Build a Python App with CockroachDB and psycopg2

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Tip:

Check out our developer courses at Cockroach University.

This tutorial shows you how build a simple Python application with CockroachDB and the psycopg2 driver.

Step 1. Start CockroachDB

Choose your installation method

You can create a CockroachDB Standard cluster using either the CockroachDB Cloud Console, a web-based graphical user interface (GUI) tool, or ccloud, a command-line interface (CLI) tool.

Create a free trial cluster

Create a CockroachDB Cloud account. If this is your first CockroachDB Cloud organization, it will be credited with $400 in free trial credits to get you started.
On the Get Started page, click Create cluster.
On the Select a plan page, select Standard.
On the Cloud & Regions page, select a cloud provider (GCP or AWS).
In the Regions section, select a region for the cluster. Refer to CockroachDB Cloud Regions for the regions where CockroachDB Standard clusters can be deployed. To create a multi-region cluster, click Add region and select additional regions.
Click Next: Capacity.
On the Capacity page, keep the Provisioned capacity at the default value of 2 vCPUs.

Click Next: Finalize.
On the Finalize page, name your cluster. If an active free trial is listed in the right pane, you will not need to add a payment method, though you will need to do this by the end of the trial to maintain your organization's clusters.

Click Create cluster.

Your cluster will be created in a few seconds and the Create SQL user dialog will display.

Create a SQL user

The Create SQL user dialog allows you to create a new SQL user and password.

Enter a username in the SQL user field or use the one provided by default.
Click Generate & save password.
Copy the generated password and save it in a secure location.
Click Next.

Currently, all new SQL users are created with admin privileges. For more information and to change the default settings, see Manage SQL users on a cluster.

Get the root certificate

The Connect to cluster dialog shows information about how to connect to your cluster.

Select General connection string from the Select option dropdown.
Open a new terminal on your local machine, and run the CA Cert download command provided in the Download CA Cert section. The client driver used in this tutorial requires this certificate to connect to CockroachDB Cloud.

Get the connection string

Open the General connection string section, then copy the connection string provided and save it in a secure location.

Note:

The connection string is pre-populated with your username, password, cluster name, and other details. Your password, in particular, will be provided only once. Save it in a secure place (Cockroach Labs recommends a password manager) to connect to your cluster in the future. If you forget your password, you can reset it by going to the SQL Users page for the cluster, found at https://cockroachlabs.cloud/cluster/<CLUSTER ID>/users.

Follow these steps to create a CockroachDB Standard cluster using the ccloud CLI tool.

Note:

The ccloud CLI tool is in Preview.

Install `ccloud`

Choose your OS:

You can install ccloud using either Homebrew or by downloading the binary.

Use Homebrew

Install Homebrew.
Install using the ccloud tap:
```
brew install cockroachdb/tap/ccloud
```

Download the binary

In a terminal, enter the following command to download and extract the ccloud binary and add it to your PATH:

curl https://binaries.cockroachdb.com/ccloud/ccloud_darwin-amd64_0.6.12.tar.gz | tar -xJ && cp -i ccloud /usr/local/bin/

Use the ARM 64 binary if you have an M-series Mac:

curl https://binaries.cockroachdb.com/ccloud/ccloud_darwin-arm64_0.6.12.tar.gz | tar -xJ && cp -i ccloud /usr/local/bin/

In a terminal, enter the following command to download and extract the ccloud binary and add it to your PATH:

curl https://binaries.cockroachdb.com/ccloud/ccloud_linux-amd64_0.6.12.tar.gz | tar -xz && cp -i ccloud /usr/local/bin/

In a PowerShell window, enter the following command to download and extract the ccloud binary and add it to your PATH:

$ErrorActionPreference = "Stop"; [Net.ServicePointManager]::SecurityProtocol = [Net.SecurityProtocolType]::Tls12; $ProgressPreference = 'SilentlyContinue'; $null = New-Item -Type Directory -Force $env:appdata/ccloud; Invoke-WebRequest -Uri https://binaries.cockroachdb.com/ccloud/ccloud_windows-amd64_0.6.12.zip -OutFile ccloud.zip; Expand-Archive -Force -Path ccloud.zip; Copy-Item -Force ccloud/ccloud.exe -Destination $env:appdata/ccloud; $Env:PATH += ";$env:appdata/ccloud"; # We recommend adding ";$env:appdata/ccloud" to the Path variable for your system environment. See https://docs.microsoft.com/powershell/module/microsoft.powershell.core/about/about_environment_variables#saving-changes-to-environment-variables for more information.

Run `ccloud quickstart` to create a new cluster, create a SQL user, and retrieve the connection string.

