tayler / micro-flask-sqlalchemy

A simple Flask + SQLAlchemy setup

#Yet Another Flask Boilerplate Repo.

###About

Flask is a micro framework, and this is a micro Flask setup.

The repo. contains just enough to get a new Flask + SQLAlchemy app off the ground. No Bootstrap, etc. It's like micro flask but not quite as micro.

I'm new to Flask and Python, and I wanted a decent starting point for new Flask apps, something where I understood all the moving parts.

The app structure setup is mostly from the Package structure in Explore Flask, but some stuff was filled in from the Flask tutorial at Real Python.

The SQLAlchemy setup is a synthesis from a number of sources (thanks to to them for writing all of this down):
- http://flask.pocoo.org/docs/patterns/sqlalchemy/
- https://pythonhosted.org/Flask-SQLAlchemy/quickstart.html
- http://www.realpython.com/blog/python/flask-by-example-part-2-postgres-sqlalchemy-and-alembic/
- http://exploreflask.com/storing.html
It is setup in the declarative style, so some tutorials will be different than what you see here.

###Project Structure

├── README.md
├── config.py (configuration that is not environment specific. Config values set in instance/config.py override those set in this config.py)
├── instance/ (config. that should not be in version control, e.g., sensitive creds. and/or environment specific variables like `DEBUG`)
│   └── config.py
├── requirements.txt
├── run.py (used only in development. Test site with `python run.py`. You need to modify the `import` statement around line 5 to match the name of the package)
└── yourappname/ (change to the name of your app)
    ├── __init__.py
    ├── forms.py
    ├── models.py
    ├── static/
    │	├── img
    │   ├── js
    │   │   ├── main.js
    │   │   └── vendors/
    │   └── style
    │       └── main.css
    ├── templates/
    │   ├── home.html (very, very basic home page template)
    │   └── layout.html (very basic layout file)
    └── views.py

See Explore Flask for more setup possibilities.

###Flask Setup

1. Clone this repo
2. Change package name directory (currently yourappname) to the name of your app
3. Repeat for the import statement in run.py, in models.py, and in the init_db function in database.py
4. Setup virtualenv for this directory & activate (because I always forget, virtualenvwrapper command is mkvirtualenv <env-name>)
5. Create an instance/ dir containing a config.py file in the root directory
6. pip install -r requirements.txt

####SQLAlchemy Setup

1. Change database URI in config.py where SQLALCHEMY_DATABASE_URI is declared (see http://docs.sqlalchemy.org/en/rel_0_9/core/engines.html for possibilities)
2. Define your models in yourappname/models.py
3. Get your database tables set up (With Postgresql, I found out you have to set up your database before you can init_db(). Other DB engines might be different.):
4. Create db in psql (or elsewhere): CREATE DATABASE projproj;
5. Run these commands in root of project dir to create tables based on your models:
   a. python
   b. from yourappname.database import init_db
   c. init_db() (this should create the tables defined in the models. The models are imported in init_db() in database.py)
6. Check that SQLAlchemy created your tables (can use psql or some other tool; in psql, the command to see the tables is \c yourappdatabase \dt)
7. python run.py
8. Navigate to 127.0.0.1:5000 in your browser to test it out