Getting Started with Flask in Windows 10

Creating Virtual Environment

This article assumes you are on windows 10 and using Python 3.10 from the Microsoft Store

Begin in the terminal typing the following.

python3 -m venv app

This should have created a folder called "app" with a virtual environment. VSCode will ask you if you want to activate the environment. If you are unable to activate the environment then type the following depneding on your terminal environment.

If Powershell, first change directory in the terminal to use the app folder (or whatver your project is called)

cd app

then activate

Scripts\Activate.ps1

If command prompt (CMD), first change directory in the terminal to use the app folder (or whatver your project is called)

cd app

then activate

Scripts/activate.bat

Be sure to copy and create a .gitignore file for your directory to not commit unnecessary files

Installing Flask

After the environment has been activated install Flask

pip install Flask

Reminder, once all project dependancies have been installed to save your dependancies in a requirements.txt file.

pip freeze > requirements.txt

Be sure to update the file if you install additional dependencies

Testing if Flask Works

create a flaskr folder inside app. Then create a __init__.py file.

Inside this file copy the following code

import os

from flask import Flask


def create_app(test_config=None):
    # create and configure the app
    app = Flask(__name__, instance_relative_config=True)
    app.config.from_mapping(
        SECRET_KEY='dev',
        DATABASE=os.path.join(app.instance_path, 'flaskr.sqlite'),
    )

    if test_config is None:
        # load the instance config, if it exists, when not testing
        app.config.from_pyfile('config.py', silent=True)
    else:
        # load the test config if passed in
        app.config.from_mapping(test_config)

    # ensure the instance folder exists
    try:
        os.makedirs(app.instance_path)
    except OSError:
        pass

    # a simple page that says hello
    @app.route('/')
    def hello():
        return 'Hello, World!'

    return app

Once you've copied the code then run the following command in terminal. Once again ensuring your environment is activated. Replace flaskr with whatever you named your flask application folder

 flask --app flaskr --debug run

You should see the following

 * Serving Flask app 'flaskr'
 * Debug mode: on
WARNING: This is a development server. Do not use it in a production deployment. Use a production WSGI server instead.
 * Running on http://127.0.0.1:5000
Press CTRL+C to quit
 * Restarting with stat
 * Debugger is active!
 * Debugger PIN: 353-076-785

If you do, ctrl click the web address or copy the address into your browser. You should see a webpage that says hello world. You are now ready for the next step.

Adding HTML and CSS With Bootstrap

Inside flaskr lets create a templates folder to house our HMTL and a static folder for our CSS. Inside templates let's create an index.html for our homepage.

<!doctype html>
<html lang="en">
  <head>
    <!-- Required meta tags -->
    <meta charset="utf-8">
    <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1">

    <!-- Bootstrap CSS -->
    <link href="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/bootstrap@5.1.3/dist/css/bootstrap.min.css" rel="stylesheet" integrity="sha384-1BmE4kWBq78iYhFldvKuhfTAU6auU8tT94WrHftjDbrCEXSU1oBoqyl2QvZ6jIW3" crossorigin="anonymous">

    <title>Hello, world!</title>
  </head>
  <body>
    <h1>Hello, world!</h1>
    <div class="card" style="width: 18rem;">
        <img src="..." class="card-img-top" alt="...">
        <div class="card-body">
          <h5 class="card-title">Card title</h5>
          <p class="card-text">Some quick example text to build on the card title and make up the bulk of the card's content.</p>
          <a href="#" class="btn btn-primary">Go somewhere</a>
        </div>
      </div>
    <!-- Optional JavaScript; choose one of the two! -->

    <!-- Option 1: Bootstrap Bundle with Popper -->
    <script src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/bootstrap@5.1.3/dist/js/bootstrap.bundle.min.js" integrity="sha384-ka7Sk0Gln4gmtz2MlQnikT1wXgYsOg+OMhuP+IlRH9sENBO0LRn5q+8nbTov4+1p" crossorigin="anonymous"></script>

   
    -->
  </body>
</html>

Finally let's update our init.py file to serve up this HTML. Amend the top import statement to include render templates and update the home function to serve the file.

from flask import Flask, render_template

@app.route("/")
    def home():
        return render_template('index.html')

Your home page should now include some styled bootstrapped card. Now let's play around with Bootstrap and Python to create a homepage for our site.

