User-Defined Functions (UDF) explained¶

While openEO supports a wide range of pre-defined processes and allows to build more complex user-defined processes from them, you sometimes need operations or algorithms that are not (yet) available or standardized as openEO process. User-Defined Functions (UDF) is an openEO feature (through the run_udf process) that aims to fill that gap by allowing a user to express (a part of) an algorithm as a Python/R/… script to be run back-end side.

There are a lot of details to cover, but here is a rudimentary example snippet to give you a quick impression of how to work with UDFs using the openEO Python Client library:

Basic UDF usage example snippet to rescale pixel values¶

# Build a UDF object from an inline string with Python source code.
udf = openeo.UDF("""
from openeo.udf import XarrayDataCube

def apply_datacube(cube: XarrayDataCube, context: dict) -> XarrayDataCube:
    array = cube.get_array()
    array.values = 0.0001 * array.values
    return cube
""")

# Apply the UDF to a cube.
rescaled_cube = cube.apply(process=udf)

Ideally, it allows you to embed existing Python/R/… implementations in an openEO workflow (with some necessary “glue code”). However, it is recommended to try to do as much pre- or postprocessing with pre-defined processes before blindly copy-pasting source code snippets as UDFs. Pre-defined processes are typically well-optimized by the backend, while UDFs can come with a performance penalty and higher development/debug/maintenance costs.

Warning

Don not confuse user-defined functions (abbreviated as UDF) with user-defined processes (sometimes abbreviated as UDP) in openEO, which is a way to define and use your own process graphs as reusable building blocks. See User-Defined Processes for more information.

Applicability and Constraints¶

openEO is designed to work transparently on large data sets and your UDF has to follow a couple of guidelines to make that possible. First of all, as data cubes play a central role in openEO, your UDF should accept and return correct data cube structures, with proper dimensions, dimension labels, etc. Moreover, the back-end will typically divide your input data cube in smaller chunks and process these chunks separately (e.g. on isolated workers). Consequently, it’s important that your UDF algorithm operates correctly in such a chunked processing context.

UDFs as apply/reduce “callbacks”¶

UDFs are typically used as “callback” processes for “meta” processes like apply or reduce_dimension (also see Processes with child “callbacks”). These meta-processes make abstraction of a datacube as a whole and allow the callback to focus on a small slice of data or a single dimension. Their nature instructs the backend how the data should be processed and can be chunked:

apply: Applies a process on each pixel separately. The back-end has all freedom to choose chunking (e.g. chunk spatially and temporally). Dimensions and their labels are fully preserved. See A first example: apply with an UDF to rescale pixel values
apply_dimension: Applies a process to all pixels along a given dimension to produce a new series of values for that dimension. The back-end will not split your data on that dimension. For example, when working along the time dimension, your UDF is guaranteed to receive a full timeseries, but the data could be chunked spatially. All dimensions and labels are preserved, except for the dimension along which apply_dimension is applied: the number of dimension labels is allowed to change.
reduce_dimension: Applies a process to all pixels along a given dimension to produce a single value, eliminating that dimension. Like with apply_dimension, the back-end will not split your data on that dimension. The dimension along which apply_dimension is applied must be removed from the output. For example, when applying reduce_dimension on a spatiotemporal cube along the time dimension, the UDF is guaranteed to receive full timeseries (but the data could be chunked spatially) and the output cube should only be a spatial cube, without a temporal dimension
apply_neighborhood: Applies a process to a neighborhood of pixels in a sliding-window fashion with (optional) overlap. Data chunking in this case is explicitly controlled by the user. Dimensions and number of labels are fully preserved.

UDF function names and signatures¶

The UDF code you pass to the back-end is basically a Python script that contains one or more functions. Exactly one of these functions should have a proper UDF signature, as defined in the openeo.udf.udf_signatures module, so that the back-end knows what the entrypoint function is of your UDF implementation.

Module `openeo.udf.udf_signatures`¶

This module defines a number of function signatures that can be implemented by UDF’s. Both the name of the function and the argument types are/can be used by the backend to validate if the provided UDF is compatible with the calling context of the process graph in which it is used.

openeo.udf.udf_signatures.apply_datacube(cube, context)[source]¶

Map a XarrayDataCube to another XarrayDataCube.

Depending on the context in which this function is used, the XarrayDataCube dimensions have to be retained or can be chained. For instance, in the context of a reducing operation along a dimension, that dimension will have to be reduced to a single value. In the context of a 1 to 1 mapping operation, all dimensions have to be retained.

