Deploying a Flask API and PostgreSQL database on Render

README.md

Deploying a Flask API and PostgreSQL database on Render

Checklist

Deploying a Flask App with Render - https://render.com/docs/deploy-flask

Explain what it means to deploy an application Observe how to configure an application for deployment Observe how to deploy an application to render

Steps for deploying Sign up for Render https://dashboard.render.com/register Connect your GitHub account. Install PostgreSQL (You can skip this step if postgres is installed PostgreSQL Window sudo apt update sudo apt install postgresql postgresql-contrib libpq-dev psql --version sudo service postgresql start Create a database user, check what your operating system user name is whoami sudo -u postgres -i createuser -sr your_user_name_here PostgreSQL Mac brew install postgresql brew services start postgresql

Create a Database on Render (skip this portion if you already have a Postgres instance on Render) On the dashboard click New + and select PostgresSQL Name the database something generic like postgres_instance or my_database Set the PostgreSQL version to 15 (for me it was 14 CHECK!!!) Scroll to the bottom and click Create Database Create a flask app Useful libraries: python-dotenv gunicorn psycopg2-binary Flask-SQLAlchemy Flask-Migrate SQLAlchemy-Serializer Flask-RESTful In app add import os and from dotenv import load_dotenv set app.config['SQLALCHEMY_DATABASE_URI'] os.environ.get('DATABASE_URI') Create a .evn file Note: https://github.com/motdotla/dotenv Dot env will allow you to set environment variables. Create a file requirements file that will be used by Render with pipenv requirements > requirements.txt At this point, create at least one model and one route to test your Flask Web API.

Start to build out the React Client with at least one component that a request to the test route you built for your backend. Note: Your React app and server should be in the same directory. The root directory structure should look like this. |- client |- server |- .env |- .gitignore |- Pipfile |- Pipfile.lock |_ requirements.tx

Configure your client by creating a static react app. In your client’s package.json add a proxy server "proxy": "http://localhost:5555", Remove http://localhost:5555/ from any of your fetch requests but keep the endpoint. For example: A GET all to productions should only be passed the end point ‘/productions as the url.

In the root directory of your app run npm install --prefix client Run npm run build --prefix client Note: You’ll notice there’s a new build folder in the client folder. This is your static app

Configure your Client routes. Our web API will interfere with our routes from react-router, so we must handle them on our server. In app.py add: app = Flask( name, static_url_path='', static_folder='../client/build', template_folder='../client/build' ) @app.route('/') @app.route('/productions/int:id') @app.route('/productions/int:id/edit') @app.route('/productions/new') def index(id=0): return render_template("index.html") Create a local environment variable that connects to your render db. On your Dabases page on Render, click the ‘Connect’ select the External Connections tab, and copy the “External Database URL” In the .env file, create an environment variable ‘DATABASE_URI’ and set it to the external database URL. IMPORTANT: replace postgres with postgresql Migrate your database Migrate your database flask db init flask db revision --autogenerate -m ‘Create tables’ flask db upgrade Test your app locally to make sure it works by running gunicorn --chdir server app:app Push to GitHub Create a repo on github Connect your local project to github. git remote add origin git@github.com:<your-github-name>/your-repo-name.git git add . git commit -m ‘my first commit’ git push origin mainCreate the Web Service on Render On the Render dashboard clickNew +and select Web Service. Connect your repo by selecting it from ‘connect a repository’ or passing render the repository’s URL Name your application Change the “Build Command” to pip install -r requirements.txt && npm install --prefix client && npm run build --prefix client`

Change the “Start Command” to gunicorn --chdir server app:app Scroll down and click Advance Add Environment Variable PYTHON_VERSION as 3.8.13 Add Environment Variable DATABASE_URI`` In a new tab open your Postgres instance on Render. Click “Connect” and copy the Internal Database Url Past that url as the value for DATABASE_URL` IMPORTANT: In the url replace postgres with postgresql Create your webserver and get a snack!!!