Third Year Software Development Data Representation & Querying Project
You are required to develop a single-page web application(SPA) [7] written in the programming language Python [1] using the Flask framework [6]. You must devise an idea for a web application, write the software, write documentation explaining how the application works, and write a short user guide for it.
My app will be a bucket list app where a user can sign up, sign in, create a new item to their bucket list and then logout again and save as many items to the list as they want.
I first started my project by researching different web app ideas on github and the google search engine. I had many different ideas such as:
- Currency Converter
- Percentage calculator
- Bucket List
To start my project i first had to install the different flask packages needed to run the python files. // edit here After this i began creating my index.html file by using a bootstrap method called Jumbotron which i found on the bootstrap website to design my application. I then defined a method in my data.py file in order to run the file in my browser. To run the file you need to open the command prompt and direct to the project folder and type the following:
python data.py
I created my database then in table.py which created bucketlist.db in my data_rep folder. I went on to create dummy.py which is a python file that runs in the background to allow input of user in the sign in method and running them in a command line
python table.py
python dummy.py
This webapp also requires a sign in for a username and password in order to create a bucket list
username = admin
password = password
I then further designed my html by adding a new signin.html file where i can sign in as a user. I once again used the bootstrap jumbotron method. I then had to create a new function in data.py to call the html file. And also created my bucketList.html file which provides the user with a textarea to enter a title and also a description area to write up a new item which they wish to add to their bucket list. I then created a method in my data.py file in order to allow the html files to run in the localhost.
To run the file you need to open the command prompt and direct to the project folder and type the following:
python data.py
Then once deployed in the command line a url will be given back. Use this url to run the web application in the browser
http://127.0.0.1:5000/
This webapp also requires a sign in for a username and password in order to create a bucket list
username = admin
password = password
For my project i used different tutorial videos on youtube that taught me how to operate Python, Flask and HTML I also used the following links as guidelines:
- https://blog.miguelgrinberg.com/post/the-flask-mega-tutorial-part-iii-web-forms
- http://www.w3schools.com/bootstrap/default.asp
- http://stackoverflow.com/
- http://mindmapengineers.com/mmeblog/creating-web-app-scratch-using-python-flask-and-mysql-part-3
- http://www.w3schools.com/bootstrap/bootstrap_buttons.asp
- http://www.w3schools.com/bootstrap/bootstrap_forms.asp
- http://www.w3schools.com/bootstrap/bootstrap_tabs_pills.asp
- https://github.com/data-representation/example-sqlite/blob/master/setup.py
- https://github.com/data-representation/example-sqlite/blob/master/webapp.py
For my project i used two different programs. One was by JetBrains called PyCharm which i used to create my python files and which also created my database for me by creating a python file. I also used notepad++ to create all of my html programs. I could have also used notepad++ to create my python files but after discovering pycharm on the jetbrains website i decided that it was a better option as it provided me with the flask framework already pre-installed and was much better formatted and more user friendly for a first time python user.
Internet access is required in order to run the application locally
git clone https://github.com/Gazza1996/data_rep
This git command will copy the git repository from Github and will be saved to whatever location you are cloning it to.
In conclusion i would have spent more time researching topics that i coukd have based my project on. I would spend more time developing my programming skills in pyhon and html in order to make my application more user friendly and easier to the eye.
I could have possibly involved git and github more in my project by introducing features such as labs and milestones as i could have set certain deadlines to my project which would help me to complete tasks quicker. By adding labels it could help me understand my code commited much easier