MPFramework

A multiprocessing framework for Python 3.4+

This package enables easy spawning and communication between persistent asychnronous processes in Python.

Installation

Download the git. PIP integration is coming soon!

Usage

Once started, a MPFProcess cycles through the following loop:

1. Call the update function if a new message has been received on the input queue.
2. Call the step function to perform the main function of the process.
3. Call the publish function to put any available data on the output queue.

The description of each function is included in the above list as a guideline for what they should do. None of the listed functions have an explicit implementation in the MPFProcess class.

Detailed examples can be found in the Examples folder. The following is a simple example for the usage of a custom MPFProcess.

#Extend the MPFProcess base object and implement the necessary functions.
class ExampleProcess(MPFProcess):
    def __init__(self):
        super().__init__(loop_wait_period=1.0) #Wait one second between process loop cycles. 

    def init(self): #Init anything we need in this process.
        pass

    def update(self, header, data): #Handle messages from another process.
        pass

    def step(self): #Do whatever our process needs to do.
        print("Hello from a process!")

    def publish(self): #Send results to our output queue.
        pass

    def cleanup(self): #Free all resources held by this process.
        pass

def main():
    #Use a process handler to start our process by passing an instance of our process object to the handler.
    process_handler = MPFProcessHandler()
    process_handler.setup_process(ExampleProcess())

    #Start a loop in the main process to show that our example process is running while the main process is busy.
    seconds = 0
    while seconds < 10:
        seconds += 1
        time.sleep(1.0)

    #Let the handler deal with cleaning up and closing our process.
    process_handler.close()