Following along here - https://blog.miguelgrinberg.com/post/the-flask-mega-tutorial-part-ii-templates
Install python 3 in Windows:
choco install python3 -y
Initialize your virtual env directory:
python -m venv venv
NOTE: any version of Python older than 3.4 (and that includes the 2.7 release), virtual environments are not supported natively.
Activate your brand new virtual environment (windows)
venv\Scripts\activate
BOOM you're working with a virtual python directory. Let's setup what we need for flask.
Install flask:
pip install flask
python -m pip install --upgrade pip
In Python, a sub-directory that includes a init.py file is considered a package, and can be imported. When you import a package, the init.py executes and defines what symbols the package exposes to the outside world.
So to run your flask_app you need to usually set environment variables like this:
set FLASK_APP=microblog.py
Then you can run your app handy dandy - http://127.0.0.1:5000/
flask run
BUT We want to automatically use these environment variables.
This can be done but using this library:
pip install python-dotenv
Then you can just write the environment variable name and value in a .flaskenv file in the top-level directory of the project
Templates help achieve separation between presentation and business logic.
In Flask, templates are written as separate files, stored in a templates folder that is inside the application package.
The render_template() function invokes the Jinja2 template engine that comes bundled with the Flask framework. Jinja2 substitutes {{ ... }} blocks with the corresponding values, given by the arguments provided in the render_template() call.
conditional statements - Jinja2 templates support control statements inside {% ... %} blocks.
Jinja2 has a template inheritance feature that specifically addresses this problem. In essence, what you can do is move the parts of the page layout that are common to all templates to a base template, from which all other templates are derived.
Define a base template called base.html that includes a simple navigation bar and also the title logic I implemented earlier.
block - is a control statement to define the place where the derived templates can insert themselves. Blocks are given a unique name, which derived templates can reference when they provide their content.
Flask-WTF is a thin wrapper around the WTForms package that nicely integrates it with Flask.
To install it run:
pip install flask-wtf