https://github.com/maayanlab/flask-nginx
https://github.com/maayanlab/flask-nginx
Last synced: about 1 month ago
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- Host: GitHub
- URL: https://github.com/maayanlab/flask-nginx
- Owner: MaayanLab
- Created: 2017-07-11T21:17:50.000Z (almost 8 years ago)
- Default Branch: master
- Last Pushed: 2017-07-12T15:03:10.000Z (almost 8 years ago)
- Last Synced: 2025-01-22T03:15:58.654Z (3 months ago)
- Language: Shell
- Size: 3.91 KB
- Stars: 2
- Watchers: 4
- Forks: 1
- Open Issues: 0
-
Metadata Files:
- Readme: README.md
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README
# Flask-Nginx
This is a template for web applications using [Flask](http://flask.pocoo.org/), [Nginx HTTP Server](https://nginx.org/), and [Docker](https://www.docker.com/).
## Deploying a Flask application to production
So you have a Flask application, and you want to deploy it, but then you read [this](http://flask.pocoo.org/docs/0.11/deploying/):
> While lightweight and easy to use, **Flask’s built-in server is not suitable for production** as it doesn’t scale well and by default serves only one request at a time.
What does that mean? Flask is two things: a web framework and a development server. The server has useful features for developers such as auto-restart on file change and a debugging interface that appears when your code throws an exception. But it is not designed for use in production. For example, it is single-threaded, meaning it only responds to a single HTTP request at a time.
The part of Flask that matters in production is the web framework, the glue between your Python program and the HTTP request/response cycle. For example, the routes that map HTTP requests to functions in your program and the utility classes like the `request` object that contain the HTTP method type and arguments.
You need a WSGI-compliant web server—here we'll use Nginx—in order to deploy your Flask application.
#### What is WSGI?
When Flask claims to be "WSGI compliant", it means that it adheres to Python's [Web Server Gateway Interface](https://www.python.org/dev/peps/pep-3333/). WSGI exists because (1) there are a lot of different web frameworks to choose from and (2) the choice of web framework can limit the choice of web server. In other words, WSGI is an interface that, if both framework and server developers adhere to, allows Python programmers to port WSGI-compliant applications to any server of their choice. To deploy your Flask application to production, you can use any WSGI-compliant server.
This project uses Nginx which natively includes support for upstream servers speaking the uwsgi protocol since version 0.8.40.
#### What is uwsgi and uWSGI?
uWSGI is a web-server that provides implementations of the WSGI specification - original one and binary one (uwsgi). The binary implementation of the WSGI protocol is optimized to accelerate the interaction between the server and applications.
#### What is the relationshiop between Nginx and Flask?
You can think of Nginx as wrapping your Flask application. Nginx, which is a popular, open-source, and robust web server, responds to HTTP requests. It then delegates the requests to your application. What actually happens is that Nginx creates a new Flask application for every HTTP request. This is a nice abstraction; you can imagine your Flask application as running in a completely isolated environment, responding to a single HTTP request. Nginx handles multi-threading your application when there are simultaneous requests.
## Using this project
This project is a template. We recommend the following workflow:
- Clone this repository.
- Start the Docker container:
```
$ docker build -t .
$ docker run -p 80:80 -d .
```
- Verify that `/flask-nginx` works, i.e. that Nginx is properly delegating to flask-nginx.
- Move your code into the flask-nginx application, renaming things as needed.
#### Developing locally
Nothing changes when you develop locally. Just use:
```
$ python run.py
```