spicy/session-management-flask-app

Flask Session Management App

This is a Flask application demonstrating session management and user authentication.

Features

• User login with username validation
• Session management using Flask-Session
• Profile page with visit counter
• Logout functionality
• Error handling (404 and 500 pages)
• Configurable settings for different environments (development, production, testing)

Architecture

Here's a high-level overview of the application architecture:

Folder Structure

session-management-flask-app/
│
├── src/
│ ├── forms/                      # Directory for form-related files
│ │ └── login_form.py             # Defines the LoginForm class for user authentication
│ ├── routes/                     # Directory for route handlers
│ │ ├── auth_routes.py            # Handles authentication-related routes (login, logout)
│ │ └── user_routes.py            # Handles user-related routes (home, profile)
│ ├── static/                     # Directory for static files
│ │ └── style.css                 # Contains CSS styles for the application
│ ├── templates/                  # Directory for HTML templates
│ │ ├── 404.html                  # Template for 404 Not Found error page
│ │ ├── 500.html                  # Template for 500 Internal Server Error page
│ │ ├── base.html                 # Base template that other templates extend
│ │ ├── home.html                 # Template for the home page
│ │ ├── login.html                # Template for the login page
│ │ └── profile.html              # Template for the user profile page
│ ├── tests/                      # Directory for test files
│ │ ├── init.py                   # Makes tests a Python package
│ │ └── test_app.py               # Contains unit tests for the application
│ ├── utils/                      # Directory for utility functions
│ │ └── cookie_handler.py         # Provides functions for cookie management
│ ├── app.py                      # Main application file, sets up Flask app and configurations
│ └── config.py                   # Contains configuration classes for different environments
├── images/                       # Directory for image files used in README
├── .gitattributes                # Git attributes file
├── .gitignore                    # Git ignore file
├── LICENSE                       # MIT License file
├── README.md                     # This file
└── requirements.txt              # Lists project dependencies

Installation

1. Clone the repository:

   git clone https://github.com/spicy/session-management-flask-app.git
   cd session-management-flask-app

2. Create a virtual environment:

   python -m venv venv

3. Activate the virtual environment:

   • On Windows:

     venv\Scripts\activate

   • On macOS and Linux:

     source venv/bin/activate

4. Install dependencies:

   pip install -r requirements.txt

Configuration

The application uses different configuration classes for development, production, and testing environments. You can modify these in src/config.py.

To set the environment, use the FLASK_ENV environment variable:

• For development: set FLASK_ENV=development (Windows) or export FLASK_ENV=development (Unix)
• For production: set FLASK_ENV=production (Windows) or export FLASK_ENV=production (Unix)

Ensure that the SECRET_KEY is set in the environment variables.

• Example: set SECRET_KEY=your_secret_key (Windows) or export SECRET_KEY=your_secret_key (Unix)

Running the Application

1. Set the Flask application: set FLASK_APP=src/app.py (Windows) or export FLASK_APP=src/app.py (Unix)

2. Run the application:

   flask run

3. Open a web browser and navigate to http://127.0.0.1:5000

Usage

1. Navigate to the login page at http://127.0.0.1:5000/login
2. Enter a username in the format Firstname_Lastname (e.g., John_Doe)
3. After successful login, you'll be redirected to the home page
4. Click on "Profile" to view your profile and visit count
5. Use the "Logout" link to end your session

Testing

To run the tests:

1. Ensure you're in the project root directory

2. Run the following command:

   pytest src/tests

This will execute all the tests in the src/tests/ directory.

Security Features

• CSRF protection using Flask-WTF
• Secure session management with Flask-Session
• HTTP-only cookies
• Configurable secure cookies for HTTPS
• Input validation for username

Logging

The application logs errors and important events to logs/flask_app.log using a RotatingFileHandler. To view logs:

1. Check the logs/ directory in the project root
2. Open flask_app.log to view logged information

Images

Login Page

Profile Page

Profile Page with Visit Count

Profile Page after Logout

404 Error Page

Home Page

Contributing

1. Fork the repository
2. Create a new branch: git checkout -b feature-branch-name
3. Make your changes and commit them: git commit -m 'Add some feature'
4. Push to the branch: git push origin feature-branch-name
5. Create a pull request

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License. See the LICENSE file for details.