Ax: Import AxClient fails if SQLAlchemy not installed

[casassg]

Importing AxClient fails if environment doesn't have SQLAlchemy installed. Not sure if this the intended behaviour as it seems that SQLAlchemy is an optional dependency.

Easy to fix for me, as I was planning to use SQLAlchemy to store state either way, but just wanted to make sure this was properly notified 😄

Python version: 3.7.4
Ax version: 0.1.6
Logs:

>>> from ax.service.ax_client import AxClient
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
  File "/Users/temp/.local/share/virtualenvs/local_ipynb-rHeTa3va/lib/python3.7/site-packages/ax/service/ax_client.py", line 36, in <module>
    from ax.service.utils.storage import (
  File "/Users/temp/.local/share/virtualenvs/local_ipynb-rHeTa3va/lib/python3.7/site-packages/ax/service/utils/storage.py", line 8, in <module>
    from ax.storage.sqa_store.db import init_engine_and_session_factory
  File "/Users/temp/.local/share/virtualenvs/local_ipynb-rHeTa3va/lib/python3.7/site-packages/ax/storage/sqa_store/__init__.py", line 6, in <module>
    from ax.storage.sqa_store import validation
  File "/Users/temp/.local/share/virtualenvs/local_ipynb-rHeTa3va/lib/python3.7/site-packages/ax/storage/sqa_store/validation.py", line 6, in <module>
    from ax.storage.sqa_store.db import SQABase
  File "/Users/temp/.local/share/virtualenvs/local_ipynb-rHeTa3va/lib/python3.7/site-packages/ax/storage/sqa_store/db.py", line 14, in <module>
    from sqlalchemy import create_engine, inspect
ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'sqlalchemy'

[lena-kashtelyan]

This is a bug; thank you so much for bringing it to our attention!

[casassg]

Is there any approximate timeframe for this to be released?

[lena-kashtelyan]

@casassg, this issue should be fixed on master (check https://github.com/facebook/Ax#latest-version for installation instructions) –– would you like to try it? Please let me know if you run into any more issues!

[casassg]

Works nicely now, thanks! 👍

Is there any public doc on release schedule though? I may wait until the next version is released to Pypi and just push the version number then.

[lena-kashtelyan]

@casassg, we don't actually have a release schedule per se; I'll see if we can cut a release by next week though : )

[casassg]

Is there any update on the release? SQLAlchemy is currently blocking us due to a dependency issue we have.

Per https://github.com/facebook/Ax/pull/216#issuecomment-561285577 I guess the travis fix is going first?

[lena-kashtelyan]

Commented on #216; will aim to cut a new version by Friday (maybe sooner)! Apologies for the delays, it's been a busy time and we wanted to include a couple significant bug fixes in the new cut.

[lena-kashtelyan]

The import bug fix is now part of the latest stable version, 0.1.8!