '__main__':
app.run_server(debug=True)
dash.no_updateThis example illustrates how you can show an error while keeping the previous
input, using dash.no_update to update the output partially.
import dash
import dash_core_components as dcc
import dash_html_components as html
from dash.dependencies import Input, Output
external_stylesheets = ['https://codepen.io/chriddyp/pen/bWLwgP.css']
app = dash.Dash(__name__, external_stylesheets=external_stylesheets)
app.layout = html.Div([
html.P('Enter a composite number to see its prime factors'),
dcc.Input(id='num', type='number', debounce=True, min=1, step=1),
html.P(id='err', style={'color': 'red'}),
html.P(id='out')
])
@app.callback(
Output('out', 'children'),
Output('err', 'children'),
Input('num', 'value')
)
def show_factors(num):
if num is None:
# PreventUpdate prevents ALL outputs updating
raise dash.exceptions.PreventUpdate
factors = prime_factors(num)
if len(factors) == 1:
# dash.no_update prevents any single output updating
# (note: it's OK to use for a single-output callback too)
return dash.no_update, '{} is prime!'.format(num)
return '{} is {}'.format(num, ' * '.join(str(n) for n in factors)), ''
def prime_factors(num):
n, i, out = num, 2, []
while i * i <= n:
if n % i == 0:
n = int(n / i)
out.append(i)
else:
i += 1 if i == 2 else 2
out.append(n)
return out
if __name__ == '__main__':
app.run_server(debug=True)
Enter a composite number to see its prime factors
Input has fired with dash.callback_contextIn addition to event properties like n_clicks
that change whenever an event happens (in this case a click), there is a
global variable dash.callback_context, available only inside a callback.
It has properties:
- triggered: list of changed properties. This will be empty on initial
load, unless an Input prop got its value from another initial callback.
After a user action it is a length-1 list, unless two properties of a
single component update simultaneously, such as a value and a timestamp
or event counter.
- inputs and states: allow you to access the callback params
by id and prop instead of through the function args. These have the form
of dictionaries { 'component_id.prop_name': value }
Here’s an example of how this can be done:
import json
import dash
import dash_html_components as html
from dash.dependencies import Input, Output
app = dash.Dash(__name__)
app.layout = html.Div([
html.Button('Button 1', id='btn-1'),
html.Button('Button 2', id='btn-2'),
html.Button('Button 3', id='btn-3'),
html.Div(id='container')
])
@app.callback(Output('container', 'children'),
Input('btn-1', 'n_clicks'),
Input('btn-2', 'n_clicks'),
Input('btn-3', 'n_clicks'))
def display(btn1, btn2, btn3):
ctx = dash.callback_context
if not ctx.triggered:
button_id = 'No clicks yet'
else:
button_id = ctx.triggered[0]['prop_id'].split('.')[0]
ctx_msg = json.dumps({
'states': ctx.states,
'triggered': ctx.triggered,
'inputs': ctx.inputs
}, indent=2)
return html.Div([
html.Table([
html.Tr([html.Th('Button 1'),
html.Th('Button 2'),
html.Th('Button 3'),
html.Th('Most Recent Click')]),
html.Tr([html.Td(btn1 or 0),
html.Td(btn2 or 0),
html.Td(btn3 or 0),
html.Td(button_id)])
]),
html.Pre(ctx_msg)
])
if __name__ == '__main__':
app.run_server(debug=True)
Prior to v0.38.0, you needed to compare timestamp properties like
n_clicks_timestamp to find the most recent click. While existing uses of
*_timestamp continue to work for now, this approach is deprecated, and
may be removed in a future update. The one exception is
modified_timestamp from dcc.Store, which is safe to use, it is NOT
deprecated.
Memoization allows you to bypass long computations by storing the
results of function calls.
To better understand how memoization works, let’s start with a simple example.
import time
import functools32
@functools32.lru_cache(maxsize=32)
def slow_function(input):
time.sleep(10)
return 'Input was {}'.format(input)
Calling slow_function('test') the first time will take 10 seconds.
Calling it a second time with the same argument will take almost no time
since the previously computed result was saved in memory and reused.
The Performance section of the Dash docs delves a
little deeper into leveraging multiple processes and threads in
conjunction with memoization to further improve performance.
This section describes the circumstances under which the dash-renderer front-end client can make a request to the Dash back-end server (or the clientside callback code) to execute a callback function.
All of the callbacks in a Dash app are executed with the initial value of their inputs when the app is first loaded. This is known as the “initial call” of the callback. To learn how to suppress this behavior, see the documentation for the prevent_initial_call attribute of Dash callbacks.
It is important to note that when a Dash app is initially loaded in a web browser by the dash-renderer front-end client, its entire callback chain is introspected recursively.
This allows the dash-renderer to predict the order in which callbacks will need to be executed, as callbacks are blocked when their inputs are outputs of other callbacks which have not yet fired. In order to unblock the execution of these callbacks, first callbacks whose inputs are immediately available must be executed. This process helps the dash-renderer to minimize the time and effort it uses, and avoid unnecessarily redrawing the page, by making sure it only requests that a callback is executed when all of the callback’s inputs have reached their final values.
