Display data streamed from a Flask view as it updates

You can stream data in a response, but you can’t dynamically update a template the way you describe. The template is rendered once on the server side, then sent to the client.

One solution is to use JavaScript to read the streamed response and output the data on the client side. Use XMLHttpRequest to make a request to the endpoint that will stream the data. Then periodically read from the stream until it’s done.

This introduces complexity, but allows updating the page directly and gives complete control over what the output looks like. The following example demonstrates that by displaying both the current value and the log of all values.

This example assumes a very simple message format: a single line of data, followed by a newline. This can be as complex as needed, as long as there’s a way to identify each message. For example, each loop could return a JSON object which the client decodes.

from math import sqrt
from time import sleep
from flask import Flask, render_template

app = Flask(__name__)

@app.route("/")
def index():
    return render_template("index.html")

@app.route("/stream")
def stream():
    def generate():
        for i in range(500):
            yield "{}\n".format(sqrt(i))
            sleep(1)

    return app.response_class(generate(), mimetype="text/plain")

<p>This is the latest output: <span id="latest"></span></p>
<p>This is all the output:</p>
<ul id="output"></ul>
<script>
    var latest = document.getElementById('latest');
    var output = document.getElementById('output');

    var xhr = new XMLHttpRequest();
    xhr.open('GET', '{{ url_for('stream') }}');
    xhr.send();
    var position = 0;

    function handleNewData() {
        // the response text include the entire response so far
        // split the messages, then take the messages that haven't been handled yet
        // position tracks how many messages have been handled
        // messages end with a newline, so split will always show one extra empty message at the end
        var messages = xhr.responseText.split('\n');
        messages.slice(position, -1).forEach(function(value) {
            latest.textContent = value;  // update the latest value in place
            // build and append a new item to a list to log all output
            var item = document.createElement('li');
            item.textContent = value;
            output.appendChild(item);
        });
        position = messages.length - 1;
    }

    var timer;
    timer = setInterval(function() {
        // check the response for new data
        handleNewData();
        // stop checking once the response has ended
        if (xhr.readyState == XMLHttpRequest.DONE) {
            clearInterval(timer);
            latest.textContent="Done";
        }
    }, 1000);
</script>

---

An <iframe> can be used to display streamed HTML output, but it has some downsides. The frame is a separate document, which increases resource usage. Since it’s only displaying the streamed data, it might not be easy to style it like the rest of the page. It can only append data, so long output will render below the visible scroll area. It can’t modify other parts of the page in response to each event.

index.html renders the page with a frame pointed at the stream endpoint. The frame has fairly small default dimensions, so you may want to to style it further. Use render_template_string, which knows to escape variables, to render the HTML for each item (or use render_template with a more complex template file). An initial line can be yielded to load CSS in the frame first.

from flask import render_template_string, stream_with_context

@app.route("/stream")
def stream():
    @stream_with_context
    def generate():
        yield render_template_string('<link rel=stylesheet href="{{ url_for("static", filename="stream.css") }}">')

        for i in range(500):
            yield render_template_string("<p>{{ i }}: {{ s }}</p>\n", i=i, s=sqrt(i))
            sleep(1)

    return app.response_class(generate())

<p>This is all the output:</p>
<iframe src="{{ url_for("stream") }}"></iframe>