Backend API for Green Team ACM Side Projects

Required Dependencies:

1. Python 3 & pip: [Link] (https://www.python.org/downloads/)
2. Docker:
   • Mac/Linux/Windows 10 Pro: Link
   • Windows 10 Home: I recommend getting WSL 2, its basically a Linux distro on Windows and reduces the number of hiccups/setup issues you'll have when programming. Get WSL 2 and Docker here
3. docker-compose: To spin up server + database easily. Installation Instructions

Build Instructions:

1. Clone repository to local machine: git clone https://github.com/acmucsd/green-team-backend.git
2. Navigate to project directory cd green-team-backend
3. Create Python virtual environment so pip installs aren't global. Explanation + Installation guide
4. Create a .env file to be able to connect to the database.
   • Do cp .env.example .env to rename the example file
   • Copy the .env configuration from below
5. Run docker-compose up -d --build to spin up server and PostgreSQL database containers
6. Run docker-compose down to shut down containers

Example .env file

DB_HOST=db
DB_PORT=5432
DB_DATABASE=green_team_db
DB_USER=green_team_user
DB_PASSWORD=password

SECRET_KEY=my_secret_key
ENVIRONMENT=development

AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID=
AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY=
AWS_S3_BUCKET=

File System Structure:

• /app - the main project folder containing everything
• /app/api - contains controllers for routes and Flask blueprints
• /app/database - database setup and models, seeds may come here later
• /app/database/models - create and export new models here
• /app/services - contains services that perform necessary logic between API and database
• /app/__init__.py - connect Flask blueprints here

Migrating Database Tables

To write migrations to update the development/staging/production tables, follow these steps:

1. Add all necessary model updates to the Model classes
2. If using Docker, enter the container's shell by typing docker exec -it <CONTAINER_ID> bash. Skip this step if not using Docker
3. python manage.py db migrate -m "<migration changes>" - this creates a new migration with the schema changes that have not yet been added in the tables by comparing those schemas to the ones in the app/database/models.
4. python manage.py db upgrade to run the migrations locally.

Seeding Database Tables

To seed the development database tables with initial data, follow these steps (skip to step 4 if not running on the docker containers):

1. docker-compose up -d --build to start the local database and app
2. docker ps to view the CONTAINER ID of the backend app (not the database). Copy the CONTAINER ID of that container.
3. docker exec -it <CONTAINER_ID> bash to open the bash shell of the container
4. python manage.py seed to seed the tables

Notes:

• Saving files will automatically refresh server (no need to close and open containers)
• If you pip install any packages, make sure to type pip freeze > requirements.txt to save dependencies for Docker to install.
• Data in the database persists after stopping containers (docker-compose stop)