gmaher / flask-react-be

Back-end boilerplate for React on Flask

Flask React Back-end

Requirements

• Python 2.7.X
• pip
• virtualenv
• PostgreSQL

Intallation

1. Install virtualenv if not already installed:

$ pip install virtualenv

2. Download and install PostgreSQL.

3. Create a new user and new database for this app:

$ createuser -s flask-react-be

$ createdb -O flask-react-be flask-react-be

4. Clone this repo:

$ git clone https://github.com/whittlbc/flask-react-be && cd flask-react-be

5. Add a new .env file with the following contents and make sure they're activated:

export ENV="dev"
export DATABASE_URL="postgresql://flask-react:flask-react@localhost/flask-react?user=flask-react"

6. Create a new virtual environment and activate it:

$ virtualenv venv && source venv/bin/activate

7. Install requirements:

$ pip install -r requirements.txt

Usage

Interacting with the DB

To initialize the database for your project, run the following:

$ python manage.py db init

Whenever you make changes to your src/models.py file, you will want to apply them to your database. Doing this requires 2 steps: (1) generating migration files; and (2) applying those migrations to the database. These 2 steps can be done with the following commands, respectively:

$ python manage.py db migrate

$ python manage.py db upgrade

Starting the app

$ python app.py

Procfile

This exists for use with Heroku.

Database Models

You can find these in src/models.py.

Interacting with the Database

Look at src/dbi.py, which provides great helper methods for talking to Postgres.

API Routes

All API routes exist inside src/routes/, with routes separated into different files, each corresponding to a different database model.

Currently, src/routes/user.py exists as an example of how to go about handling user-related requests.

Note: New route files won't take effect unless from mynewfile import * is added to the bottom of src/routes/__init__.py.

SSL & LetsEncrypt

A letsencrypt.py route file is already included to help speed up the certificate registration process for LetsEncrypt. To make that endpoint available, do the following:

1. Add from letsencrypt import * to the bottom of src/routes/__init__.py.
2. Add LETSENCRYPT_ROUTE_KEY and LETSENCRYPT_RESPONSE_KEY as environment variables. Their values should be provided to you during the certificate request process.

For more info on setting up SSL, a full description can be found in the front-end repo for this boilerplate.

License

MIT