Git Ignore

Create a .gitignore with the following code

# Created by https://www.toptal.com/developers/gitignore/api/flask
# Edit at https://www.toptal.com/developers/gitignore?templates=flask

### Flask ###
instance/*
!instance/.gitignore
.webassets-cache
.env

### Flask.Python Stack ###
# Byte-compiled / optimized / DLL files
__pycache__/
*.py[cod]
*$py.class

# C extensions
*.so

# Distribution / packaging
.Python
build/
develop-eggs/
dist/
downloads/
eggs/
.eggs/
lib/
lib64/
parts/
sdist/
var/
wheels/
share/python-wheels/
*.egg-info/
.installed.cfg
*.egg
MANIFEST

# PyInstaller
#  Usually these files are written by a python script from a template
#  before PyInstaller builds the exe, so as to inject date/other infos into it.
*.manifest
*.spec

# Installer logs
pip-log.txt
pip-delete-this-directory.txt

# Unit test / coverage reports
htmlcov/
.tox/
.nox/
.coverage
.coverage.*
.cache
nosetests.xml
coverage.xml
*.cover
*.py,cover
.hypothesis/
.pytest_cache/
cover/

# Translations
*.mo
*.pot

# Django stuff:
*.log
local_settings.py
db.sqlite3
db.sqlite3-journal

# Flask stuff:
instance/

# Scrapy stuff:
.scrapy

# Sphinx documentation
docs/_build/

# PyBuilder
.pybuilder/
target/

# Jupyter Notebook
.ipynb_checkpoints

# IPython
profile_default/
ipython_config.py

# pyenv
#   For a library or package, you might want to ignore these files since the code is
#   intended to run in multiple environments; otherwise, check them in:
# .python-version

# pipenv
#   According to pypa/pipenv#598, it is recommended to include Pipfile.lock in version control.
#   However, in case of collaboration, if having platform-specific dependencies or dependencies
#   having no cross-platform support, pipenv may install dependencies that don't work, or not
#   install all needed dependencies.
#Pipfile.lock

# poetry
#   Similar to Pipfile.lock, it is generally recommended to include poetry.lock in version control.
#   This is especially recommended for binary packages to ensure reproducibility, and is more
#   commonly ignored for libraries.
#   https://python-poetry.org/docs/basic-usage/#commit-your-poetrylock-file-to-version-control
#poetry.lock

# pdm
#   Similar to Pipfile.lock, it is generally recommended to include pdm.lock in version control.
#pdm.lock
#   pdm stores project-wide configurations in .pdm.toml, but it is recommended to not include it
#   in version control.
#   https://pdm.fming.dev/#use-with-ide
.pdm.toml

# PEP 582; used by e.g. github.com/David-OConnor/pyflow and github.com/pdm-project/pdm
__pypackages__/

# Celery stuff
celerybeat-schedule
celerybeat.pid

# SageMath parsed files
*.sage.py

# Environments
.venv
env/
venv/
ENV/
env.bak/
venv.bak/

# Spyder project settings
.spyderproject
.spyproject

# Rope project settings
.ropeproject

# mkdocs documentation
/site

# mypy
.mypy_cache/
.dmypy.json
dmypy.json

# Pyre type checker
.pyre/

# pytype static type analyzer
.pytype/

# Cython debug symbols
cython_debug/

# PyCharm
#  JetBrains specific template is maintained in a separate JetBrains.gitignore that can
#  be found at https://github.com/github/gitignore/blob/main/Global/JetBrains.gitignore
#  and can be added to the global gitignore or merged into this file.  For a more nuclear
#  option (not recommended) you can uncomment the following to ignore the entire idea folder.
#.idea/

# End of https://www.toptal.com/developers/gitignore/api/flask