MP 6: PNG Microservice
Overview
Our next MP has you beginning to explore Python and beginning to work towards cloud-based services. Specifically, you will create a simple API on top of your mp2
program to create a web-based microservice that will extract a hidden GIF from a PNG image.
GitHub Classroom
For this MP and the remaining MPs of the class, we will again be trying out GitHub classroom. For the most part, your workflow will remain the same, with a few changes to how you get and submit your code.
Initial Files
To generate a new repo for this assignment, go to the following link and accept the assignment. After a minute or so, refresh the page. You should see your new repo has been created. Click on the green button that says Code
and copy the clone link.
In your CS 240 directory, clone your new directory with the following command, using the link you got from the step above:
git clone <link>
Once that is done, be sure to go to the netid.txt
file and type in your netid. This is how we will associate your GitHub account with your school id. If you forget to do this step, you will see a test failing on GitHub classroom to remind you.
Machine Problem
Complete the app.py
program using the Python flask
library to create a web-based service accepts a PNG file (as png
in the POST
data) via a HTTP POST
request /extract
:
- If the PNG file has a hidden GIF image (as defined by mp2), the hidden GIF file is returned.
- If the PNG file does not have a hidden GIF image (or is an invalid PNG file), an
HTTP 500
response is returned with some useful status text.
Installing Python
This MP requires a modern version of Python (ex: 3.8+). If you are running on the VM, follow our guide to getting your VM setup with Python.
Once Python is installed, you will need to install the Python library. Using native Python, this can be done via:
pip install flask
Using flask
For this MP, the complete flask
code is provided for you in the provided app.py
:
from flask import Flask
app = Flask(__name__)
# Route for "/" for a web-based interface to this microservice:
@app.route('/')
def index():
return render_template("index.html")
# Extract a hidden "uiuc" GIF from a PNG image:
@app.route('/extract', methods=["POST"])
def extract_hidden_gif():
# ...your code here...
To run this program, run:
python3.9 -m flask run
(orpython3 -m flask run
on some systems, orpython -m flask run
or the shorthandflask run
) to launch yourapp.py
flask server.- Follow the instructions on the console to view your microservice in your web browser.
Now you need to complete the extract_hidden_gif
to make your microservice work! :)
Using Your MP2
As part of the extract_hidden_gif
, you will need to use your mp2 png-extractGIF
program. We have given you a new png-extractGIF.c
file for this assignment. Copy over your code from mp2 into this file. You may want to verify that your png-extractGIF
program is complete and functional by running the following commands from your mp6 directory:
- Testing using a PNG with a hidden GIF:
./png-extractGIF sample/waf.png taylor.gif
. (This should successfully savetaylor.gif
.) - Testing using a PNG without a
uiuc
chunk:./png-extractGIF sample/no-uiuc-chunk.png nothing.gif
. (This should run, not crash, and probably return a non-zero value frommain
.)
You may need to modify your MP2 program slightly to fix any bugs to ensure your program can work with your new microservice.
Useful Python Functions
There will be a few tasks you will need to complete in Python:
-
You will need to save the contents of the
POST
request (the.png
file). We have given you atemp
directory for this purpose, so you can save the contents in this directory with a unique filename.- The contents of the data sent via
POST
is stored by flask in the variablerequest.files['png']
. - You can find many examples of reading and writing files in Python via a search.
- The contents of the data sent via
-
You will need to programmatically run your
./png-extractGIF
program. To do this, you will likely use the pythonos.system
function. -
Once you have the GIF file saved, you will likely want to use flask’s
send_file
function to send the GIF file. -
If anything goes wrong, you can
return "Error Message", 500
to return an error (but change “Error Message” to something useful).
Testing Your Microservice
You can test your program in two different ways:
-
By the command line, using
curl
to make a request to your web server:curl -f -o output.gif http://localhost:5000/extract -F "png=@sample/waf.png"
- You can replace
@sample/waf.png
with another file. Ensure that you keep the@
symbol to tellcurl
to send the contents of the file. - You should inspect
output.gif
to ensure the extraction was successful. - Make sure that you get an error when sending it an invalid PNG file.
- Make sure you also get an error when sending it a PNG file without a hidden
uiuc
chunk.
- You can replace
-
Or, by using your web browser and visiting your flask server (ex:
http://127.0.0.1:5000/
).
Submit
When you have completed your program, double-check that your server runs as expected with a GIF image that has hidden data and a GIF image without hidden data. When you are ready, submit the code via the following git commands:
Note: Please do not commit your compiled extractGIF
file. Our tests will compile your code before running the tests, and we have seen that sometimes, including this file will actually make the tests fail because of permission errors. We will be sure to fix this issue with our tests before running the final grader!
git add -A
git commit -m "MP submission"
git push origin master
You can verify your code was successfully submitted by viewing your git repo on your github account: https://github.com. You should also be able to see if your code passed our test cases from there.
Note: the way our test cases work for now is by storing them in a file in your repo, called mp6-flask-test.py
. If you modify this file, you may see incorrect results when we run our test cases on GitHub Classroom. At the assignment deadline, we will run our test cases on your repo using a fresh copy of mp6-flask-test.py
.