Elastic Beanstalk Example Deployment Application

This is an example application you can use to deploy on elastic beanstalk. This example app is built on the work of Sam Louden's Data Explorer.

Tech Stack

Backend

Flask: A python microframwork for backend web applications MySQL v8.*: Relational database

Frontend

Javascript, HTML, CSS and jQuery

Configuration

Environment Variables

BASIC_AUTH_USERNAME: The username for HTTP Basic Auth

BASIC_AUTH_PASSWORD: The password for HTTP Basic Auth

DB_HOST: The MySQL host server PROD ONLY

DB_USER: The MySQL user

DB_PASSWORD: The MySQL user's password

DB_DATABASE_NAME: The name of the MySQL Database

SECRET_KEY: The application secret key

GOOGLE_MAPS_API_KEY: As the name implies

Setting up the database

A CLI utility has been provided for convenience. You must first initialise the flask cli by providing the FLASK_APP environment variable

$ cd ./data_explorer
$ export FLASK_APP=.

To test if this works call the flask command

$ flask

The following output should appear

Usage: flask [OPTIONS] COMMAND [ARGS]...

  A general utility script for Flask applications.

  Provides commands from Flask, extensions, and the application. Loads the
  application defined in the FLASK_APP environment variable, or from a
  wsgi.py file. Setting the FLASK_ENV environment variable to 'development'
  will enable debug mode.

    $ export FLASK_APP=hello.py
    $ export FLASK_ENV=development
    $ flask run

Options:
  --version  Show the flask version
  --help     Show this message and exit.

Commands:
  init-db  Set up mysql database.
  routes   Show the routes for the app.
  run      Runs a development server.
  shell    Runs a shell in the app context.

Setting up your local development database

First set the needed environment variables DB_USER and DB_PASSWORD

$ export DB_USER=user
$ export DB_PASSWORD=password

Then call the CLI command with the --local switch

flask init-db --local

The following output should appear

Creating table 1 of 5: comments
Creating table 2 of 5: lsr_last_year
Creating table 3 of 5: lsr_this_year
Creating table 4 of 5: product_info
Creating table 5 of 5: ratings

Setting up production database

Do the same steps as local except also export the DB_HOST environment variable and drop the --local switch from the command

Starting the application

The production and development switch is located in the data_explorer/config.py folder

Set DEBUG = True for development and DEBUG = False for production

class Config:
    # DEBUG=True (Dev) DEBUG=False (Prod)
    DEBUG = False
    LOCAL_DB = False
    LAST_YEAR = '2018-19'
    THIS_YEAR = '2019-20'
    BABEL_DEFAULT_LOCALE = 'en'
    # Options for flask.jsonify
    JSON_AS_ASCII = False
    JSONIFY_PRETTYPRINT_REGULAR = True
    JSON_SORT_KEYS = False
    # Load strings from environ vars to avoid storing in plaintext
    BASIC_AUTH_USERNAME = os.environ.get("BASIC_AUTH_USERNAME")
    BASIC_AUTH_PASSWORD = os.environ.get("BASIC_AUTH_PASSWORD")
    SECRET_KEY = os.environ.get('SECRET_KEY')
    GOOGLE_MAPS_API_KEY = os.environ.get('GOOGLE_MAPS_API_KEY')

Then call in the root folder

$ python application.py

You should see

 * Serving Flask app "data_explorer" (lazy loading)
 * Environment: production
   WARNING: Do not use the development server in a production environment.
   Use a production WSGI server instead.
 * Debug mode: off
 * Running on http://127.0.0.1:5000/ (Press CTRL+C to quit)

DIS-SIN/Elastic-Beanstalk-Example-Application