The Backend 🐍

This guide will cover everything you need to know to implement your custom component’s backend processing.

Which Class to Inherit From

All components inherit from one of three classes Component, FormComponent, or BlockContext. You need to inherit from one so that your component behaves like all other gradio components. When you start from a template with gradio cc create --template, you don’t need to worry about which one to choose since the template uses the correct one. For completeness, and in the event that you need to make your own component from scratch, we explain what each class is for.

• FormComponent: Use this when you want your component to be grouped together in the same Form layout with other FormComponents. The Slider, Textbox, and Number components are all FormComponents.
• BlockContext: Use this when you want to place other components “inside” your component. This enabled with MyComponent() as component: syntax.
• Component: Use this for all other cases.

  ✍️ Tip: If your component supports streaming output, inherit from the StreamingOutput class.

  ✍️ Tip: If you inherit from BlockContext, you also need to set the metaclass to be ComponentMeta. See example below.

from gradio.blocks import BlockContext
from gradio.component_meta import ComponentMeta




@document()
class Row(BlockContext, metaclass=ComponentMeta):
    pass

The methods you need to implement

When you inherit from any of these classes, the following methods must be implemented. Otherwise the Python interpreter will raise an error when you instantiate your component!

preprocess and postprocess

Explained in the Key Concepts guide. They handle the conversion from the data sent by the frontend to the format expected by the python function.

    def preprocess(self, x: Any) -> Any:
        """
        Convert from the web-friendly (typically JSON) value in the frontend to the format expected by the python function.
        """
        return x

    def postprocess(self, y):
        """
        Convert from the data returned by the python function to the web-friendly (typically JSON) value expected by the frontend.
        """
        return y

process_example

Takes in the original Python value and returns the modified value that should be displayed in the examples preview in the app. If not provided, the .postprocess() method is used instead. Let’s look at the following example from the SimpleDropdown component.

def process_example(self, input_data):
    return next((c[0] for c in self.choices if c[1] == input_data), None)

Since self.choices is a list of tuples corresponding to (display_name, value), this converts the value that a user provides to the display value (or if the value is not present in self.choices, it is converted to None).

api_info

A JSON-schema representation of the value that the preprocess expects. This powers api usage via the gradio clients. You do not need to implement this yourself if you components specifies a data_model. The data_model in the following section.

def api_info(self) -> dict[str, list[str]]:
    """
    A JSON-schema representation of the value that the `preprocess` expects and the `postprocess` returns.
    """
    pass

example_payload

An example payload for your component, e.g. something that can be passed into the .preprocess() method of your component. The example input is displayed in the View API page of a Gradio app that uses your custom component. Must be JSON-serializable. If your component expects a file, it is best to use a publicly accessible URL.

def example_payload(self) -> Any:
    """
    The example inputs for this component for API usage. Must be JSON-serializable.
    """
    pass

example_value

An example value for your component, e.g. something that can be passed into the .postprocess() method of your component. This is used as the example value in the default app that is created in custom component development.

def example_payload(self) -> Any:
    """
    The example inputs for this component for API usage. Must be JSON-serializable.
    """
    pass

flag

Write the component’s value to a format that can be stored in the csv or json file used for flagging. You do not need to implement this yourself if you components specifies a data_model. The data_model in the following section.

def flag(self, x: Any | GradioDataModel, flag_dir: str | Path = "") -> str:
    pass

read_from_flag

Convert from the format stored in the csv or json file used for flagging to the component’s python value. You do not need to implement this yourself if you components specifies a data_model. The data_model in the following section.

def read_from_flag(
    self,
    x: Any,
) -> GradioDataModel | Any:
    """
    Convert the data from the csv or jsonl file into the component state.
    """
    return x

The data_model

The data_model is how you define the expected data format your component’s value will be stored in the frontend. It specifies the data format your preprocess method expects and the format the postprocess method returns. It is not necessary to define a data_model for your component but it greatly simplifies the process of creating a custom component. If you define a custom component you only need to implement four methods - preprocess, postprocess, example_payload, and example_value!

You define a data_model by defining a pydantic model that inherits from either GradioModel or GradioRootModel.

This is best explained with an example. Let’s look at the core Video component, which stores the video data as a JSON object with two keys video and subtitles which point to separate files.

from gradio.data_classes import FileData, GradioModel

class VideoData(GradioModel):
    video: FileData
    subtitles: Optional[FileData] = None

class Video(Component):
    data_model = VideoData

By adding these four lines of code, your component automatically implements the methods needed for API usage, the flagging methods, and example caching methods! It also has the added benefit of self-documenting your code. Anyone who reads your component code will know exactly the data it expects.

✍️ Tip: If your component expects files to be uploaded from the frontend, your must use the FileData model! It will be explained in the following section.

✍️ Tip: Read the pydantic docs here.

The difference between a GradioModel and a GradioRootModel is that the RootModel will not serialize the data to a dictionary. For example, the Names model will serialize the data to {'names': ['freddy', 'pete']} whereas the NamesRoot model will serialize it to ['freddy', 'pete'].

from typing import List

class Names(GradioModel):
    names: List[str]

class NamesRoot(GradioRootModel):
    root: List[str]

Even if your component does not expect a “complex” JSON data structure it can be beneficial to define a GradioRootModel so that you don’t have to worry about implementing the API and flagging methods.

✍️ Tip: Use classes from the Python typing library to type your models. e.g. List instead of list.

Handling Files

If your component expects uploaded files as input, or returns saved files to the frontend, you MUST use the FileData to type the files in your data_model.

When you use the FileData:

• Gradio knows that it should allow serving this file to the frontend. Gradio automatically blocks requests to serve arbitrary files in the computer running the server.

• Gradio will automatically place the file in a cache so that duplicate copies of the file don’t get saved.

• The client libraries will automatically know that they should upload input files prior to sending the request. They will also automatically download files.

If you do not use the FileData, your component will not work as expected!

Adding Event Triggers To Your Component

The events triggers for your component are defined in the EVENTS class attribute. This is a list that contains the string names of the events. Adding an event to this list will automatically add a method with that same name to your component!

You can import the Events enum from gradio.events to access commonly used events in the core gradio components.

For example, the following code will define text_submit, file_upload and change methods in the MyComponent class.

from gradio.events import Events
from gradio.components import FormComponent

class MyComponent(FormComponent):

    EVENTS = [
        "text_submit",
        "file_upload",
        Events.change
    ]

✍️ Tip: Don't forget to also handle these events in the JavaScript code!

Conclusion