Flask Api Starter Kit

This starter kit is designed to allow you to create very fast your Flask API.

The primary goal of this project is to remain as unopinionated as possible. Its purpose is not to dictate your project structure or to demonstrate a complete sample application, but to provide a set of tools intended to make back-end development robust, easy, and, most importantly, fun.

This starter kit comes with a tutorial. Check it out if you want a quick tutorial on how to use Flask with this architecure.

Table of Contents

1. Dependencies
2. Getting Started
3. Commands
4. Database
5. Application Structure
6. Development
7. Testing
8. Lint
9. Format
10. Swagger

Dependencies

You will need docker and docker-compose.

Getting Started

First, clone the project:

$ git clone https://github.com/antkahn/flask-api-starter-kit.git <my-project-name>
$ cd <my-project-name>

Then install dependencies and check that it works

$ make server.install      # Install the pip dependencies on the docker container
$ make server.start        # Run the container containing your local python server

If everything works, you should see the available routes here.

The API runs locally on docker containers. You can easily change the python version you are willing to use here, by fetching a docker image of the python version you want.

Commands

You can display availables make commands using make.

While developing, you will probably rely mostly on make server.start; however, there are additional scripts at your disposal:

make <script>	Description
help	Display availables make commands
server.install	Install the pip dependencies on the server's container.
server.start	Run your local server in its own docker container.
server.daemon	Run your local server in its own docker container as a daemon.
server.upgrade	Upgrade pip packages interactively.
database.connect	Connect to your docker database.
database.migrate	Generate a database migration file using alembic, based on your model files.
database.upgrade	Run the migrations until your database is up to date.
database.downgrade	Downgrade your database by one migration.
test	Run unit tests with pytest in its own container.
test.coverage	Run test coverage using pytest-cov.
test.lint	Run flake8 on the src and test directories.
test.safety	Run safety to check if your vendors have security issues.
format.black	Format python files using Black.
format.isort	Order python imports using isort.

Database

The database is in PostgreSql.

Locally, you can connect to your database using :

$ make database.connect

However, you will need before using this command to change the docker database container's name here.

This kit contains a built in database versioning using alembic. Once you've changed your models, which should reflect your database's state, you can generate the migration, then upgrade or downgrade your database as you want. See Commands for more information.

The migration will be generated by the container, it may possible that you can only edit it via sudo or by running chown on the generated file.

Application Structure

The application structure presented in this boilerplate is grouped primarily by file type. Please note, however, that this structure is only meant to serve as a guide, it is by no means prescriptive.

.
├── devops                   # Project devops configuration settings
│   └── deploy               # Environment-specific configuration files for shipit
├── migrations               # Database's migrations settings
│   └── versions             # Database's migrations versions generated by alembic
├── src                      # Application source code
│   ├── models               # Python classes modeling the database
│   │   ├── abc.py           # Abstract base class model
│   │   └── user.py          # Definition of the user model
│   ├── repositories         # Python classes allowing you to interact with your models
│   │   └── user.py          # Methods to easily handle user models
│   ├── resources            # Python classes containing the HTTP verbs of your routes
│   │   └── user.py          # Rest verbs related to the user routes
│   ├── routes               # Routes definitions and links to their associated resources
│   │   ├── __init__.py      # Contains every blueprint of your API
│   │   └── user.py          # The blueprint related to the user
│   ├── swagger              # Resources documentation
│   │   └── user             # Documentation of the user resource
│   │       └── GET.yml      # Documentation of the GET method on the user resource
│   ├── util                 # Some helpfull, non-business Python functions for your project
│   │   └── parse_params.py  # Wrapper for the resources to easily handle parameters
│   ├── config.py            # Project configuration settings
│   ├── manage.py            # Project commands
│   └── server.py            # Server configuration
└── test                     # Unit tests source code

Development

To develop locally, here are your two options:

$ make server.start           # Create the containers containing your python server in your terminal
$ make server.daemon          # Create the containers containing your python server as a daemon

The containers will reload by themselves as your source code is changed. You can check the logs in the ./server.log file.

Testing

To add a unit test, simply create a test_*.py file anywhere in ./test/, prefix your test classes with Test and your testing methods with test_. Unittest will run them automaticaly. You can add objects in your database that will only be used in your tests, see example. You can run your tests in their own container with the command:

$ make test

Lint

To lint your code using flake8, just run in your terminal:

$ make test.lint

It will run the flake8 commands on your project in your server container, and display any lint error you may have in your code.

Format

The code is formatted using Black and Isort. You have the following commands to your disposal:

$ make format.black # Apply Black on every file
$ make format.isort # Apply Isort on every file

Swagger

Your API needs a description of it's routes and how to interact with them. You can easily do that with the swagger package included in the starter kit. Simply add a docstring to the resources of your API like in the user example. The API description will be available here. The Swagger UI will be available here.