Add README, pip requirements and update command-line interface

.gitignore

@@ -6,3 +6,4 @@
 venv/
 # Flask static file cache
 flaskapp/static/.webassets-cache/
+flaskapp/static/public/

README.md

@@ -0,0 +1,63 @@
+# Starter flask app
+
+This repo serves as the base setup for developing your flask application, with some of the best practices and easy-to-scale code structure.
+
+
+### Features
+* Create views with re-usable Jinja templates
+* CSS & JS bundles defined to enable loading only the required files page-wise
+* Easy to configure/enable the following:
+  * MongoDB connection and querying
+  * Uploading & downloading of static files
+* Gzip compression
+* CSS, JS minification
+
+**Note** : Tested with Python 3.6
+
+
+## Setting up project
+
+1. Clone the repo
+
+2. Create virtual environment for the project and install pip dependencies
+   ```bash
+   cd starter_flask_app
+   virtualenv -p python3 venv
+   # Source the virtual env
+   # zsh/fish users need to use activate.zsh/activate.fish files instead
+   source venv/bin/activate
+   pip install -r requirements.txt
+   ```
+
+
+## Running the server
+
+```bash
+python run.py
+```
+
+Supported arguments:
+* ```--host``` : To set the app host (defaults to 0.0.0.0)
+* ```--port``` : To set the app port (defaults to 5000)
+* ```--debug``` : Pass this flag to enable debugging
+
+Now open ```http://localhost:5000``` in your browser to view the app.
+
+
+## Developing your app from the base code
+
+* Enabling mongo:
+  * Set the appropriate constants in ```flaskapp/config.py```
+  * Uncomment the mentioned line in ```flaskapp/app.py```
+* Enabling static file downloading:
+  * Set the variable ```DOWNLOADS_DIR``` in ```flaskapp/config.py```
+  * Uncomment the mentioned function in ```flaskapp/app.py```
+  * Modify the route in this function as appropriate.
+* Define templates for your pages in ```flaskapp/templates/``` dir.  
+  See ```home.html``` for reference which inherits the basic structure from ```layout.html```
+  and just defines the required parts.
+* Define route for the pages in ```flaskapp/routes/view_routes.py```
+* Define API related routes in ```flaskapp/routes/api_routes.py```
+* Add the CSS & JS files in ```flaskapp/static/``` in appropriate subdir.  
+  Then, define the suitable bundle page-wise in ```flaskapp/assets.py```.  
+  Refer the existing bundles in the file.

flaskapp/app.py

@@ -16,7 +16,7 @@
 
 # App configuration
 app.config['SEND_FILE_MAX_AGE_DEFAULT'] = config.STATIC_FILE_MAX_AGE
-app.config['UPLOAD_FOLDER'] = C.UPLOADS_FOLDER
+app.config['UPLOAD_FOLDER'] = config.UPLOADS_DIR
 
 # MongoDB
 app.config["MONGO_HOST"] = config.MONGO_HOST
@@ -34,7 +34,7 @@
 app.register_blueprint(routes_module)
 
 
-# Static data files
-@app.route('/datafile/<path:filename>')
-def loadDataFile(filename):
-    return send_from_directory(app.static_folder + C.DATA_FILE_DIR, filename)
+# Uncomment and configure below function to enable downloading static files
+# @app.route('/datafile/<path:filename>')
+# def downloadFile(filename):
+#     return send_from_directory(app.static_folder + config.DOWNLOADS_DIR, filename)

flaskapp/config.py

@@ -1,9 +1,15 @@
 # Used to set : app.config['SEND_FILE_MAX_AGE_DEFAULT']
-STATIC_FILE_MAX_AGE = 3600 * 24 * 7
+STATIC_FILE_MAX_AGE = 3600 * 24 * 7   # 1 week
 
 # MongoDB variables
 MONGO_HOST = "localhost"
 MONGO_PORT = "27017"
 MONGO_NAME = "dbname"
 MONGO_USER = ""
 MONGO_PASS = ""
+
+# Directory for uploading files to server
+UPLOADS_DIR = "uploads/"
+
+# Directory for downloading files from server
+DOWNLOADS_DIR = "/data_files"

flaskapp/constants.py

@@ -1,2 +0,0 @@
-UPLOADS_FOLDER = "uploads/"
-DATA_FILE_DIR = "/data_files"

requirements.txt

@@ -0,0 +1,23 @@
+certifi==2019.9.11
+chardet==3.0.4
+Click==7.0
+cssmin==0.2.0
+Flask==1.1.1
+Flask-Assets==0.12
+Flask-Compress==1.4.0
+Flask-PyMongo==2.3.0
+get==2019.4.13
+idna==2.8
+itsdangerous==1.1.0
+Jinja2==2.10.3
+jsmin==2.2.2
+MarkupSafe==1.1.1
+post==2019.4.13
+public==2019.4.13
+pymongo==3.9.0
+query-string==2019.4.13
+request==2019.4.13
+requests==2.22.0
+urllib3==1.25.6
+webassets==0.12.1
+Werkzeug==0.16.0

run.py

@@ -10,11 +10,22 @@ def get_args():
     Get command-line arguments
     """
     parser = argparse.ArgumentParser()
-    parser.add_argument('--debug', action='store_true', help='Run in debug mode')
+    parser.add_argument('--host',
+                        type=str,
+                        default='0.0.0.0',
+                        help='Sets the host on which the app is to be run')
+    parser.add_argument('--port',
+                        type=int,
+                        default=5000,
+                        help='Sets the port on which the app is to be run')
+    parser.add_argument('--debug',
+                        action='store_true',
+                        help='Run in debug mode')
+
     args = parser.parse_args()
     return args
 
 
 if __name__ == "__main__":
     args = get_args()
-    app.run(host='0.0.0.0', debug=args.debug)
+    app.run(host=args.host, port=args.port, debug=args.debug)