How do I seed a flask sql-alchemy database - flask-sqlalchemy

Question

I am new at python, I just learnt how to create an api using flask restless and flask sql-alchemy. I however would like to seed the database with random values. How do I achieve this? Please help.
Here is the api code...
import flask
import flask.ext.sqlalchemy
import flask.ext.restless
import datetime
DATABASE = 'sqlite:///tmp/test.db'
#Create the Flask application and the FLask-SQLALchemy object
app = flask.Flask(__name__)
app.config ['DEBUG'] = True
app.config['SQLALCHEMY_DATABASE_URI'] = DATABASE
db = flask.ext.sqlalchemy.SQLAlchemy(app)
#create Flask-SQLAlchemy models
class TodoItem(db.Model):
id = db.Column(db.Integer, primary_key = True)
todo = db.Column(db.Unicode)
priority = db.Column(db.SmallInteger)
due_date = db.Column(db.Date)
#Create database tables
db.create_all()
#Create Flask restless api manager
manager = flask.ext.restless.APIManager(app, flask_sqlalchemy_db = db)
#Create api end points
manager.create_api(TodoItem, methods = ['GET','POST','DELETE','PUT'], results_per_page = 20)
#Start flask loop
app.run()

Answer 1

I had a similar question and did some research, found something that worked.
The pattern I am seeing is based on registering a Flask CLI custom command, something like: flask seed.
This would look like this given your example. First, import the following into your api code file (let's say you have it named server.py):
from flask.cli import with_appcontext
(I see you do import flask but I would just add you should change these to from flask import what_you_need)
Next, create a function that does the seeding for your project:
#with_appcontext
def seed():
"""Seed the database."""
todo1 = TodoItem(...).save()
todo2 = TodoItem(...).save()
todo3 = TodoItem(...).save()
Finally, register these command with your flask application:
def register_commands(app):
"""Register CLI commands."""
app.cli.add_command(seed)
After you've configured you're application, make sure you call register_commands to register the commands:
register_commands(app)
At this point, you should be able to run: flask seed. You can add more functions (maybe a flask reset) using the same pattern.

Answer 2

From another newbie, the forgerypy and forgerypy3 libraries are available for this purpose (though they look like they haven't been touched in a bit).
A simple example of how to use them by adding them to your model:
class TodoItem(db.Model):
....
#staticmethod
def generate_fake_data(records=10):
import forgery_py
from random import randint
for record in records:
todo = TodoItem(todo=forgery_py.lorem_ipsum.word(),
due_date=forgery_py.date.date(),
priority=randint(1,4))
db.session.add(todo)
try:
db.session.commit()
except:
db.session.rollback()
You would then call the generate_fake_data method in a shell session.
And Miguel Grinberg's Flask Web Development (the O'Reilly book, not blog) chapter 11 is a good resource for this.