Parameters:

cube (XarrayDataCube) – input data cube
context (dict) – A dictionary containing user context.

Return type:

XarrayDataCube

Returns:

output data cube

openeo.udf.udf_signatures.apply_timeseries(series, context)[source]¶

Process a timeseries of values, without changing the time instants.

This can for instance be used for smoothing or gap-filling.

Parameters:

series (Series) – A Pandas Series object with a date-time index.
context (dict) – A dictionary containing user context.

Return type:

Series

Returns:

A Pandas Series object with the same datetime index.

openeo.udf.udf_signatures.apply_udf_data(data)[source]¶

Generic UDF function that directly manipulates a UdfData object

Parameters:: data (UdfData) – UdfData object to manipulate in-place

A first example: `apply` with an UDF to rescale pixel values¶

In most of the examples here, we will start from an initial Sentinel2 data cube like this:

s2_cube = connection.load_collection(
    "SENTINEL2_L2A",
    spatial_extent={"west": 4.00, "south": 51.04, "east": 4.10, "north": 51.1},
    temporal_extent=["2022-03-01", "2022-03-31"],
    bands=["B02", "B03", "B04"]
)

The raw values in this initial s2_cube data cube are digital numbers (integer values ranging from 0 to several thousands) and to get physical reflectance values (float values, typically in the range between 0 and 0.5), we have to rescale them. This is a simple local transformation, without any interaction between pixels, which is the modus operandi of the apply processes.

Note

In practice it will be a lot easier and more efficient to do this kind of rescaling with pre-defined openEO math processes, for example: s2_cube.apply(lambda x: 0.0001 * x). This is just a very simple illustration to get started with UDFs.

UDF script¶

The UDF code is this short script (the part that does the actual value rescaling is highlighted):

udf-code.py¶

from openeo.udf import XarrayDataCube

def apply_datacube(cube: XarrayDataCube, context: dict) -> XarrayDataCube:
    array = cube.get_array()
    array.values = 0.0001 * array.values
    return cube

Some details about this UDF script:

line 1: We import XarrayDataCube to use as type annotation of the UDF function.
line 3: We define a function named apply_datacube, which receives and returns a XarrayDataCube instance. We follow here the apply_datacube() UDF function signature.
line 4: cube (a XarrayDataCube object) is a thin wrapper around the data of the chunk we are currently processing. We use get_array() to get this data, which is an xarray.DataArray object.
line 5: Because our scaling operation is so simple, we can transform the xarray.DataArray values in-place.
line 6: Consequently, because the values were updated in-place, we don’t have to build a new XarrayDataCube object and can just return the (in-place updated) cube object again.

Workflow script¶

In this first example, we’ll cite a full, standalone openEO workflow script, including creating the back-end connection, loading the initial data cube and downloading the result. The UDF-specific part is highlighted.

Warning

This implementation depends on openeo.UDF improvements that were introduced in version 0.13.0 of the openeo Python Client Library. If you are currently stuck with working with an older version, check openeo.UDF API and usage changes in version 0.13.0 for more information on the difference with the old API.

UDF usage example snippet¶

import openeo

# Create connection to openEO back-end
connection = openeo.connect("...").authenticate_oidc()

# Load initial data cube.
s2_cube = connection.load_collection(
    "SENTINEL2_L2A",
    spatial_extent={"west": 4.00, "south": 51.04, "east": 4.10, "north": 51.1},
    temporal_extent=["2022-03-01", "2022-03-31"],
    bands=["B02", "B03", "B04"]
)

# Create a UDF object from inline source code.
udf = openeo.UDF("""
from openeo.udf import XarrayDataCube

def apply_datacube(cube: XarrayDataCube, context: dict) -> XarrayDataCube:
    array = cube.get_array()
    array.values = 0.0001 * array.values
    return cube
""")

# Pass UDF object as child process to `apply`.
rescaled = s2_cube.apply(process=udf)

rescaled.download("apply-udf-scaling.nc")

In line 15, we build an openeo.UDF object from an inline string with the UDF source code. This openeo.UDF object encapsulates various aspects that are necessary to create a run_udf node in the process graph, and we can pass it directly in line 25 as the process argument to DataCube.apply().

