Flask-Bootstrap-Anywhere

This is a skeleton application written in python using Flask microframework. It comes with support for user registration, login, session management, password recovery, password reset and database connection. These features are achieved by Flask-Security-Too, which in turn achieves them by various flask extensions such as Flask-Login, Flask-WTF etc. Front-end styling is done using Bootstrap.

Motivation

In general, many web applications require some level of user-management. While Django can be suitable for big projects, for relatively small projects it might be an overkill. Further, Flask offers more flexibility. However, with Flask being a "microframework", we have to choose from a variety of plugins to build a working system.

This application fits together a handful of such commonly used plugins for commonly required tasks, and aims to save developers' effort.

Features

Back-end

• User Management
  • Registration
  • Login
  • Session Management
  • Password Recovery
  • Roles
• Database Support
  • MySQL
  • SQLite
  • MongoDB (incomplete)
• Mail
• Migrations (Powered by Flask-Migrate)
• Deployment
  • Support for Git-powered release on on PythonAnywhere

Front-end

• Bootstrap-powered clean front-end
• Elegant themes powered by https://bootswatch.com/
• Ability to change themes on the fly
• Sample Front-end Components (TODO)

Requirements

• For package requirements, check requirements.txt
• Mail functionality requires SMTP access.
• For PythonAnywhere deployment, an account on https://www.pythonanywhere.com/ is required.
  • PythonAnywhere free accounts do not support non-HTTP(S) ports, this results in MongoDB, `
• MySQL access required if MySQL is used as backend server.

Setup

Getting started with the basic application is straightforward.

• Install the requirements from the requirements.txt,

$ pip3 install -r requirements.txt

• Copy settings.sample.py to settings.py and update it as required.

Most of the settings can also be specified through environment variables. There are inline explanations in the settings file if the variables are not self-explanatory.

Run

Run the application using,

$ python server.py

OR

$ export FLASK_APP="server:webapp"
$ flask run

(Other WSGI-based deployments are also possible. e.g. gunicorn)

Database Support

By default, SQLite3 database will be used. To use MySQL, update credentials either through settings.py or through environment variables. In settings.py, set USE_SQLITE to False and USE_MYSQL to True.

Support for PostgreSQL, although not explicitly added, is easy to figure out. It can be achieved in a similar manner to MySQL support by installing the necessary driver and using the proper database_uri for SQLAlchemy.

MongoDB support may be added in the future, although it's not too difficult to figure it out.

Mail

If SMTP credentials are added, mail support will be enabled. This would enable password recovery by receiving a link for password reset, as well as a welcome mail after registration.

Contents of these emails can be modified by editing templates in tempaltes/security/email

PythonAnywhere Support

• Create a free account on https://www.pythonanywhere.com/
• Generate a token
• Clone your repository on the server
• Set-up your application by setting propery WSGI paths
• Once your application is running, for future updates, you can use "Update" and "Reload" buttons from Admin tab to update your application.
• For PythonAnywhere free accounts, only SMTP permitted is smtp.gmail.com.

Contribute

Aim of this project is to provide a basic skeleton for development of simple, beautiful and functional web applications.

Feel free to contribute towards that end by,

• Providing new features
• Improving current features
• Improving code quality
• Adding documentation

License

GNU GPL v3