Examine the following Dash app:
import dash
from dash.dependencies import Input, Output
import dash_html_components as html
app = dash.Dash()
app.layout = html.Div(
[
html.Button("execute callback", id="button_1"),
html.Div(children="callback not executed", id="first_output_1"),
html.Div(children="callback not executed", id="second_output_1"),
]
)
@app.callback(
Output("first_output_1", "children"),
Output("second_output_1", "children"),
Input("button_1", "n_clicks")
)
def change_text(n_clicks):
return ["n_clicks is " + str(n_clicks), "n_clicks is " + str(n_clicks)]
if __name__ == '__main__':
app.run_server(debug=True)
Notice that when this app is finished being loaded by a web browser and ready for user interaction, the html.Div components do not say “callback not executed” as declared in the app’s layout, but rather “n_clicks is None,” the result of the change_text() callback being executed. This is because the “initial call” of the callback occurred with n_clicks having the value of None.
Most frequently, callbacks are executed as a direct result of user interaction, such as clicking a button or selecting an item in a dropdown menu. When such interactions occur, Dash components communicate their new values to the dash-renderer front-end client, which then requests that the Dash server execute any callback function that has the newly changed value as input.
If a Dash app has multiple callbacks, the dash-renderer requests callbacks to be executed based on whether or not they can be immediately executed with the newly changed inputs. If several inputs change simultaneously, then requests are made to execute them all.
Whether or not these requests are executed in a synchronous or asyncrounous manner depends on the specific setup of the Dash back-end server. If it is running in a multi-threaded environment, then all of the callbacks can be executed simultaneously, and they will return values based on their speed of execution. In a single-threaded environment however, callbacks will be executed one at a time in the order they are received by the server.
In the example application above, clicking the button results in the callback being executed.
When a user interacts with a component, the resulting callback might have outputs that are themselves the input of other callbacks. The dash-renderer will block the execution of such a callback until the callback whose output is its input has been executed.
Take the following Dash app:
import dash
from dash.dependencies import Input, Output
import dash_html_components as html
from datetime import datetime
import time
app = dash.Dash()
app.layout = html.Div(
[
html.Button("execute fast callback", id="button_3"),
html.Button("execute slow callback", id="button_4"),
html.Div(children="callback not executed", id="first_output_3"),
html.Div(children="callback not executed", id="second_output_3"),
html.Div(children="callback not executed", id="third_output_3"),
]
)
@app.callback(
Output("first_output_3", "children"),
Input("button_3", "n_clicks"))
def first_callback(n):
now = datetime.now()
current_time = now.strftime("%H:%M:%S")
return "in the fast callback it is " + current_time
@app.callback(
Output("second_output_3", "children"), Input("button_4", "n_clicks"))
def second_callback(n):
time.sleep(5)
now = datetime.now()
current_time = now.strftime("%H:%M:%S")
return "in the slow callback it is " + current_time
@app.callback(
Output("third_output_3", "children"),
Input("first_output_3", "children"),
Input("second_output_3", "children"))
def third_callback(n, m):
now = datetime.now()
current_time = now.strftime("%H:%M:%S")
return "in the third callback it is " + current_time
if __name__ == '__main__':
app.run_server(debug=True)
The above Dash app demonstrates how callbacks chain together. Notice that if you first click “execute slow callback” and then click “execute fast callback”, the third callback is not executed until after the slow callback finishes executing. This is because the third callback has the second callback’s output as its input, which lets the dash-renderer know that it should delay its execution until after the second callback finishes.
It is possible for a callback to insert new Dash components into a Dash app’s layout. If these new components are themselves the inputs to other callback functions, then their appearance in the Dash app’s layout will trigger those callback functions to be executed.
In this circumstance, it is possible that multiple requests are made to execute the same callback function. This would occur if the callback in question has already been requested and its output returned before the new components which are also its inputs are added to the layout.
You can use the prevent_initial_call attribute of callbacks to prevent callbacks from being fired when the app initially loads, as in the following example app.
import dash
from dash.dependencies import Input, Output
import dash_html_components as html
from datetime import datetime
import time
app = dash.Dash()
app.layout = html.Div(
[
html.Button("execute callbacks", id="button_2"),
html.Div(children="callback not executed", id="first_output_2"),
html.Div(children="callback not executed", id="second_output_2"),
html.Div(children="callback not executed", id="third_output_2"),
html.Div(children="callback not executed", id="fourth_output_2"),
]
)
@app.callback(
Output("first_output_2", "children"),
Output("second_output_2", "children"),
Input("button_2", "n_clicks"), prevent_initial_call=True)
def first_callback(n):
now = datetime.now()
current_time = now.strftime("%H:%M:%S")
return ["in the first callback it is " + current_time, "in the first callback it is " + current_time]
@app.callback(
Output("third_output_2", "children"), Input("second_output_2", "children"), prevent_initial_call=True)
def second_callback(n):
time.sleep(2)
now = datetime.now()
current_time = now.strftime("%H:%M:%S")
return "in the second callback it is " + current_time
@app.callback(
Output("fourth_output_2", "children"),
Input("first_output_2", "children"),
Input("third_output_2", "children"), prevent_initial_call=True)
def third_output(n, m):
time.sleep(2)
now = datetime.now()
current_time = now.strftime("%H:%M:%S")
return "in the third callback it is " + current_time
if __name__ == '__main__':
app.run_server(debug=True)