JWT Authentication & DB templates in Flask

This repository contains source code template(s) for running micro webserver with both public and protected routes.

Authentication mechanism is JWT and webserver framework is Flask.

Please note:
Some of the provided strategies are to basic/simple for serious, production level webserver.
Use this template as starting point for more complex projects and requirements.

ENJOY !!

JWT based

JSON Web Tokens - or JWT in short - is the foundation authentication principle used in this template.
Be sure not to forget to encode/decode token generation at your own strategy. Follow code comments for exact place where you could modify or customise this behaviour.

Separate Database layer

DB layer has been split into separate services folder. It provides basic Python wrappers for MySql and MongoDB engines.
In basic form, the code handles all authentication tokens in memory, making the data available only while the server is running. All registration data (as well as tokens) will disappear after the server shut down.
For more convenient mechanism, store your tokens in some form of persistent storage, or reuse them in different way.

Data handling services supported so far:

1. SharedStorage (trivial implementation of in-memory storage)
2. MySQL wrapper
3. MongoDB wrapper

Modularised

Template is designed to support modular structure. Following structure is used:

flowchart TB
main-module
    subgraph models
    subgraph services
    mongoDB
    mySql
    SharedStorage
    end
    subgraph modules
    auth
    protected
    end
    user
    end
main-module-->models
user-.->services
user-.->modules

NOTE: Main application modules are stored in modules folder. If you need more modules, you can place them inside - as long as they are connected to main-module. Customize your Flask bluperints further to support modularized approach you need.

Different authentication strategies

Presented here is basic HTTP AUTHENTICATION through Authentication field. Note there are way secure authentication mechanisms, such as OAuth.

CORS setup

For the sake of simplicity, CORS has been enabled completely. Server will accept all origins no matter where the request comes from. Check and/or modify @app.after_request directive to further customise desired behaviour (lines 25-28 in main-module.py).

Installation

Before you begin:

git clone
cd flask-auth-template

Then proceed with installing dependencies:

# Run prepacked script
$ . install-dependencies.sh

# install manually through pip3
$ pip3 install -r requirements.txt

# or
python3.8 -m pip instal -r requirements.txt

Starting server

Template will setup and start a server listening on localhost. Check the debug output for more information.

Start the server using:

python3 main-module.py
# or
# run using startup script
$ . start.sh

:NOTE: for MacOS users:
There might be a struggle with starting this project, due to known collision of Python2.xx and Python3.xx coexisting on same platform. The conflict might be manifested as good ol' "Module Import Error" no matter which Python you are using. To solve this, you might have to "fix" (play around with) your PYTHONPATH. Check out this article for more information.

Word of wisdom

If you ever get stuck remember that sudo is your friend. If it doesn't help, start thinking how one cold 🍺 can magically improve your understanding of the 🌎.

MIT License

Copyright © 2020 Veljko Tekelerović
PGP: 6302D860 B74CBD34 6482DBA2 518766D0 8213DBC0