Flask Portfolio Starter

Runtime link: https://flask.nighthawkcodingsociety.com/

Quick way to get started

Quick steps with MacOS or WSL; this uses Nix for programmatic way to build tools and dependencies.

• Open a Terminal, install nix which requires admin password:

sh <(curl -L https://nixos.org/nix/install)

• Restart Terminal

• Install Python Package helper

nix-env -if https://github.com/DavHau/mach-nix/tarball/3.5.0 -A mach-nix

• Open a Terminal, cd to project area

mkdir ~/vscode; cd ~/vscode

git clone https://github.com/nighthawkcoders/flask_portfolio.git

cd flask_portfolio

• Build nix packages from requirements.txt

mach-nix env ./env -r requirements.txt

• End of nix shell setup, exit shell

exit

Run Server or run VSCode

• Run nix shell (virtual environment)

nix-shell ./env

• Run from Terminal without VSCode

  • Run python from command line and check server

  python main.py

• Prepare VSCode and run

  • From Terminal run VSCode

  code .

  • In VSCode open Terminal, verify Nix python

  which python

  • Open Setting: Ctl-Shift P or Cmd-Shift

    • Search Python: Select Interpreter
    • Match interpreter to which output above

  • Try Play button and try to Debug

Idea

The purpose of project is to serve API. It is the backend piece of a Full-Stack project. Review API folder for endpoints.

Visual thoughts

The Starter code should be fun and practical.

• Organize with Bootstrap menu
• Add some color and fun through VANTA Visuals (birds, halo, solar, net)
• Show some practical and fun links (hrefs) like Twitter, Git, Youtube
• Show project specific links (hrefs) per page

Implementation Summary

January 2023.

This project started backend server. Intentions are to add some Administrative UIs.

September 2021.

Basic UI elements were implemented showing server side Flask with Jinja 2 capabilities.

• Project entry point is main.py, this enables Flask Web App and provides capability to renders templates (HTML files)
• The main.py is the Web Server Gateway Interface, essentially it contains a HTTP route and HTML file relationship. The Python code constructs WSGI relationships for index, kangaroos, walruses, and hawkers.
• The project structure contains many directories and files. The template directory (containing html files) and static directory (containing js files) are common standards for HTML coding. Static files can be pictures and videos, in this project they are mostly javascript backgrounds.
• WSGI templates: index.html, kangaroos.html, ... are aligned with routes in main.py.
• Other templates support WSGI templates. The base.html template contains common Head, Style, Body, Script definitions. WSGI templates often "include" or "extend" these templates. This is a way to reuse code.
• The VANTA javascript statics (backgrounds) are shown and defaulted in base.html (birds), but are block replaced as needed in other templates (solar, net, ...)
• The Bootstrap Navbar code is in navbar.html. The base.html code includes navbar.html. The WSGI html files extend base.html files. This is a process of management and correlation to optimize code management. For instance, if the menu changes discovery of navbar.html is easy, one change reflects on all WSGI html files.
• Jinja2 variables usage is to isolate data and allow redefinitions of attributes in templates. Observe "{% set variable = %}" syntax for definition and "{{ variable }}" for reference.
• The base.html uses combination of Bootstrap grid styling and custom CSS styling. Grid styling in observe with the "" markers. A Bootstrap Grid has a width of 12, thus four "Col-3" markers could fit on a Grid row.
• A key purpose of this project is to embed links to other content. The "href=" definition embeds hyperlinks into the rendered HTML. The base.html file shows usage of "href={{github}}", the "{{github}}" is a Jinja2 variable. Jinja2 variables are pre-processed by Python, a variable swap with value, before being sent to the browser.