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Template2050Calculator

A template for automatically converting 2050 Calculator models into web applications. The layout is based off the UK Mackay Carbon Calculator and is a simple design that can be customised further. It uses Anvil to create the web app using Python.

Web App Setup Process

To go from a functioning excel model to a web app requires 2 main steps before it is ready to deploy: convert the model into an executable, then test the web app locally and customise as desired. There are a few parts to each step, detailed below.

Getting Started

We strongly recommend forking or importing a copy of the Template2050Calculator repository on GitHub. The code can then be cloned to a local machine for development. The following dependencies must be installed for the conversion process and testing/customisation of the web app:

If working on Windows or Mac there is a small amount of extra configuration required for Docker. On these platforms Docker has a default memory usage cap of 2 Gb. This is likely to be exceeded; for reference, conversion of the Mackay Calculator requires around 4 Gb of memory. See the advanced section on this page to increase the memory usage cap.

1) Convert Excel Model

a) Prepare Excel Model

Converting the spreadsheet successfully requires certain named ranges to be present. The named ranges specified contain the necessary data and metadata for the conversion process. The following named ranges must be present as they are in the Mackay Calculator spreadsheet.

  • Inputs - input.lever.ambition, input.lever.start, input.lever.end.
  • Outputs - output.lever.names, output.lever.descriptions and output.lever.example.ambition, plus whatever outputs (graphs) are desired and detailed in the summary table. Note: the Mackay Calculator has a typo in the summary table, change the contents of cell WebOutputs!G771 to output.land.map.numberunits.

The following named ranges must be present in addition to those that are in the Mackay Calculator spreadsheet.

  • outputs_summary_table - covers the summary table (titled "Outputs to Webtool Summary" in the Mackay Calculator) in the WebOutputs sheet. This should include the column headers as the first row. For instance in the Mackay Calculator this would cover WebOutputs!C31:N68.
  • A series of ranges, one for each group of levers, named according to the convention output.lever.group? where ? is a number. These ranges must be two columns wide with the name of a lever group in the top-left cell and names of each individual lever in the right-hand column. For instance, in the Mackay Calculator output.lever.group1 would cover Control!B70:C81, output.lever.group2 would cover Control!B82:C89 and so on.

The following should be checked carefully:

  • Contents of the weboutputs_summary_table range:
    • For the "Webtool Page" column, entries of "Warnings" will mark an output as a warning icon, all other entries will be used as the name of the tab for the output.
    • For the "Webtool Tab" column, entries must be "Not required" for Warnings and desired sub-tab name for all other outputs.
    • For the "Position column", entries for Warnings should be numeric indicating order of appearance, but for other outputs must be one of "Top", "Bottom" or "Page".
    • For the "Graph Type" column, entries must be one of "Stacked Area with overlying Line(s)", "Line", "Sankey/Flow", "Map" or "Icon"
  • Ranges for individual outputs should cover data series names in the first column and all data up to 2100.

b) Run Conversion

On Mac/Linux run:

bash scripts/convert_spreadsheet.sh path/to/spreadsheet

On Windows (Powershell) run:

.\scripts\convert_spreadsheet.ps1 path\to\spreadsheet

This will take a few hours to finish and consume several Gb of memory. Once completed there should be two new files (_interface2050.cpython-39-x86_64-linux-gnu.so) and interface.py in the server_code directory.

2) Run App

a) Extract Metadata

The above conversion process focuses on extracting the details of the computational model however there is additional metadata in the spreadsheet that is needed by the web app. Getting this metadata is much faster than the conversion process so wherever possible static data from the spreadsheet is extract in this step. If you make changes to data in the spreadsheet e.g. change a lever description you will need to re-run this step to update the web app. In most cases, only if changes are made to the computational aspects of the model will you need to re-run the conversion process.

On Mac/Linux run:

bash scripts/get_weboutputs.sh path/to/spreadsheet

On Windows (Powershell) run:

.\scripts\get_weboutputs.ps1 path\to\spreadsheet

b) Update Configuration File

Several aspects of the site can be configured via the included app_config.yml file. This file follows the YAML format and allows access to configuration settings that are expected to change between models from different countries e.g. the longitude and latitude to use for map outputs. Each setting in the file is commented and must be adjusted to match the new model.

c) Test App

To run a test server locally run:

docker-compose up

Then open localhost:3030 in a web browser. All being well the app should load and you'll be able to try it out. Make sure to check that each output is behaving as expected.

