uWSGI Flask Template

This repository is meant as a template for http/https webserver endpoints that utilize nginx, uWSGI, and Flask. This template is intended for Linux servers running systemd. Many of my current web API projects use this code as a base, so I decided to create a universal repository to easily and quickly clone the code needed for new projects.

Getting Started

A few files have project-specific text that needs to be changed:

• project-name.service - replace <path/to/project> with the full path to the template's directory
• project-name.py - replace <endpoint> with the server route that is being proxied through uWSGI
• wsgi.py - Replace <main-script-name> with the main python script's name (project-name.py by default)
• project-name.service
  • Replace <project-name> with the project's name
  • Replace <path/to/project> with the full path to the template's directory
  • Replace <user> with the name of the Linux user the service will be run as (the same user must have access to the template's directory)

Requirements

• A python virtual environment in a directory called venv is expected, with the following packages installed:
  • asyncio
  • flask[async]
  • uwsgi
  • requests
• Additionally, this project is meant to use an existing webserver such as nginx to route requests to the Flask server.

Basic Usage

• Make all the required changes to files as listed above
• Create the Python virtual environment venv at the root of the project, installing required packages
• Enable and start the .service file to start the server
• Configure nginx (or another webserver) with uwsgi to route requests to the Flask server using the generated .sock file

Advanced Instructions

Setting up a Python virtual environment

• Navigate to the project's root directory in a terminal
• Run python -m venv venv
• Enter the virtual environment
  • bash/zsh: source <venv>/bin/activate
  • PowerShell: <venv>/bin/Activate.ps1
• Update pip by running pip install --upgrade pip
• Install required packages by running pip install asyncio flask[async] uwsgi requests

More details can be found in the Python Docs

Enabling systemd service file (with sudo priviledges)

• Move the .service file from the project's directory to /etc/systemd/system
• Run sudo systemctl enable project-name replacing project-name with the name of the service file sans the extension
• Run sudo systemctl restart project-name to start the service