Deploying your project on Python Anywhere¶

Python Anywhere Logo

One popular and beginner-friendly platform for deploying Python applications is PythonAnywhere.

Deploying your Python web app with PythonAnywhere is a simple and beginner-friendly process, which makes it pretty popular for deploying python based applications.

Whether you’re building a small project for fun, a portfolio, or something more complex, PythonAnywhere is a fantastic option for getting your Python app online quickly and effortlessly.

“If you have a Python app, PythonAnywhere makes deployment as simple as a few clicks.”

We’ll walk you through what PythonAnywhere is and how you can use it to host your Python web applications online.

What is PythonAnywhere?¶

PythonAnywhere is a cloud hosting service specifically designed for running Python applications.

It allows you to deploy web apps without needing to worry about server management or configuration. Plus, it has a free tier, which is perfect for beginners and small projects.

Why Use PythonAnywhere?¶

Easy to use: You don’t need to manage servers or install software manually.
Accessible: It provides a browser-based interface for working with your code.
Free tier: Perfect for hobby projects or simple web apps to get you started.

Key Features:¶

Web hosting: PythonAnywhere allows you to run web apps using frameworks like Flask, Django, or even simple WSGI applications.
Python environment: You get a complete Python environment with access to libraries, frameworks, and virtual environments.
Shell access: PythonAnywhere provides an online shell, so you can run terminal commands directly from your browser.
Database hosting: You can also create and manage databases (MySQL, PostgreSQL) for your web apps.

How Does It Work?¶

PythonAnywhere provides you with access to a virtual machine running on the cloud. You can use this machine to host your Python apps, run scripts, and manage your databases.

Deploying your Python Web App on PythonAnywhere¶

Sign up: First, go to PythonAnywhere and create a free account.
Upload your code: After signing in, you can upload your Python app files directly via the web interface, or you can pull them from a version control system like GitHub. We'll be taking the second approach. Remember to use the following commands for managing dependencies:
To get all the external packages used in the project
```
pip freeze > requirements.txt
```
To install all the external packages used in the project:
```
pip install -r requirements.txt
```
Create your GitHub account
Create a public GitHub repo, and upload in the code from the workshop.
Once your code is available on GitHub, you can clone your repo into pythonanywhere (on pythonanywhere console)
```
git clone https://github.com/{{YOUR_GITHUB_USERNAME}}/{{YOUR_REPO_NAME}}
```
Set up a web app:
Go to the Web tab in PythonAnywhere’s dashboard.
Select Add a new web app.
Choose your Python version and framework as Flask.
Set the Source Code location to the path where your main flask app code is saved (usually the file where app = Flask(name) is defined in Flask)
Set the working directory to the same location as above.
Configure the WSGI file:
PythonAnywhere uses WSGI (Web Server Gateway Interface) to serve Python apps.
You’ll need to edit the WSGI configuration file to point to your Python app’s entry point (again, usually the file where app = Flask(name) is defined in Flask).

Make the following changes in the WSGI configuration file:

Set the project home:

# add your project directory to the sys.path
project_home = '{{PATH_TO_YOUR_PROJECT}}'
if project_home not in sys.path:
    sys.path = [project_home] + sys.path

* Change the last line to import the `app` variable from our `run.py` file
 ```python
from run import app as application

Run your app: Once everything is set up, you can click Reload to deploy your app. It will be accessible via a web link provided by PythonAnywhere, something like {{yourusername}}.pythonanywhere.com

You should now have a fully functioning portfolio website deployed on Python Anywhere!

Adding the Quotes API¶

Now, we want an amazing quote to be displayed too!

Let's try and place a quote under the "Comments" header.

Add this in style.css:

.quote {
  color: #ffffff;
  font-style: italic;
}

And then add in the quote div in index.html:

<!-- Comments Section -->
<section id="comments" class="section comments-section">
    <div class="container">
        <h2 class="text-center">Comments</h2>

        <div class="quote">Insert Deep Quote Here</div>

Ok so now we have an idea how a quote will look like on our website. Now, for actually inserting the quote?

Check out The Quotes API

What even is this.. what is an API?

Great question! A wise man once told me, an API is like a translator. If you want to communicate with someone in Tamil, but you don't know Tamil and only know English, an API is the person who translates between the two and helps facilitating communication with each other.

Note that it is possible for you to learn Tamil and communicate with the person you wanted to, but well, using an API is much simpler, right?

Take this analogy of an API and apply it to the situtaion of you wanting to communicate with some external database, in this case a database of some amazing quotes!

Now to test the Quotes API, create a temporary file test.py and explore how we can retrieve data from the API.

import requests

category = 'amazing' # Choose one of the categories from the API docs
api_url = 'https://api.api-ninjas.com/v1/quotes?category={}'.format(category)
response = requests.get(api_url, headers={'X-Api-Key': 'YOUR_API_KEY'})
if response.status_code == requests.codes.ok:
    print(response.text)
else:
    print("Error:", response.status_code, response.text)

Important note: Here, your API_KEY is your Secret, do not share it with anyone.

Now to apply this code into your website:

Set a template variable to be passed in from flask called amazing_quote

<!-- Comments Section -->
<section id="comments" class="section comments-section">
    <div class="container">
        <h2 class="text-center">Comments</h2>
        <div class="quote">{{amazing_quote}}</div>

Now set the variable with the help of the API:

# Route for the homepage
@app.route('/')
def index():
    comments = Comment.query.all()
    category = 'computers'
    api_url = 'https://api.api-ninjas.com/v1/quotes?category={}'.format(category)
    response = requests.get(api_url, headers={'X-Api-Key': 'YOUR_API_KEY'})
    if response.status_code == requests.codes.ok:
        quote = response.json()[0]['quote']
    else:
        print("Error:", response.status_code, response.text)

    return render_template(
        'index.html',
        comments=[{'NAME': c.name, 'POSITION': c.position, 'COMMENT': c.comment} for c in comments],
        amazing_quote=quote
    )

Just to see which files have been edited:

git status

And then push your changes!

git add .
git commit -m "final project ready!

Pushed? Your changes have now been added to your GitHub repo!

Now, pull your changes into pythonanywhere (using the pythonanywhere console)

git pull

Then you're finally done! You've completed deployment and added a brand new feature! Hurray!

Or.. have you..?

You might have just made.. a grave mistake..

Intense evil music plays

Working with Secrets.. ringing any bells? Welcome to the world of cybersecurity.