The easiest way of getting started with CockroachDB Cloud is to use ccloud quickstart. The ccloud quickstart command guides you through logging in to CockroachDB Cloud, creating a new CockroachDB Serverless cluster, and connecting to the new cluster. Run ccloud quickstart and follow the instructions:

ccloud quickstart

The ccloud quickstart command will open a browser window to log you in to CockroachDB Cloud. If you are new to CockroachDB Cloud, you can register using one of the single sign-on (SSO) options, or create a new account using an email address.

The ccloud quickstart command will prompt you for the cluster name, cloud provider, and cloud provider region, then ask if you want to connect to the cluster. Each prompt has default values that you can select, or change if you want a different option.

Select General connection string, then copy the connection string displayed and save it in a secure location. The connection string is the line starting postgresql://.

? How would you like to connect? General connection string
Retrieving cluster info: succeeded
 Downloading cluster cert to /Users/maxroach/.postgresql/root.crt: succeeded
postgresql://maxroach:ThisIsNotAGoodPassword@blue-dog-147.6wr.cockroachlabs.cloud:26257/defaultdb?sslmode=verify-full&sslrootcert=%2FUsers%2Fmaxroach%2F.postgresql%2Froot.crt

If you haven't already, download the CockroachDB binary.
Run the cockroach start-single-node command:
```
$ cockroach start-single-node --advertise-addr 'localhost' --insecure
```
This starts an insecure, single-node cluster.

Take note of the following connection information in the SQL shell welcome text:

CockroachDB node starting at 2021-08-30 17:25:30.06524 +0000 UTC (took 4.3s)
build:               CCL v21.1.6 @ 2021/07/20 15:33:43 (go1.15.11)
webui:               http://localhost:8080
sql:                 postgresql://root@localhost:26257?sslmode=disable

You'll use the sql connection string to connect to the cluster later in this tutorial.

Warning:

The --insecure flag used in this tutorial is intended for non-production testing only. To run CockroachDB in production, use a secure cluster instead.

Step 2. Get the sample code

Clone the sample code's GitHub repo:

$ git clone https://github.com/cockroachlabs/hello-world-python-psycopg2

The sample code in example.py does the following:

Creates an accounts table and inserts some rows
Transfers funds between two accounts inside a transaction
Deletes the accounts from the table before exiting so you can re-run the example code

To handle transaction retry errors, the code uses an application-level retry loop that, in case of error, sleeps before trying the funds transfer again. If it encounters another retry error, it sleeps for a longer interval, implementing exponential backoff.

Step 3. Install the psycopg2 driver

psycopg2-binary is the sample app's only third-party module dependency.

To install psycopg2-binary, run the following command:

$ pip install psycopg2-binary

For other ways to install psycopg2, see the official documentation.

Step 4. Run the code

Set the DATABASE_URL environment variable to the connection string to your cluster:
```
$ export DATABASE_URL="postgresql://root@localhost:26257/defaultdb?sslmode=disable"
```
```
$ export DATABASE_URL="{connection-string}"
```
Where {connection-string} is the connection string you copied earlier.
The app uses the connection string saved to the DATABASE_URL environment variable to connect to your cluster and execute the code.

Run the code:

$ cd hello-world-python-psycopg2

$ python example.py

The output should show the account balances before and after the funds transfer:

Balances at Thu Aug  4 15:51:03 2022:
account id: 2e964b45-2034-49a7-8ab8-c5d0082b71f1  balance: $1000
account id: 889cb1eb-b747-46f4-afd0-15d70844147f  balance: $250
Balances at Thu Aug  4 15:51:03 2022:
account id: 2e964b45-2034-49a7-8ab8-c5d0082b71f1  balance: $900
account id: 889cb1eb-b747-46f4-afd0-15d70844147f  balance: $350

What's next?

Read more about using the Python psycopg2 driver.

You might also be interested in the following pages:

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Build a Python App with CockroachDB and psycopg2

Step 1. Start CockroachDB

Choose your installation method

Create a free trial cluster

Create a SQL user

Get the root certificate

Get the connection string

Install `ccloud`

Use Homebrew

Download the binary

Run `ccloud quickstart` to create a new cluster, create a SQL user, and retrieve the connection string.

Step 2. Get the sample code

Step 3. Install the psycopg2 driver

Step 4. Run the code

What's next?

Build a Python App with CockroachDB and psycopg2

Step 1. Start CockroachDB

Choose your installation method

Create a free trial cluster

Create a SQL user

Get the root certificate

Get the connection string

Install ccloud

Use Homebrew

Download the binary

Run ccloud quickstart to create a new cluster, create a SQL user, and retrieve the connection string.

Step 2. Get the sample code

Step 3. Install the psycopg2 driver

Step 4. Run the code

What's next?

Install `ccloud`

Run `ccloud quickstart` to create a new cluster, create a SQL user, and retrieve the connection string.