Tip

Instead of putting your UDF code in an inline string like in the example, it’s often a good idea to load the UDF code from a separate file, which is easier to maintain in your preferred editor or IDE. You can do that directly with the openeo.UDF.from_file method:

udf = openeo.UDF.from_file("udf-code.py")

After downloading the result, we can inspect the band values locally. Note see that they fall mainly in a range from 0 to 1 (in most cases even below 0.2), instead of the original digital number range (thousands):

Illustration of data chunking in `apply` with a UDF¶

TODO

Example: `apply_dimension` with a UDF¶

TODO

Example: `reduce_dimension` with a UDF¶

TODO

Example: `apply_neighborhood` with a UDF¶

TODO

Example: Smoothing timeseries with a user defined function (UDF)¶

In this example, we start from the evi_cube that was created in the previous example, and want to apply a temporal smoothing on it. More specifically, we want to use the “Savitzky Golay” smoother that is available in the SciPy Python library.

To ensure that openEO understand your function, it needs to follow some rules, the UDF specification. This is an example that follows those rules:

Example UDF code smooth_savitzky_golay.py¶

import xarray
from scipy.signal import savgol_filter

from openeo.udf import XarrayDataCube


def apply_datacube(cube: XarrayDataCube, context: dict) -> XarrayDataCube:
    """
    Apply Savitzky-Golay smoothing to a timeseries datacube.
    This UDF preserves dimensionality, and assumes an input
    datacube with a temporal dimension 't' as input.
    """
    array: xarray.DataArray = cube.get_array()
    filled = array.interpolate_na(dim='t')
    smoothed_array = savgol_filter(filled.values, 5, 2, axis=0)
    return XarrayDataCube(
        array=xarray.DataArray(smoothed_array, dims=array.dims, coords=array.coords)
    )

The method signature of the UDF is very important, because the back-end will use it to detect the type of UDF. This particular example accepts a DataCube object as input and also returns a DataCube object. The type annotations and method name are actually used to detect how to invoke the UDF, so make sure they remain unchanged.

Once the UDF is defined in a separate file, we load it and apply it along a dimension:

smoothing_udf = openeo.UDF.from_file('smooth_savitzky_golay.py')
smoothed_evi = evi_cube_masked.apply_dimension(smoothing_udf, dimension="t")

Downloading a datacube and executing an UDF locally¶

Sometimes it is advantageous to run a UDF on the client machine (for example when developing/testing that UDF). This is possible by using the convenience function openeo.udf.run_code.execute_local_udf(). The steps to run a UDF (like the code from smooth_savitzky_golay.py above) are as follows:

Run the processes (or process graph) preceding the UDF and download the result in ‘NetCDF’ or ‘JSON’ format.
Run openeo.udf.run_code.execute_local_udf() on the data file.

For example:

from pathlib import Path
from openeo.udf import execute_local_udf

my_process = connection.load_collection(...

my_process.download('test_input.nc', format='NetCDF')

smoothing_udf = Path('smooth_savitzky_golay.py').read_text()
execute_local_udf(smoothing_udf, 'test_input.nc', fmt='netcdf')

Note: this algorithm’s primary purpose is to aid client side development of UDFs using small datasets. It is not designed for large jobs.

Profile a process server-side¶

Warning

Experimental feature - This feature only works on back-ends running the Geotrellis implementation, and has not yet been adopted in the openEO API.

Sometimes users want to ‘profile’ their UDF on the back-end. While it’s recommended to first profile it offline, in the same manner as you can debug UDF’s, back-ends may support profiling directly. Note that this will only generate statistics over the python part of the execution, therefore it is only suitable for profiling UDFs.

Usage¶

Only batch jobs are supported! In order to turn on profiling, set ‘profile’ to ‘true’ in job options:

job_options={'profile':'true'}
... # prepare the process
process.execute_batch('result.tif',job_options=job_options)

When the process has finished, it will also download a file called ‘profile_dumps.tar.gz’:

rdd_-1.pstats is the profile data of the python driver,
the rest are the profiling results of the individual rdd id-s (that can be correlated with the execution using the SPARK UI).

Viewing profiling information¶

The simplest way is to visualize the results with a graphical visualization tool called kcachegrind. In order to do that, install kcachegrind packages (most linux distributions have it installed by default) and it’s python connector pyprof2calltree. From command line run:

pyprof2calltree rdd_<INTERESTING_RDD_ID>.pstats.

Another way is to use the builtin pstats functionality from within python:

import pstats
p = pstats.Stats('restats')
p.print_stats()

Example¶

An example code can be found here .

Logging from the UDFs¶

In some cases, you may want to log information from your user defined function, for instance to provide debug information or to log warnings. You can use the inspect logging function to achieve this.

