#100DaysOfCode in Python Transcripts
Chapter: Days 85-87: Fullstack web apps made easy
Lecture: Anvil building blocks
Login or
purchase this course
to watch this video and the rest of the course contents.
0:00
Before we start building our application with Anvil,
0:02
lets look at the building blocks, all the pieces,
0:04
the little Lego bricks that we have to put together
0:07
because they're really easy to fit together and use.
0:10
So, let's do a quick survey.
0:12
Probably the first thing you'll notice is forms.
0:14
And forms are the HTML pages and components.
0:17
You have a nice visual designer with a set of components
0:20
you can drag over and visually line up
0:22
and click on them and set their properties and so on.
0:24
So, that's really nice.
0:25
There's also a code behind thing that goes with them
0:28
that you can run some code as part of
0:30
interacting with the form.
0:33
Now, some code doesn't belong within the UI,
0:35
it belongs elsewhere.
0:36
Maybe it's shared across forms or it just doesn't really
0:39
belong there and so, that would be in
0:41
this client module section.
0:43
So here you can create these Python modules that you write
0:45
arbitrary Python code that can
0:47
be called from within the forms,
0:49
can interact with each other and so on.
0:50
So, it's kind of a nice way to separate stuff out there.
0:53
We'll also have server modules.
0:55
So, this client code in the form code behind
0:58
actually runs on the client side.
1:01
Think about that for a minute.
1:02
Python code running a client side.
1:04
That means in the browser, so it actually converts
1:06
to JavaScript and runs there.
1:08
Sometimes you need code to run on the server to interact
1:11
with your database in certain ways or to work with secrets,
1:14
or validate stuff that nobody can mess with.
1:16
So, that's server modules.
1:17
And there's nice integration here.
1:19
And of course you need data, a database.
1:21
So there's this concept of data tables
1:23
which is really nice and easy and integrated.
1:26
On top of these four things we have services.
1:28
So, things like user management,
1:30
storing users with passwords
1:33
and registration and stuff like that.
1:35
Secrets like API keys you don't want to put in your code
1:37
but still make accessible to your web app.
1:39
And Google and Facebook APIs,
1:40
so if you want to get to say like Google Drive, for example.
1:43
Stripe if you want to accept payments.
1:45
And finally, this thing called uplink.
1:47
Now, uplink, we talked about a thing called uplink,
1:50
a Python package for services but this is not that.
1:53
Put these entirely out of your mind
1:55
they're totally unrelated.
1:56
This is just the same name they have here as the thing
1:59
that we played with earlier.
2:00
The idea is, if you would like your web application to reach
2:04
out and get inside some other thing and interact with it
2:09
you can do this thing called uplink.
2:10
Here's an example.
2:11
Suppose I have a Raspberry Pi that's running some
2:13
Python code that controls my house.
2:16
Inside that Raspberry Pi, I don't want to have a service that
2:19
things integrate with but I would, somehow, like my
2:23
web application to initiate a call into that Raspberry Pi.
2:27
Like, let's say to turn on the lights or
2:29
open the garage door by clicking a button on my web app.
2:32
Uplink would make that happen.
2:33
So, really, really cool.
2:34
We're not going to use it at all.
2:35
We're not going to use any of these services
2:37
for what we're doing
2:38
but we are going to work with the top four items for sure.
