Flask on App Engine Project Template (Deprecated)
IMPORTANT: This project is deprecated (primarily due to Python 2 end-of-life as of 1 Jan 2020)
and has been supplanted by the following, which supports Flask in Python 3
on Google App Engine's second-generation runtimes...
https://github.com/kamalgill/cloud-starterkit-flask-appengine
Boilerplate project template for running a Flask-based application on
Google App Engine's Standard Python 2.7 Runtime
Similar boilerplate projects are listed below:
App Engine Flexible Environment
This project does not currently support deployments on the App Engine Flexible environment,
although it could potentially work on App Engine Flexible with some modifications.
See the official Quickstart for Python in the App Engine Flexible Environment
if you are looking to deploy Python 2.7 and 3.x applications on App Engine
About Flask
Flask is a BSD-licensed microframework for Python based on
Werkzeug, Jinja2 and good intentions.
See http://flask.pocoo.org for more info.
Setup/Configuration
- Download this repository via
git clone https://github.com/kamalgill/flask-appengine-template.git
or download the tarball at
http://github.com/kamalgill/flask-appengine-template/tarball/master - Copy the src/ folder to your application's root folder
- Set the application id in
src/app.yaml - Configure datastore models at
src/application/models.py - Configure application views at
src/application/views/ - Configure URL routes at
src/application/urls.py - Configure forms at
src/application/forms.py - Add the secret keys for CSRF protection by running the
generate_keys.py
script atsrc/application/generate_keys.py, which will generate the
secret keys module at src/application/secret_keys.py
Note: Copy the .gitignore file from the tarball folder's root to your git
repository root to keep the secret_keys module out of version control.
Or, add the following to your .(git, hg, bzr)ignore file
Install python dependencies
The local dev environment requires installation of Jinja2, PIL, and simplejson,
which can be installed via:
Front-end Customization
- Customize the main HTML template at
src/application/templates/base.html - Customize CSS styles at
src/application/static/css/main.css - Add custom JavaScript code at
src/application/static/js/main.js - Customize favicon at
src/application/static/img/favicon.ico - Customize 404 page at
src/application/templates/404.html
Previewing the Application
To preview the application using App Engine's development server,
use dev_appserver.py
Assuming the latest App Engine SDK is installed, the test environment is
available at http://localhost:8080
Admin Console
The admin console is viewable at http://localhost:8000 (note distinct port from dev app server)
Flask-Cache
The handy Flask-Cache extension is included, pre-configured for App Engine's Memcache API.
Use the "Flush Cache" button at http://localhost:8000/memcache to clear the cache.
Testing
Place all your tests in src/tests directory. Test runner is placed in src directory. To run your tests simply go to src directory and do:
Path to your local google app engine installation must be provided as first argument to the script. If the path is long and you don't like to type it each time you run the tests you can also hardcode it in apptest.py, just edit the variable SDK_PATH and set it to your google app engine folder.
Before running tests set evironment variable FLASK_CONF to the value TEST.
In Linux this is done by:
In Powershell:
Remember to restart Powershell. Change of environment variable will take place after restarting Powershell.
You can specify your testing configuration (e.g. separate database for tests results) in src/application/settings.py.
To switch back to development configuration just set FLASK_CONF to DEV.
Deploying the Application
To deploy the application to App Engine, use appcfg.py update
The application should be visible at http://{YOURAPPID}.appspot.com
Folder structure
The App Engine app's root folder is located at src/.
The application code is located at src/application.
Licenses
See licenses/ folder
Package Versions
- Blinker: 1.4
- Bootstrap: 3.0.0
- Click: 6.7
- Flask: 0.12.2
- Flask-Cache 0.13.1
- Flask-DebugToolbar: 0.10.1
- Flask-WTF: 0.14.2
- FontAwesome: 3.0
- itsdangerous: 0.24
- Jinja2: 2.6 (included in GAE)
- jQuery: 3.2.1 (set in base.html)
- Modernizr: 2.6.2
- Werkzeug: 0.12.2
- WTForms: 2.1
Credits
Project template layout was heavily inspired by Francisco Souza's
gaeseries Flask project
Incorporates Flask-DebugToolbar by Matt Good et. al.
and Flask-Cache by Thadeus Burgess
Layout, form, table, and button styles provided by Bootstrap
Font Awesome by Dave Gandy
HTML5 detection provided by Modernizr 2 (configured with all features)