Professional Web API with Flask

1. Introduction to the Course

Dive into the world of web APIs with Flask, starting with the basics. You'll learn what APIs and REST APIs are, how to set up your project, configure your environment, and establish a GitHub SSH connection. This foundational knowledge will set you up for success.

Course Outline

About API

About REST API

Project Description

Project Initialization

Environment Configuration and Dependency Management

Establish SSH Connection to GitHub

2. Database and Models

Explore the core of database handling with SQLAlchemy. You'll learn to create robust models and understand many-to-one, one-to-one, and many-to-many relationships. This section empowers you with the skills to structure complex databases for real-world applications.

SQLAlchemy Set Up

Create Models

Many-to-One Relationship

One-to-One Relationship

Many-to-Many Relationship

3. Flask-Smorest and Schemas

Unveil the power of Flask-Smorest and Marshmallow for managing web APIs and data serialization. You'll delve into JSON, schema handling, and the intricacies of data representation and validation, paving the way for advanced API development.

Introduction to Flask-Smorest

Introduction to Marshmallow

JSON Explanation

Schema Handling with Marshmallow

4. Endpoints with Blueprints and MethodView

Master the art of creating and managing endpoints with Flask's Blueprints and MethodView. From setting up your first endpoints to exploring Flask-Migration and SQLite Studio, and utilizing tools like Postman and Insomnia, you'll craft scalable and maintainable web architectures.

Blueprints and MethodView Overview

Start with Blueprints and MethodViews

First Endpoint, Flask-Migration and SQLite Studio

Postman and Insomnia

Team Endpoints

User and Player Endpoints

Swagger UI

5. Authentication with JWT

Secure your web APIs with JWT authentication. Learn to set up Flask-JWT-Extended, handle user registration, login, and logout processes, and implement permissions and security measures. By the end of this section, you'll be adept at protecting and testing your endpoints.

What is JWT?

Flask-JWT-Extended Set Up

Testing New Endpoints

6. Deployment

Prepare your Flask project for deployment. This final leap covers the essentials: creating a requirements.txt, code formatting with Black and Flake8, and documenting your project with a README.md. You'll also master Git for version control and branch merging, readying you for a seamless project launch.

Enhancing Your App

Last Git Push

Swagger UI

One more convenient built-in tool that assists in documenting our API is Swagger. Thanks to Swagger, we can easily describe the structure and functionality of our application. To integrate Swagger, a few additional configuration parameters need to be specified in the create_app() function within the app.py file.

First, we specify the path where we can find the documentation:

Second, we indicate the URL for the Swagger UI:

Now, let's navigate to our application in the browser and go to /swagger-ui to explore our documentation and test it. We see that all endpoints are listed. As we develop new endpoints, our documentation will automatically update. We can test our endpoints just as we did in Postman, the only difference being that we cannot save requests for repeated testing.

Excellent, we have enriched our knowledge with the skill to use another tool.