Flask App Starter Pack

This is a quick starter pack for a flask app, setup to run on Heroku.

Installation Instructions

1. Clone the repository
2. python3 -m venv ./venv
3. source ./venv/bin/activate
4. pip3 install -r requirements.txt
5. flask run to start the server

Overview of Routes

The src/routers/example_router.py file is an example router with a few routes set up.

1. GET /healthcheck automatically returns a successful response
2. GET /example will return back a JSON representation of the query parameters
3. POST /example will return back a JSON representation of the request body
4. GET /error will return a 500 error code (as an example)

Changing Routes

You can modify route method and name by editing the @app.route function. The first parameter is the route name and the second is its supported methods (e.g. GET, POST, PUT, DELETE).

The function immediately beneath a call to @app.route is the function that will be called when a request is sent to that route. If the route name supports multiple methods, you can determine which one was called with request.method. As shown in the example, you can get query parameters via request.args and you can get a request body via request.data. In the example, we convert the body into a Python dictionary using the json.loads function.

The format_success and format_error functions make it easy to send back specific payloads. If you want to send an error response, return a ternary with the second parameter being the response code. See the GET /error route for an example.

Adding Additional Routers

You can add additional routers by adding to the src/routers directory. Make sure to update src/routers/__init__.py to include a new line importing your router: from . import [name of your router file].

Deploying to Heroku

This starterpack is set up to run on Heroku. Create a new app on the Heroku Dashboard and add the heroku/python buildpack. Connect to your repository and you should be good to go!