For example, in the previous example of rescaling an RGB image(from SENTINEL2_L2A), suppose you want to keep a log of array shape encountered within a UDF:

# Create a UDF object from inline source code.
udf = openeo.UDF("""
from openeo.udf import XarrayDataCube
from openeo.udf.debug import inspect

def apply_datacube(cube: XarrayDataCube, context: dict) -> XarrayDataCube:
    array = cube.get_array()
    inspect(data=[array.shape], message="UDF logging shape of my array")
    array.values = 0.0001 * array.values
    return cube
""")

If you are using Jupyter Notebook, you can see the log entries using logs as shown in the image:

Please note that this nice rendering only happens in Jupyter Notebook, while in plain python you will get a dict.

Thus, an array of shape 3x256x256 was logged in on which rescaling was performed. [Please note that at this moment, this method is experimental and does not support all data types in data argument of inspect]

`openeo.UDF` API and usage changes in version 0.13.0¶

Prior to version 0.13.0 of the openEO Python Client Library, loading and working with UDFs was a bit inconsistent and cumbersome.

The old openeo.UDF() required an explicit runtime argument, which was usually "Python". In the new openeo.UDF, the runtime argument is optional, and it will be auto-detected (from the source code or file extension) when not given.
The old openeo.UDF() required an explicit data argument, and figuring out the correct value (e.g. something like {"from_parameter": "x"}) required good knowledge of the openEO API and processes. With the new openeo.UDF it is not necessary anymore to provide the data argument. In fact, while the data argument is only still there for compatibility reasons, it is unused and it will be removed in a future version. A deprecation warning will be triggered when data is given a value.
DataCube.apply_dimension() has direct UDF support through code and runtime arguments, preceding the more generic and standard process argument, while comparable methods like DataCube.apply() or DataCube.reduce_dimension() only support a process argument with no dedicated arguments for UDFs.

The goal is to improve uniformity across all these methods and use a generic process argument everywhere (that also supports a openeo.UDF object for UDF use cases). For now, the code, runtime and version arguments are still present in DataCube.apply_dimension() as before, but usage is deprecated.

Simple example to sum it up:
```
udf_code = """
...
def apply_datacube(cube, ...
"""

# Legacy `apply_dimension` usage: still works for now,
# but it will trigger a deprecation warning.
cube.apply_dimension(code=udf_code, runtime="Python", dimension="t")

# New, preferred approach with a standard `process` argument.
udf = openeo.UDF(udf_code)
cube.apply_dimension(process=udf, dimension="t")

# Unchanged: usage of other apply/reduce/... methods
cube.apply(process=udf)
cube.reduce_dimension(reducer=udf, dimension="t")
```

User-Defined Functions (UDF) explained¶

Applicability and Constraints¶

UDFs as apply/reduce “callbacks”¶

UDF function names and signatures¶

Module `openeo.udf.udf_signatures`¶

A first example: `apply` with an UDF to rescale pixel values¶

UDF script¶

Workflow script¶

Illustration of data chunking in `apply` with a UDF¶

Example: `apply_dimension` with a UDF¶

Example: `reduce_dimension` with a UDF¶

Example: `apply_neighborhood` with a UDF¶

Example: Smoothing timeseries with a user defined function (UDF)¶

Downloading a datacube and executing an UDF locally¶

Profile a process server-side¶

Usage¶

Viewing profiling information¶

Example¶

Logging from the UDFs¶

`openeo.UDF` API and usage changes in version 0.13.0¶

openEO Python Client

Table of Contents

Related Topics

Meta

User-Defined Functions (UDF) explained¶

Applicability and Constraints¶

UDFs as apply/reduce “callbacks”¶

UDF function names and signatures¶

Module openeo.udf.udf_signatures¶

A first example: apply with an UDF to rescale pixel values¶

UDF script¶

Workflow script¶

Illustration of data chunking in apply with a UDF¶

Example: apply_dimension with a UDF¶

Example: reduce_dimension with a UDF¶

Example: apply_neighborhood with a UDF¶

Example: Smoothing timeseries with a user defined function (UDF)¶

Downloading a datacube and executing an UDF locally¶

Profile a process server-side¶

Usage¶

Viewing profiling information¶

Example¶

Logging from the UDFs¶

openeo.UDF API and usage changes in version 0.13.0¶

Module `openeo.udf.udf_signatures`¶

A first example: `apply` with an UDF to rescale pixel values¶

Illustration of data chunking in `apply` with a UDF¶

Example: `apply_dimension` with a UDF¶

Example: `reduce_dimension` with a UDF¶

Example: `apply_neighborhood` with a UDF¶

`openeo.UDF` API and usage changes in version 0.13.0¶