Documentation

No need to install anything. Py-Engineering is a web-application. You only need an account and/or an API key. If you don’t have one, reach out to someone in your company who can provide you one or request a demo by mailing to info@py-engineering.com.

Example of a login page on py-engineering.com. Depending on the platform your account belongs to, this login page might have a different URL and look-and-feel.

The general concept is that you write a Python function that prints output like you would do on your local machine. By defining input variables in Py-Engineering.com, this function is instantly accessible as web-app or API. By running the tool in the web-app or trough the API, the Python function is executed in our cloud environment. See what this looks like in the introduction video below or check out the Tutorials.

Easily configure platform-wide options for a consistent user experience.

The slug defines the structure of the platform's URLs. It determines where the platform and its related pages can be accessed. For example, if the slug is set to demo, the following URLs will be used:  

• Platform home page: https://py-engineering.com/demo
• Login page: https://py-engineering.com/demo/login
• Registration page (if platform is open for signup): https://py-engineering.com/platform_signup/demo 

The Name of the platform is displayed on the home page if no logo is provided.

Created tools can support multiple languages based on the selected Languages.

For tools that require an account, Email verification and Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) can be configured as mandatory.

By default, all platform pages display the Py-Engineering logo at the bottom. This can be disabled by setting Show Py-Engineering logo to false.

The Primary color defines the main accent color of the platform, which is used for buttons, links, and other highlighted elements.

The Secondary color is used for complementary elements, such as backgrounds and less prominent UI components.

The Logo is displayed on the home page and throughout the platform. If no logo is provided, the platform name will be shown instead.

The Allow sign up option determines whether users can create an account on the platform. If disabled, only existing users can log in.

The Company name in signup form checkbox adds a field for users to enter their company name during registration.

The Phone number in signup form checkbox adds a field for users to provide their phone number when signing up.

The image below shows a signup form with the Company Name and Phone Number fields enabled. When these options are selected, users are required to enter this information during registration.

By default, emails are sent from noreply@py-engineering.com. If you wish to send emails from a different address, you can configure a Mail server.

The Domain setting allows the platform to be hosted on a custom domain instead of py-engineering.com. If a custom domain is used, a DNS server must be configured in coordination with the Py-Engineering developers.

The SMTP settings can be configured via Platform > Mail server or by clicking the (+) directly

Define the behavior and properties of each tool directly within your Python scripts. Control how your tools are displayed and interacted with by users.

Slug defines the url of the tool. A tool can be found on the platform page https://py-engineering.com/demo/tool-a if slug is tool-a.

The Name of the platform is the name as shown on the tool page.

If multliple Languages are selected, multilanguage support becomes active. After saving the page, fields such as Name are given multiple input elements for each selected language. In the GUI, a dropdown for the selected language is shown in the upper right menu.

Py-Engineering provides the ability to configure email notifications for various user actions, which can be useful for marketing or usage tracking purposes.

To enable notifications, enter the desired recipient email address in the notify_per_mail field. This address will receive notifications based on the following boolean settings:

• notify_on_download: When set to True, an email notification will be sent whenever a user downloads a generated PDF file.
• notify_on_send_results: When set to True, an email notification will be sent whenever the user chooses to send the calculation results via email.

These options allow for flexible tracking of user engagement with generated outputs.

All statements printed by the main Python function are treated as output. 

Output tags

To enhance the presentation, specific tags can be used to format the output. These tags begin with an underscore (_) and apply to the text either on the same line or across multiple lines enclosed within square brackets ([ ]).

An example:

def main_function(input_dict):

    # Single line, starting a tag
    print('_HEADER Header')
    print('The rest of this line _UNDERLINE will be underlined on a new line.')
    for tag in ['INFO', 'WARNING', 'DANGER', 'SUCCESS']:
        print(f"_{tag} {tag.title()}")

    # Inline with [..]
    print('_BOLD[This] is bold and _ITALIC[this] is italic.')
    print('The tags _BOLD[_ITALIC[_UNDERLINE[can be combined]]]')

    # Multiple lines with [..]
    print('_PREFORMATTED[')
    print('Multiple lines')
    print('can be formatted')
    print('using brackets [ and _]')
    print('_SMALL Note that an endbracket within a tag needs to be escaped with a _CODE[ _ ]')
    print(']')

This will result in the following output on the tool page:

Create links and buttons

Just like output tags, the _IMAGE, _DOWNLOAD_LINK and _DOWNLOAD_BUTTON tags can be used to generate visually appealing links and buttons for files or URLs.

