CS235Flix Web Application

Description

A Web application that demonstrates use of Python's Flask framework. The application makes use of libraries such as the Jinja templating library and WTForms. Architectural design patterns and principles including Repository, Dependency Inversion and Single Responsibility have been used to design the application. The application uses Flask Blueprints to maintain a separation of concerns between application functions. Testing includes unit and end-to-end testing using the pytest tool.

Cloning the Repository

Do the following instructions using Git Bash shell:

• Go to your desired location/folder on your computer, for example:

$ cd Documents/CompsciPart2/Compsci235/A2

• Clone the GitHub repository:

$ git init
$ git clone https://github.com/NeoXB/CS235Flix.git

For the next set of instructions, please switch to and use the Command Prompt window!

Installation

Installation via requirements.txt

Go to the location/folder that you chose before, which now contains the CS235Flix directory (i.e. the directory that has the movie_app\ and tests\ directories plus other files), and access the CS235Flix directory. For example:

C:\Users\neoxb> cd Documents\CompsciPart2\Compsci235\A2\CS235Flix

Then, perform the following:

C:\Users\neoxb\Documents\CompsciPart2\Compsci235\A2\CS235Flix> py -3 -m venv venv
C:\Users\neoxb\Documents\CompsciPart2\Compsci235\A2\CS235Flix> venv\Scripts\activate
C:\Users\neoxb\Documents\CompsciPart2\Compsci235\A2\CS235Flix> pip install -r requirements.txt

Execution

Running the application

From the CS235Flix directory, and within the activated virtual environment (see venv\Scripts\activate above):

C:\Users\neoxb\Documents\CompsciPart2\Compsci235\A2\CS235Flix> flask run

Configuration

The CS235Flix/.env file contains variable settings. They are set with appropriate values.

• FLASK_APP: Entry point of the application (should always be wsgi.py).
• FLASK_ENV: The environment in which to run the application (either development or production).
• SECRET_KEY: Secret key used to encrypt session data.
• TESTING: Set to False for running the application. Overridden and set to True automatically when testing the application.
• WTF_CSRF_SECRET_KEY: Secret key used by the WTForm library.

Testing

Testing requires that file CS235Flix/tests/conftest.py be edited to set the value of TEST_DATA_PATH. You should set this to the absolute path of the CS235Flix/tests/data directory.

E.g.

TEST_DATA_PATH = os.path.join('C:', os.sep, 'Users', 'neoxb', 'Documents', 'CompsciPart2', 'Compsci235', 'A2', 'CS235Flix', 'tests', 'data')

assigns TEST_DATA_PATH with the following value (the use of os.path.join and os.sep ensures use of the correct platform path separator):

C:\Users\neoxb\Documents\CompsciPart2\Compsci235\A2\CS235Flix\tests\data

You can then run tests from within PyCharm.

Running the tests via the Command Prompt window

From the CS235Flix directory, and within the activated virtual environment (see venv\Scripts\activate in the Installation guide):

C:\Users\neoxb\Documents\CompsciPart2\Compsci235\A2\CS235Flix> python -m pytest

Note

If when you encounter any Module Not Found errors, you may need to set PYTHONPATH before running or testing. If required, PYTHONPATH should be set to the full path of the directory that contains \movie_app and \tests (i.e. CS235Flix), for example:

C:\Users\neoxb\Documents\CompsciPart2\Compsci235\A2\CS235Flix> set PYTHONPATH=C:\Users\neoxb\Documents\CompsciPart2\Compsci235\A2\CS235Flix