deploying_python_web_app_to_heroku.md

Intro

Deploying Application is fun. But it has some of the issues to host when you want to deploy your app to a free service.

Heroku is one of the most popular PaaS( Platform as a Service) that provides a great support to host your application online.

Let's see how we can easily deploy a Simple Python Web Application (Flask) to Heroku.

How To Prepare Your Python Web Application for Heroku

---

Before you start to follow along this gist please download the heroku CLI

There are 3 main tasks to perform for a successful deployment.

• Registeting or Creating the App.
• Adding Necessary Files.
• Deployment on the Server.

0. Registering or Creating App on Heroku

1. Open terminal on the root of the project.
2. Run the following,

   heroku login

   This would prompt the browser for the user authentication. Complete that.
3. Now run,

   heroku create <your_desired_app_name>

   Your name you provided for the application must be available for the platform, and if it is available, this will create a git repo in heroku server and you will get a valid url of your application.

1. Adding Necessary Files

1. Prepare your Project. For the demo, we will be writing all out codes in serve.py file. Here is the code.

   # -*- coding: utf-8 -*-
   
   """
   author: S.M. Sabbir Amin
   date: 02 May 2020
   email: sabbir@rokomari.com, sabbiramin.cse11ruet@gmail.com
   
   """
   
   import os
   from flask import Flask, jsonify
   
   app = Flask(__name__)
   app.secret_key = 'nooneissafe'
   
   
   @app.route('/')
   def index():
       response = {
           "hello": "world"
       }
       return jsonify(response)
   
   
   if __name__ == '__main__':
       port = int(os.environ.get('PORT', 5000))
       app.run(
           host="0.0.0.0",
           port=port,
           debug=True
       )

2. Add a Procfile. In it, write what kind of application it is. Here,

   web: python serve.py

   This means that the applicaton is a Web type of Application and it will run by python interpreter. Python Interpreter will run serve.py file in this case for the incoming web request.

3. Add runtime.txt file and write only the runtime supported by Heroku. Here,

   python-3.6.10

4. Add requirements.txt file and add the external libraries or modules your need to run the Application. Use either pip or pipreqs to generate requirements.txt file.

   •   pipreqs <root_of_the_project_directory>

2. Deployment to Heroku Server.

1. Init Git in the root of the porject directory, unless it is not done already.

   git init
   

2. Add the Changes.

   git add .
   

3. Commit the changes, made.

   git commit -m "<your Message Here>"
   

4. You can push directly to the master branch of the Heroku Repo. If you chose other branch than master, it would deny to build the application. There is workaround.

   git push -f heroku <branch_name>:master
   

   This would push your non master branch to the master branch of heroku and continue to build.

   If you choose to push the master branch, this is simply

   git push heroku master
   

5. For going through the logs, just run

   heroku logs

   To see the log stream, run

   heroku logs --tail

See? This is easy. Try to code. Try to Deploy. Ciao.