A Flask API backend built to support the shopper React application.
This API was developed with Python 3.12.3. To avoid any version errors ensure yours is also on this release or above by using python3 --version. If you are comfortable working on an older version you can go ahead and see all requirements, and their version, in ./requirements.txt.
Once you have ensured your Python install is ready to use, create a virtual environment within the project directory, ./, by running
python3 -m venv venv
Always ensure you are working with the virtual environment. We can now install all the dependencies using pip. You will need to make sure you have pip install using python3 -m pip --version. If you don't have pip installed you can find more information here on how to install.
Now we are ready to install and run the API. Activate the virtual environment by running source venv/bin/activate. Once inside the virtual environment run python3 -m pip install -r requirements.txt to install all dependencies.
Important
Make sure you are in the virtual environment. Otherwise the pip command will install the dependencies to your user account rather than just the virtual environment.
Once all the dependencies are installed you need to configure the envionrment variables. Create the file ./config/.env. The following configuration variables need to be set
ACCESS_TOKEN_DURATION=15
REFRESH_TOKEN_DURATION=7
APIFAIRY_TITLE=Shopper API
APIFAIRY_VERSION=1.0
APIFAIRY_UI=elements
SQLALCHEMY_DATABASE_URI=sqlite:///shopper.db
SECRET_KEY='my secret key'
These are just default/dummy values I have included here. You are welcome to choose what you please.
Caution
If you ever deploy this application make sure the SECRET_KEY is set to something secure. This can be done with the UUID Python module or another method of your preference.
Finally, create the file ./.flaskenv and set
FLASK_APP=shopper.py
I have included all the database migration files (generated with
Flask-Migrate) in ./migrations/. To initialise the database run
flask db upgrade. This will create the sqlite database ./instance/shopper.db.
Now use flask run to start the application. It will run, by default, on localhost:5000. You can optionally, change the port by using the FLASK_RUN_PORT=<port> variable in ./.flaskenv. Documentation can be found at localhost:<port>/.
The API uses several Python/Flask packages. I have listed as many as I can remember here but for a complete list see ./requirements.txt
- APIFairy
- Flask-CORS
- flask-HTTPAuth
- Flask-Marshmallow
- Flask-Migrate
- Flask-SQLAlchemy
- Marshmallow
- PyJWT
- SQLAlchemy
- Werkzeug
Apologies if I have left someones' work out.