CS235Flix

Description

This is Nathan Longhurst's submission for Assignment 3, Comp235.

A Web application that demonstrates use of Python's Flask framework. The application makes use of libraries such as the Jinja templating library and WTForms. Architectural design patterns and principles including Repository (both Memory and an SQL Database have been implemented), Dependency Inversion and Single Responsibility have been used to design the application. The application uses Flask Blueprints to maintain a separation of concerns between application functions. Testing includes unit and end-to-end testing using the pytest tool.

Installation

Installation via requirements.txt

$ cd Assignment3Comp235
$ py -3 -m venv venv
$ venv\Scripts\activate
$ pip install -r requirements.txt

When using PyCharm, set the virtual environment using 'File'->'Settings' and select 'Project:COMPSCI-235' from the left menu. Select 'Project Interpreter', click on the gearwheel button and select 'Add'. Click the 'Existing environment' radio button to select the virtual environment.

Execution

Running the application

From the Assignment3Comp235 directory, and within the activated virtual environment (see venv\Scripts\activate above):

$ flask run

Testing

Testing requires that file Assignment3Comp235/tests/conftest.py be edited to set the value of TEST_DATA_PATH. You should set this to the absolute path of the Assignment3Comp235/tests/data directory.

E.g.

TEST_DATA_PATH_MEMORY = os.path.join('C:', os.sep, 'Users', 'ian', 'Documents', 'Python dev', 'Assignment3Comp235', 'tests', 'data', 'memory')

assigns TEST_DATA_PATH with the following value (the use of os.path.join and os.sep ensures use of the correct platform path separator):

C:\Users\ian\Documents\python-dev\Assignment3Comp235\tests\data

Testing optionally requires that you tell it what database type to do e2e testing on (specifically the tests found in test_web_app.py). See CS235Flix/tests/conftest.py, and change the line in the client's fixture 'REPOSITORY' to the desired repository type

You can then run tests from within PyCharm.

Configuration

The Assignment3Comp235/.env file contains variable settings. They are set with appropriate values.

• FLASK_APP: Entry point of the application (should always be wsgi.py).
• FLASK_ENV: The environment in which to run the application (either development or production).
• SECRET_KEY: Secret key used to encrypt session data.
• TESTING: Set to False for running the application. Overridden and set to True automatically when testing the application.
• WTF_CSRF_SECRET_KEY: Secret key used by the WTForm library.

Database relevant variables

• 'SQLALCHEMY_DATABASE_URI': this is Database URI (this as is)
• 'SQLALCHEMY_ECHO': set to 'TRUE' or 'FALSE' that turns printing of all SQL statements on/off
• 'REPOSITORY': set to 'memory' or 'database'