Flask React Project

This is the starter for the Flask React project.

Getting started

Dev Containers (M1 Users, follow this guide)

  1. Make sure you have the Microsoft Remote - Containers extension installed.

  2. Make sure you have Docker installed on your computer.

  3. Clone the repository (only this branch)

    git clone https://github.com/appacademy-starters/python-project-starter.git
  4. Open the repo in VS Code.

  5. Click "Open in Container" when VS Code prompts to open container in the bottom right hand corner.

  6. Be Patient! The initial install will take a LONG time, it's building a container that has postgres preconfigured and even installing all your project dependencies. (For both flask and react!)

    Note: This will take much less time on future starts because everything will be cached.

  7. Once everything is up, be sure to make a .env file based on .env.example in both the root directory and the react-app directory before running your app.

  8. Get into your pipenv, migrate your database, seed your database, and run your flask app

    pipenv shell
    flask db upgrade
    flask seed all
    flask run
  9. To run the React App in development, checkout the README inside the react-app directory.


Standard (Traditional)

  1. Clone this repository (only this branch)

    git clone https://github.com/appacademy-starters/python-project-starter.git
  2. Install dependencies

    pipenv install --dev -r dev-requirements.txt && pipenv install -r requirements.txt
  3. Create a .env file based on the example with proper settings for your development environment

  4. Setup your PostgreSQL user, password and database and make sure it matches your .env file

  5. Get into your pipenv, migrate your database, seed your database, and run your flask app

    pipenv shell
    flask db upgrade
    flask seed all
    flask run
  6. To run the React App in development, checkout the README inside the react-app directory.


IMPORTANT! psycopg2-binary MUST remain a dev dependency because you can't install it on apline-linux. There is a layer in the Dockerfile that will install psycopg2 (not binary) for us.


Helpful commands

Command Purpose
pipenv shell Open your terminal in the virtual environment and be able to run flask commands without a prefix
pipenv run Run a command from the context of the virtual environment without actually entering into it. You can use this as a prefix for flask commands
flask db upgrade Check in with the database and run any needed migrations
flask db downgrade Check in with the database and revert any needed migrations
flask seed all Just a helpful syntax to run queries against the db to seed data. See the app/seeds folder for reference and more details
heroku login -i Authenticate your heroku-cli using the command line. Drop the -i to authenticate via the browser
heroku authorizations:create Once authenticated, use this to generate an Oauth token
heroku run -a <app name> Run a command from within the deployed container on Heroku

Deploy to Heroku

Abstract

This repo comes configured with Github Actions. When you push to your main branch, Github will automatically pull your code, package and push it to Heroku, and then release the new image and run db migrations.

Writing your Dockerfile

In order for the Github action to work effectively, it must have a configured docker file. In order to effectively deploy your site you need to code out the notes found in this docker file

Configuring Production Environment Variables

  1. In your Heroku app settings you should have two environment variables set.

    Key Value
    DATABASE_URL Autogenerated when adding postgres to Heroku app
    SECRET_KEY Random string full of entropy
  2. In your Github Actions Secrets you should have two environment variables set. You can find this webpage at the following address: github.com/userID/repoName/settings/secrets/actions

    Key Value
    HEROKU_API_KEY Heroku Oauth Token
    HEROKU_APP_NAME Heroku app name
  3. To get an Oauth token for Heroku, run the following command in your terminal already authenticated to the Heroku CLI and pull out the string on the Token key.

    heroku authorizations:create