Custom apps hosting in DataRobot with DRApps

DRApps is a simple command line interface (CLI) providing the tools required to host a custom application, such as a Streamlit app, in DataRobot using a DataRobot execution environment. This allows you to run apps without building your own docker image. Custom applications don't provide any storage; however, you can access the full DataRobot API and other services.

Install the DRApps CLI tool

For users

pip install git+https://github.com/datarobot/dr-apps

For contributors

To install the DRApps CLI tool, clone this repository and then install the package by running the following command:

# If your environment does not already have `build` then run `pip install build` first
python -m build

For Windows Users

For Windows users, you may need to interface with the DR Custom Apps CLI via module calls:

python -m drapps <your_commands_here>

If you have issues entering words with spaces ( eg: -e "[DataRobot] Python 3.12 Applications Base" ) then you may find that using ids is a little easier.

Use the DRApps CLI

After you install the DRApps CLI tool, you can use the --help command to access the following information:

$ drapps --help
Usage: drapps [OPTIONS] COMMAND [ARGS]...

  CLI tools for custom applications.

  You can use drapps COMMAND --help for getting more info about command.

Options:
  --help  Show this message and exit.

Commands:
  create     Creates new custom application from docker image or base...
  logs       Provides logs for custom application.
  ls         Provides list of custom applications or execution environments.
  terminate  Stops custom application and removes it from the list.

You can use --help for each command separately for each command

Create custom application

$ drapps create --help
Usage: drapps create [OPTIONS] APPLICATION_NAME

  Creates new custom application from docker image or base environment.

  If application created from project folder, custom application image will be
  created or existing will be updated.

Options:
  -t, --token TEXT          Pubic API access token. You can use
                            DATAROBOT_API_TOKEN env instead.
  -E, --endpoint TEXT       Data Robot Public API endpoint. You can use
                            DATAROBOT_ENDPOINT instead. Default:
                            https://app.datarobot.com/api/v2
  -e, --base-env TEXT       Name or ID for execution environment.
  -p, --path DIRECTORY      Path to folder with files that should be uploaded.
  -i, --image FILE          Path to tar archive with custom application docker
                            images.
  --stringEnvVar KEY=VALUE  An environment variable of string type to be passed
                            to the application.
  --numericEnvVar KEY=VALUE An environment variable of integer or float type to
                            be passed to the application.
  --booleanEnvVar KEY=VALUE An environment variable of boolean type to be passed
                            to the application. Accepts True|true|1 or False|false|0.
  --skip-wait               Do not wait for ready status.
  --help                    Show this message and exit.

More detailed descriptions for each argument are provided in the table below:

Logs

$ drapps logs --help
Usage: drapps logs [OPTIONS] APPLICATION_ID_OR_NAME

  Provides logs for custom application.

Options:
  -t, --token TEXT     Pubic API access token. You can use DATAROBOT_API_TOKEN
                       env instead.
  -E, --endpoint TEXT  Data Robot Public API endpoint. You can use
                       DATAROBOT_ENDPOINT instead. Default:
                       https://app.datarobot.com/api/v2
  -f, --follow         Output append data as new log records appear.
  --help               Show this message and exit.

List of base custom applications or base environments

$ drapps ls --help
Usage: drapps ls [OPTIONS] {apps|envs}

  Provides list of custom applications or execution environments.

Options:
  -t, --token TEXT     Pubic API access token. You can use DATAROBOT_API_TOKEN
                       env instead.
  -E, --endpoint TEXT  Data Robot Public API endpoint. You can use
                       DATAROBOT_ENDPOINT instead. Default:
                       https://app.datarobot.com/api/v2
  --id-only            Output only ids
  --help               Show this message and exit.

Terminate

$ drapps terminate --help
Usage: drapps terminate [OPTIONS] APPLICATION_ID_OR_NAME...

  Stops custom application and removes it from the list.

Options:
  -t, --token TEXT     Pubic API access token. You can use DATAROBOT_API_TOKEN
                       env instead.
  -E, --endpoint TEXT  Data Robot Public API endpoint. You can use
                       DATAROBOT_ENDPOINT instead. Default:
                       https://app.datarobot.com/api/v2
  --help               Show this message and exit.

Create a new Execution Environment

It may be the case that your version of DataRobot (eg Single Tenant SAAS or On-Prem) was not shipped with the [DataRobot] Python 3.12 Applications Base or that you want to make a new execution environment for your apps (eg you want to make a Flask app, or you want your base docker image to have some packages installed in it that don't come standard

First you will need to make a dockerfile. For the default [DataRobot] Python 3.12 Applications Base env we use:

FROM python:3.12-slim

# This makes print statements show up in the logs API
ENV PYTHONUNBUFFERED=1

WORKDIR /opt/code

EXPOSE 8080

That dockerfile will then need to be archived into a zip file. For this example we named the zip file dockerfile.zip. Once you have the file zipped, and you open a terminal in the directory you can use the apps CLI:

drapps create-env --dockerfilezip dockerfile.zip --name "[DataRobot] Python 3.12 Applications Base"

Deploy an example app

To test this, deploy an example Streamlit app using the following command from the root directory of this repo:

drapps create -t <your_api_token> -e "[DataRobot] Python 3.12 Applications Base" -p ./demo-streamlit DemoApp

This example script works as follows:

1. Finds the execution environment through the /api/v2/executionEnvironments/ endpoint by the name or UUID you provided, verifying if the environment can be used for the custom application and retrieving the ID of the latest environment version.

2. Finds or creates the custom application image through the /api/v2/customApplicationImages/ endpoint, named by adding the Image suffix to the provided application name (i.e., CustomApp Image).

3. Creates a new version of a custom application image through the customApplicationImages/<appImageId>/versions endpoint, uploading all files from the directory you provided and setting the execution environment version defined in the first step.

4. Starts a new application with the custom application image version created in the previous step.

When this script runs successfully, link to it appears in the terminal. Also, you can access the application on the DataRobot Applications tab Non EU DataRobot EU DataRobot.

[!IMPORTANT] To access the application, you must be logged into the DataRobot instance and account associated with the application.

Considerations

Consider the following when creating a custom app:

• The root directory of the custom application must contain a start-app.sh file, used as the entry point for starting your application server.

• The web server of the application must listen on port 8080.

• The required packages must be listed in a requirements.txt file in the application's root directory for automatic installation during application setup.

• The application should authenticate with the DataRobot API through the DATAROBOT_API_TOKEN environment variable with a key found under Developer Tools on the DataRobot UI. The DataRobot package on PyPi already authenticates this way. This environment variable will automatically be added to your running container by the custom apps service.

• The application should access the DataRobot Public API URL for the current environment through the DATAROBOT_ENDPOINT environment variable. The DataRobot package on PyPi already uses this route. This environment variable will automatically be added to your running container by the custom apps service