Quick Start Automation

Every time I want to start a flask project I will create a directory strucutre and create files. Copy the quick start tempalate from Flask docs and then run the app. Too much work, right?

So I’ve automated it by adding a small script to my ~/.zshrc file. If you are using bash this will be ~/.bashrc for you

Add the following to your rc file

{% code title=”~/.bashrc or ~/.zshrc” %}

flaskapp() {
    mkdir $1
    cd $1  
    python3 -m venv venv
    source venv/bin/activate
    pip install flask
    touch hello.py
    
    // echo command starts here
    echo "
    from flask import Flask
    app = Flask(__name__)
    
    @app.route('/')
    def hello_world():
        return '<p>Hello, World!</p>'
    
    
    @app.route('/user/<username>')
    def show_user_profile(username):
        # show the user profile for that user
        return f'User {escape(username)}'
    
    @app.route('/post/<int:post_id>')
    def show_post(post_id):
        # show the post with the given id, the id is an integer
        return f'Post {post_id}'
    
    if __name__ == '__main__':
    	app.run(port=8000, debug=True)
    " > hello.py
    
    // echo command ends here
}

{% endcode %}

Run source ~/.zshrc or restart your terminal

Setup The App

Now everytime you need a new app all you have to do is go to your terminal and write

flaskpp

It will create a new directory
Create a virtualenv
Create a sample hello world file

Run the App

python hello.py

Test the API

Open the browser
Hit the following URLs

https://loaclhost:8000/
https://loaclhost:8000/post/10
https://loaclhost:8000/user/Tom