How to use Flask-SQLAlchemy in a Celery task

Update: We've since started using a better way to handle application teardown and set up on a per-task basis, based on the pattern described in the more recent flask documentation.

extensions.py

import flask
from flask.ext.sqlalchemy import SQLAlchemy
from celery import Celery

class FlaskCelery(Celery):

    def __init__(self, *args, **kwargs):

        super(FlaskCelery, self).__init__(*args, **kwargs)
        self.patch_task()

        if 'app' in kwargs:
            self.init_app(kwargs['app'])

    def patch_task(self):
        TaskBase = self.Task
        _celery = self

        class ContextTask(TaskBase):
            abstract = True

            def __call__(self, *args, **kwargs):
                if flask.has_app_context():
                    return TaskBase.__call__(self, *args, **kwargs)
                else:
                    with _celery.app.app_context():
                        return TaskBase.__call__(self, *args, **kwargs)

        self.Task = ContextTask

    def init_app(self, app):
        self.app = app
        self.config_from_object(app.config)


celery = FlaskCelery()
db = SQLAlchemy()

app.py

from flask import Flask
from extensions import celery, db

def create_app():
    app = Flask()
    
    #configure/initialize all your extensions
    db.init_app(app)
    celery.init_app(app)

    return app

Once you've set up your app this way, you can run and use celery without having to explicitly run it from within an application context, as all your tasks will automatically be run in an application context if necessary, and you don't have to explicitly worry about post-task teardown, which is an important issue to manage (see other responses below).

Troubleshooting

Those who keep getting with _celery.app.app_context(): AttributeError: 'FlaskCelery' object has no attribute 'app' make sure to:

1. Keep the celery import at the app.py file level. Avoid:

app.py

from flask import Flask

def create_app():
    app = Flask()

    initiliaze_extensions(app)

    return app

def initiliaze_extensions(app):
    from extensions import celery, db # DOOMED! Keep celery import at the FILE level
    
    db.init_app(app)
    celery.init_app(app)

2. Start you celery workers BEFORE you flask run and use

celery worker -A app:celery -l info -f celery.log

Note the app:celery, i.e. loading from app.py.

You can still import from extensions to decorate tasks, i.e. from extensions import celery.

Old answer below, still works, but not as clean a solution

I prefer to run all of celery within the application context by creating a separate file that invokes celery.start() with the application's context. This means your tasks file doesn't have to be littered with context setup and teardowns. It also lends itself well to the flask 'application factory' pattern.

extensions.py

from from flask.ext.sqlalchemy import SQLAlchemy
from celery import Celery

db = SQLAlchemy()
celery = Celery()

tasks.py

from extensions import celery, db
from flask.globals import current_app
from celery.signals import task_postrun

@celery.task
def do_some_stuff():
    current_app.logger.info("I have the application context")
    #you can now use the db object from extensions

@task_postrun.connect
def close_session(*args, **kwargs):
    # Flask SQLAlchemy will automatically create new sessions for you from 
    # a scoped session factory, given that we are maintaining the same app
    # context, this ensures tasks have a fresh session (e.g. session errors 
    # won't propagate across tasks)
    db.session.remove()

app.py

from extensions import celery, db

def create_app():
    app = Flask()
    
    #configure/initialize all your extensions
    db.init_app(app)
    celery.config_from_object(app.config)

    return app

RunCelery.py

from app import create_app
from extensions import celery

app = create_app()

if __name__ == '__main__':
    with app.app_context():
        celery.start()

In your tasks.py file do the following:

from main import create_app
app = create_app()

celery = Celery(__name__)
celery.add_defaults(lambda: app.config)

@celery.task
def create_facet(project_id, **kwargs):
    with app.test_request_context():
       # your code