An example:

import xlsxwriter
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt


def main_function(input_dict):
    file_name = 'example'

    fig, ax = plt.subplots()

    fruits = ['apple', 'blueberry', 'cherry', 'orange']
    counts = [40, 100, 30, 55]
    bar_labels = ['red', 'blue', '_red', 'orange']
    bar_colors = ['tab:red', 'tab:blue', 'tab:red', 'tab:orange']

    ax.bar(fruits, counts, label=bar_labels, color=bar_colors)

    ax.set_ylabel('fruit supply')
    ax.set_title('Fruit supply by kind and color')
    ax.legend(title='Fruit color')

    plt.savefig(file_name)

    workbook = xlsxwriter.Workbook(file_name)
    worksheet = workbook.add_worksheet()
    worksheet.write('A1', 'Hello world')
    workbook.close()

    print("Show image:")
    print(f"_IMAGE[{file_name}.png]")
    print(f"Use a link like _DOWNLOAD_LINK[{file_name}.xlsx] to download a file. Or create a button:")
    print(f"\n_DOWNLOAD_BUTTON[{file_name}.xlsx]")

This will provide the following image, link and download button:

Upload files like TXT, CSV or XLSX that can be used in one or more tools.

Control access and share your tools with just a few clicks.

Access to tools within the Py-Engineering platform is controlled through a flexible authorization system that supports multiple levels of access. Below is an overview of how user access is managed and granted.

Access to a specific tool is determined by several conditions:

• Staff Access: Staff users automatically have access to all tools within their platform.
• Product Licenses: Users can gain access through active product licenses. If the tool belongs to a calculation group linked to one of the user's active products, access is granted.
• Tool Groups: Users can be explicitly assigned to tool groups. If the platform is configured to restrict access via tool groups only, then the user must belong to a group that includes the desired tool.
• Public Tools: Tools can also be made publicly available through a public link, allowing unrestricted access.
• API Access: For programmatic use, tools can be exposed via the API, enabling access through an API token assigned to the user. This is useful for integrations or automated workflows.

Additionally, if group-based access control is not enforced on a platform, users may receive access even without explicit group assignment.

Authorized administrators can assign users to specific tool groups, which determine their access to collections of tools. They can also configure products that users can purchase (e.g., via iDeal payment or by invoice) to gain access to specific tool sets.

If user registration is allowed on a platform, default tool groups or product groups can be defined. Newly registered users are automatically assigned to these groups, enabling immediate access to associated tools or products without manual intervention.

Keep track of tool usage and platform activity with real-time logging and statistics.

Each tool in Py-Engineering can easily be made available as an API. This allows calculations and analyses to be performed without using the web interface.

The API functionality is documented in the OpenAPI specification. API calls require an access token to be included in the header. Example in Python using the requests module:

import json
from pprint import pprint

import requests

api_key = ''  # YOUR API KEY
platform_uuid = ''  # Examples
calculation_uuid = ''  # Tutorial 01: Basic example

base_url = 'https://py-engineering.com/api'
my_headers = {'Authorization': f'Bearer {api_key}'}

# Calculations
calculations_url = f'{base_url}/calculations?platform_uuid={platform_uuid}'
calculations_response = requests.get(calculations_url, headers=my_headers)
pprint(calculations_response.json())

# Calculation
calculation_url = f'{base_url}/calculation?calculation_uuid={calculation_uuid}'
calculation_response = requests.get(calculation_url, headers=my_headers)
pprint(calculation_response.json())

# Calculate
calculation_url = f'{base_url}/calculate'
data = {
    "calculator_uuid": "3ecb9ca8-1d66-4ef4-814f-42cfd8835f58",
    "calculator_in": {
        'a': 3,
        'b': 4,

    }
}
calculate_response = requests.post(calculation_url, headers=my_headers, data=json.dumps(data))
pprint(calculate_response.json())

The API supports several endpoints, including:

• /api/calculations – Retrieve available calculations
• /api/calculate – Perform a calculation
• /api/calculation-logs/{calculation_log_uuid} – Retrieve log data

The input for calculations (calculate) is specific to each tool and can be found on the API page for that tool.

By default, the validation script and output as PDF are not executed through the API call. If desired, these functionalities can be enabled by including additional parameters in the POST data.

More details on the API functionality can be found in the OpenAPI documentation.