Flask At Scale Tutorial at PyCon 2016
This repository contains the companion code to my PyCon 2016 "Flask At Scale"
class.
IMPORTANT NOTE: The initial commit in this repository has a version of
this application that has a few scalability problems discussed during class.
These problems are addressed in subsequent commits.
Installation
All the code and examples were tested on Python 3.5. Older versions of Python
including 2.7 will likely work as well.
As usual, create a virtual environment and install the requirements with pip.
pip install -r requirements.txt
Running
The application uses Flask-Script to simplify common tasks such as creating the
database and starting a development server. Right after you install the
application, you need to create a database for it with this command:
python manage.py createdb
After that, you can run the application with the following command:
python manage.py runserver
You can add --help to see what other start up options are available.
The second component is a message queue, which you need to run as a service. By
default, a Redis server running on localhost on the default port is assumed. If
you want to use a different message queue, or a different configuration for
Redis, then set the CELERY_BROKER_URL environment variable to the message
queue connection URL. See the Celery documentation for information on
connection URLs.
The final component of this application is the Celery workers, which must be
started after the message queue is running with the following command:
python manage.py celery
If you want to have more verbose output from the workers you can add
--loglevel=info to the command above.
Usage
That application allows multiple users to chat online. You can launch the
application on your browser by typing http://127.0.0.1:5000 on the address
bar.
Since authentication is not a topic in this class, I've decided to use a
simplified flow that combines the registration and login forms in one. If you
are a new user, enter your chosen nickname and password to register. If the
nickname was not seen before the server will register you. If you are a
returning user, provide your login in the same form. If the nickname is
registered then the password will be validated.
Once you are logged in you can type messages in the bottom text entry field,
and these messages will be seen by all other users. You can use simple
MarkDown formatting to add style to your messages. If you enter any links as
part of your message, these will be shown in expanded form below the message.