In order to ensure that the appropriate software is available, an environment should be created on your machine. For this exercise it is highly recommended that the environment should either be created with Continuum Analytics Miniconda, or via a virtual environment. If you have experience with anaconda this is the encouraged environment.
- Download the miniconda distribution from the above link. For this exercise choose the Python 2.7 installation for your platform.
- Install the distribution in the way that is appropriate for your platform.
- Install the necessary modules
Note that if you already have Miniconda/Anaconda installed on your machine this can be done by creating an environment and then activating it, ie:
conda create -n new_env python=2.7
. activate new_envThe following modules/packages should be installed:
- flask
To ensure consistency these modules should be installed via conda, ie:
conda install flaskYou are free to install other tools and modules that you commonly use, but the above are necessary for the completion of the project.
Note: If there are multiple versions of python on your system, ensure that the environment is configured so that this version will be used (by setting $PATH, etc.).
The environment can also be created with virtualenv. The procedure would be something similar to:
virtualenv my_env
. my_env/bin/activate
pip install flaskIn addition to a python environment, curl should also be installed for interacting with the software that will be developed. On most Linux distributions (and in MacOS) it is installed by default.
There is a skeleton webservice in this directory that can be used to verify that the environment is working:
export FLASK_APP=webapp.py
flask runVisiting http://localhost:5000 (either with a web browser or CURL) should display a "hello world" message if the environment is configured correctly:
[vagrant@geostellar2 ~]$ curl http://localhost:5000
Hello World
[vagrant@geostellar2 ~]$