I'm investigating how to develop a decent web app with Python. Since I don't want some high-order structures to get in my way, my choice fell on the lightweight Flask framework. Time will tell if this was the right choice.
So, now I've set up an Apache server with mod_wsgi, and my test site is running fine. However, I'd like to speed up the development routine by making the site automatically reload upon any changes in py or template files I make. I see that any changes in site's .wsgi file causes reloading (even without WSGIScriptReloading On in the apache config file), but I still have to prod it manually (ie, insert extra linebreak, save). Is there some way how to cause reload when I edit some of the app's py files? Or, I am expected to use IDE that refreshes the .wsgi file for me?
The current recommended way is with the flask
command line utility.
https://flask.palletsprojects.com/en/1.1.x/quickstart/#debug-mode
Example:
$ export FLASK_APP=main.py
$ export FLASK_ENV=development
$ flask run
or in one command:
$ FLASK_APP=main.py FLASK_ENV=development flask run
If you want different port than the default (5000
) add --port
option.
Example:
$ FLASK_APP=main.py FLASK_ENV=development flask run --port 8080
More options are available with:
$ flask run --help
FLASK_APP
can also be set to module:app
or module:create_app
instead of module.py
. See https://flask.palletsprojects.com/en/1.1.x/cli/#application-discovery for a full explanation.
If you are talking about test/dev environments, then just use the debug option. It will auto-reload the flask app when a code change happens.
app.run(debug=True)
Or, from the shell:
$ export FLASK_DEBUG=1
$ flask run
http://flask.pocoo.org/docs/quickstart/#debug-mode
In test/development environments
The werkzeug debugger already has an 'auto reload' function available that can be enabled by doing one of the following:
app.run(debug=True)
or
app.debug = True
You can also use a separate configuration file to manage all your setup if you need be. For example I use 'settings.py' with a 'DEBUG = True' option. Importing this file is easy too;
app.config.from_object('application.settings')
However this is not suitable for a production environment.
Production environment
Personally I chose Nginx + uWSGI over Apache + mod_wsgi for a few performance reasons but also the configuration options. The touch-reload option allows you to specify a file/folder that will cause the uWSGI application to reload your newly deployed flask app.
For example, your update script pulls your newest changes down and touches 'reload_me.txt' file. Your uWSGI ini script (which is kept up by Supervisord - obviously) has this line in it somewhere:
touch-reload = '/opt/virtual_environments/application/reload_me.txt'
I hope this helps!
.ini
file. If you read the documentation on "touch-reload" it's in the uWSGI, not supervisor, configuration.
app.run(debug=True)
fails, but setting the environmental variable works.
If you're running using uwsgi look at the python auto reload option:
uwsgi --py-autoreload 1
Example uwsgi-dev-example.ini:
[uwsgi]
socket = 127.0.0.1:5000
master = true
virtualenv = /Users/xxxx/.virtualenvs/sites_env
chdir = /Users/xxx/site_root
module = site_module:register_debug_server()
callable = app
uid = myuser
chmod-socket = 660
log-date = true
workers = 1
py-autoreload = 1
site_root/__init__.py
def register_debug_server():
from werkzeug.debug import DebuggedApplication
app = Flask(__name__)
app.debug = True
app = DebuggedApplication(app, evalex=True)
return app
Then run:
uwsgi --ini uwsgi-dev-example.ini
Note: This example also enables the debugger.
I went this route to mimic production as close as possible with my nginx setup. Simply running the flask app with it's built in web server behind nginx it would result in a bad gateway error.
A few updates for Flask 1.0 and above
the basic approach to hot re-loading is:
$ export FLASK_APP=my_application
$ export FLASK_ENV=development
$ flask run
you should use FLASK_ENV=development (not FLASK_DEBUG=1)
as a safety check, you can run flask run --debugger just to make sure it's turned on
the Flask CLI will now automatically read things like FLASK_APP and FLASK_ENV if you have an .env file in the project root and have python-dotenv installed
export FLASK_ENV=development
worked for me. app.run(debug=True)
does not appear to work.
app.run(use_reloader=True)
we can use this, use_reloader so every time we reload the page our code changes will be updated.
I got a different idea:
First:
pip install python-dotenv
Install the python-dotenv
module, which will read local preference for your project environment.
Second:
Add .flaskenv
file in your project directory. Add following code:
FLASK_ENV=development
It's done!
With this config for your Flask project, when you run flask run
and you will see this output in your terminal:
https://i.stack.imgur.com/cqRV8.png
And when you edit your file, just save the change. You will see auto-reload is there for you:
https://i.stack.imgur.com/WoRS8.png
With more explanation:
Of course you can manually hit export FLASK_ENV=development
every time you need. But using different configuration file to handle the actual working environment seems like a better solution, so I strongly recommend this method I use.
FLASK_APP
variable into the .flaskenv
file.
Use this method:
app.run(debug=True)
It will auto-reload the flask app when a code change happens.
Sample code:
from flask import Flask
app = Flask(__name__)
@app.route("/")
def index():
return "Hello World"
if __name__ == '__main__':
app.run(debug=True)
Well, if you want save time not reloading the webpage everytime when changes happen, then you can try the keyboard shortcut Ctrl + R
to reload the page quickly.
From the terminal you can simply say
export FLASK_APP=app_name.py
export FLASK_ENV=development
flask run
or in your file
if __name__ == "__main__":
app.run(debug=True)
Flask applications can optionally be executed in debug mode. In this mode, two very convenient modules of the development server called the reloader and the debugger are enabled by default. When the reloader is enabled, Flask watches all the source code files of your project and automatically restarts the server when any of the files are modified.
By default, debug mode is disabled. To enable it, set a FLASK_DEBUG=1
environment variable before invoking flask run
:
(venv) $ export FLASK_APP=hello.py for Windows use > set FLASK_APP=hello.py
(venv) $ export FLASK_DEBUG=1 for Windows use > set FLASK_DEBUG=1
(venv) $ flask run
* Serving Flask app "hello"
* Forcing debug mode on
* Running on http://127.0.0.1:5000/ (Press CTRL+C to quit)
* Restarting with stat
* Debugger is active!
* Debugger PIN: 273-181-528
Having a server running with the reloader enabled is extremely useful during development, because every time you modify and save a source file, the server automatically restarts and picks up the change.
To achieve this in PyCharm set 'Environment Variables' section to:
PYTHONUNBUFFERED=1;
FLASK_DEBUG=1
For Flask 'run / debug configurations'.
To help with fast automatic change in browser:
pip install livereload
from livereload import Server
if __name__ == '__main__':
server = Server(app.wsgi_app)
server.serve()
Next, Start your server again:
eg. your .py
file is app.py
python app.py
Success story sharing
flask run
also works, since when youpip install flask
, a flask executable file is also installed in thevenv/bin/
folder.