Ghub - Knowledge Base: Developing Tools: Invoke scripts for Jupyter notebooks

The Ghub tool invoke script is located in the tool's middleware/ subdirectory. When you first create a tool, the basic invoke script provided must be edited to work with Jupyter notebook tools.

This writeup shows you how to create Jupyter tools with three different appearances: notebook, App, and Tool mode.

invoke_app and start_jupyter

To deploy a Jupyter notebook as a tool on Ghub's gateways, you call the invoke_app executable, which in turn calls start_jupyter. Each have their own arguments:

arguments for start_jupyter
-d show debug (verbose) output
-t run as a Tool with no notebook controls
-A run in AppMode.

arguments for invoke_app
-C command to execute
-r Rappture version to use (normally specify none for notebook tools)
-u environment package(s) to use
-t Tool name

invoke_app: starting point

The basic invoke script for Jupyter notebooks looks like this:

/usr/bin/invoke_app "$@" -t TOOLNAME 
	-C "start_jupyter -T @tool APP.ipynb" 
	-r none 
	-u anaconda-6

Invoking a Jupyter tool this way gives a notebook with all its code cells displayed to the user.

Where:

TOOLNAME is the short name of the tool
APP is the name of the main notebook that runs the tool
anaconda-6 is the current anaconda installation

Notice that the script uses the -t, -C, -r, and -u invoke_app arguments.

start_jupyter arguments

Control the way the notebook appears when run as a tool, using the arguments passed to the start_jupyter executable.

You can run a Jupyter tool in three ways:

notebook mode, in which all code cells are displayed to the user (shown above)
app mode, in which code cells are initially hidden but can be displayed
tool mode, in which code cells are hidden and cannot be displayed

for App Mode

For a notebook tool that hides its code cells and shows only the UI and markdown elements on initial run, add the -A argument in the start_jupyter call:

/usr/bin/invoke_app "$@" -t TOOLNAME 
	-C "start_jupyter -A -T @tool APP.ipynb" 
	-u anaconda-6 
	-r none

The tool user can toggle the tool's "Edit App" button to show the underlying code cells, making this a great teaching/demo option.
NOTE that this differs from the invoke_app -A argument for invoke_app.

for Tool Mode

To permanently hide code cells from the user in App Mode, specify the -A and -t arguments in the start_jupyter call:

/usr/bin/invoke_app "$@" -t TOOLNAME 
	-C "start_jupyter -A -t -T @tool APP.ipynb" 
	-u anaconda-6 
	-r none

The Edit App button will not be displayed to the tool user.

NOTE that this differs from the invoke_app -t argument for invoke_app.

errors

specify no rappture

/usr/bin/invoke_app "$@" -t TOOLNAME 
	-C "start_jupyter -T @tool APP.ipynb" 
	-u anaconda-6 
	-r none

Error:

Running the tool's invoke script from the deb10 workspace, returns:

"could not find a rappture installation: RAPPTURE_PATH=,"

Fix:

Be sure to supply the "-r none" argument in the invoke_app call, as above. No quotation marks are needed.

Knowledge Base

Invoke scripts for Jupyter notebooks