The server can be stopped with Ctrl+C or docker-compose down.

d) Customise

You can now start changing the appearance and behaviour of the web app as desired. See the Anvil documentation to get familiar with the framework. Any changes made whilst the server is running should be automatically picked up when the browser page is refreshed.

This template is fit for use as a fully functioning Web App out of the box, however is intended to be taken and customised. There are two main ways to edit what appears in your calculator:

  1. Editing the metadata in the spreadsheet.
  2. Editing the Anvil app itself.

The spreadsheet metadata includes:

  • WebOutputs Summary Table: graph title, postition, tab, subtab, axis unit, named range
  • Example Pathways
  • Output Lever details: names, groups, tooltips
e) Using the Anvil Online Editor

The Anvil App can be edited by using the online Anvil editor, available at https://anvil.works/build. When prompted create an account. Note that these instructions assume you are using the new Beta version of the Anvil Editor at time of writing. This is currently accessible at https://anvil.works/new-build however will become the default editor.

  • If you have not already done so install git. Git should now be available in your terminal or powershell. Test this by running git --version.
  • Make sure your copy of the Template2050Calculator code is a Git repository:
    • From the code directory run git status. If you see a fatal error message complete the next step.
    • Run the following commands in the Template2050Calculator code directory: 
      git init -b main
git remote add -m main -f origin https://github.com/ImperialCollegeLondon/Template2050Calculator.git
git reset refs/remotes/origin/HEAD
git branch -u origin
  • Run the following command to incorporate any changes that may have been made into the repository: 
    git commit -a -m "Updates"
  • To configure authentication with Anvil run the following commands: For Mac/Linux: 
    mkdir -p ~/.ssh
cat >> ~/.ssh/config <<EOF

Host anvil.works
  HostkeyAlgorithms +ssh-rsa
  PubkeyAcceptedAlgorithms +ssh-rsa
EOF
    or for Windows: 
    mkdir -force ~/.ssh  
Add-Content -Path "$HOME\.ssh\config" -Value ""
Add-Content -Path "$HOME\.ssh\config" -Value "Host anvil.works"
Add-Content -Path "$HOME\.ssh\config" -Value "  HostkeyAlgorithms +ssh-rsa"
Add-Content -Path "$HOME\.ssh\config" -Value "  PubkeyAcceptedAlgorithms +ssh-rsa"
  • In the Anvil editor create a new blank app, choosing any theme.
  • Click the "Version History" tab at the bottom of the page then press the clone with git button.
  • You will be shown a git command. From that command copy only the section starting with ssh and ending with .git.
  • Substituting the section you just copied, run the following command in the Template2050Calculator code directory: 
    git remote add anvil YOUR_COPIED_SECTION
  • Run git push -f anvil main. If asked "Are you sure you want to continue connecting?" respond "yes". When prompted enter your Anvil account password.
  • Refresh the Anvil Editor page in your browser and from the "Version Control" menu select main from the "editing branch" dropdown.
  • You should now see a similar version of the app to your local test version.

You can now make whatever changes to the app you would like in the Anvil editor. We strongly suggest following the tutorials provided by Anvil to gain familiarity with the Editor. Once you're happy with your changes, follow the below steps to pull the changes into your local test version.

  • From the "Version History" menu press commit and confirm on the dialog box
  • From the Template2050Calculator code directory run git pull anvil

You should now be able to see the changes made in the local test server.

Deployment

The Dockerfile in the repository can be used to build a Docker image suitable for deploying in a range of hosting services. Whilst the Anvil web server is suitable for direct production usage we recommend combining it with a suitable reverse proxy. A docker image can be built for example with:

docker build -t calc2050_site:latest .

In production the image can be run using some variation of the below.

docker run calc2050_site:latest anvil-app-server --data-dir /anvil-data --app /apps/Template2050Calculator --disable-tls --port 3030 --origin https://calc2050template.azurewebsites.net/

The value for --origin should be substituted with the correct domain under which the site will be hosted. The --disable-tls flag is used on the assumption that the container will be placed behind a suitable reverse proxy that will handle TLS. For more information about available options see the anvil-app-server README.

Upon request, deployment can be carried out on Azure Cloud under the resources of the 2050 Calculators project.