Pets Back End Setup

Setup

Open your Terminal application and navigate to your ~/code/ga/lectures directory:

cd ~/code/ga/lectures

Make a new directory called flask-postgres-rest-api, then enter this directory:

mkdir flask-postgres-rest-api
cd flask-postgres-rest-api

Initialize a new virtual environment inside your project directory and install Flask and pythons postgres library:

pipenv install flask psycopg2 python-dotenv

This command will create a new Pipfile and Pipfile.lock in your project directory, specifying Flask as a dependency.

Activate the virtual environment:

pipenv shell

Add the following Flask app boilerplate to app.py:

# app.py

# Import the 'Flask' class from the 'flask' library.
from flask import Flask

# Initialize Flask
# We'll use the pre-defined global '__name__' variable to tell Flask where it is.
app = Flask(__name__)

# Define our route
# This syntax is using a Python decorator, which is essentially a 
# succinct way to wrap a function in another function.
@app.route('/')
def index():
  return "Hello, world!"

# Run our application, by default on port 5000
app.run()

Run the application from the terminal:

python app.py

In your browser, send a request to localhost:5000 to hit the index route.

Open the contents of the directory in VSCode:

code .

To deactivate the virtual environment when you’re done, simply type:

exit