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.. _quickstart:
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|
Quickstart
|
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|
==========
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Eager to get started? This page gives a good introduction to Flask. It
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|
assumes you already have Flask installed. If you do not, head over to the
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|
:ref:`installation` section.
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|
A Minimal Application
|
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|
---------------------
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|
A minimal Flask application looks something like this::
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|
from flask import Flask
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app = Flask(__name__)
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@app.route('/')
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def hello_world():
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return 'Hello, World!'
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So what did that code do?
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1. First we imported the :class:`~flask.Flask` class. An instance of this
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class will be our WSGI application.
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2. Next we create an instance of this class. The first argument is the name of
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the application's module or package. If you are using a single module (as
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in this example), you should use ``__name__`` because depending on if it's
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started as application or imported as module the name will be different
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(``'__main__'`` versus the actual import name). This is needed so that
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Flask knows where to look for templates, static files, and so on. For more
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information have a look at the :class:`~flask.Flask` documentation.
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3. We then use the :meth:`~flask.Flask.route` decorator to tell Flask what URL
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should trigger our function.
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4. The function is given a name which is also used to generate URLs for that
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particular function, and returns the message we want to display in the
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user's browser.
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Just save it as :file:`hello.py` or something similar. Make sure to not call
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your application :file:`flask.py` because this would conflict with Flask
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itself.
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To run the application you can either use the :command:`flask` command or
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|
python's ``-m`` switch with Flask. Before you can do that you need
|
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|
|
to tell your terminal the application to work with by exporting the
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|
|
``FLASK_APP`` environment variable::
|
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|
|
$ export FLASK_APP=hello.py
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$ flask run
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|
* Running on http://127.0.0.1:5000/
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|
If you are on Windows, the environment variable syntax depends on command line
|
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|
|
interpreter. On Command Prompt::
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C:\path\to\app>set FLASK_APP=hello.py
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And on PowerShell::
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|
PS C:\path\to\app> $env:FLASK_APP = "hello.py"
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|
Alternatively you can use :command:`python -m flask`::
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|
|
$ export FLASK_APP=hello.py
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|
|
$ python -m flask run
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|
* Running on http://127.0.0.1:5000/
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This launches a very simple builtin server, which is good enough for testing
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|
but probably not what you want to use in production. For deployment options see
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|
:ref:`deployment`.
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|
Now head over to `http://127.0.0.1:5000/ <http://127.0.0.1:5000/>`_, and you
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|
|
should see your hello world greeting.
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.. _public-server:
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|
|
.. admonition:: Externally Visible Server
|
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|
If you run the server you will notice that the server is only accessible
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|
from your own computer, not from any other in the network. This is the
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|
|
default because in debugging mode a user of the application can execute
|
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|
|
arbitrary Python code on your computer.
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|
If you have the debugger disabled or trust the users on your network,
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|
you can make the server publicly available simply by adding
|
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|
``--host=0.0.0.0`` to the command line::
|
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|
|
flask run --host=0.0.0.0
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|
|
This tells your operating system to listen on all public IPs.
|
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|
|
What to do if the Server does not Start
|
|
|
|
---------------------------------------
|
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|
|
In case the :command:`python -m flask` fails or :command:`flask` does not exist,
|
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|
|
there are multiple reasons this might be the case. First of all you need
|
|
|
|
to look at the error message.
|
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|
|
|
|
Old Version of Flask
|
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|
|
````````````````````
|
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|
|
Versions of Flask older than 0.11 use to have different ways to start the
|
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|
|
application. In short, the :command:`flask` command did not exist, and
|
|
|
|
neither did :command:`python -m flask`. In that case you have two options:
|
|
|
|
either upgrade to newer Flask versions or have a look at the :ref:`server`
|
|
|
|
docs to see the alternative method for running a server.
|
|
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|
|
|
|
Invalid Import Name
|
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|
|
```````````````````
|
|
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|
|
The ``FLASK_APP`` environment variable is the name of the module to import at
|
|
|
|
:command:`flask run`. In case that module is incorrectly named you will get an
|
|
|
|
import error upon start (or if debug is enabled when you navigate to the
|
|
|
|
application). It will tell you what it tried to import and why it failed.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
The most common reason is a typo or because you did not actually create an
|
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|
|
``app`` object.
|
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|
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|
|
.. _debug-mode:
|
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|
|
|
|
|
Debug Mode
|
|
|
|
----------
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
(Want to just log errors and stack traces? See :ref:`application-errors`)
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
The :command:`flask` script is nice to start a local development server, but
|
|
|
|
you would have to restart it manually after each change to your code.
|
|
|
|
That is not very nice and Flask can do better. If you enable debug
|
|
|
|
support the server will reload itself on code changes, and it will also
|
|
|
|
provide you with a helpful debugger if things go wrong.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
To enable debug mode you can export the ``FLASK_DEBUG`` environment variable
|
|
|
|
before running the server::
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
$ export FLASK_DEBUG=1
|
|
|
|
$ flask run
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
(On Windows you need to use ``set`` instead of ``export``).
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
This does the following things:
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
1. it activates the debugger
|
|
|
|
2. it activates the automatic reloader
|
|
|
|
3. it enables the debug mode on the Flask application.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
There are more parameters that are explained in the :ref:`server` docs.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
.. admonition:: Attention
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Even though the interactive debugger does not work in forking environments
|
|
|
|
(which makes it nearly impossible to use on production servers), it still
|
|
|
|
allows the execution of arbitrary code. This makes it a major security risk
|
|
|
|
and therefore it **must never be used on production machines**.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Screenshot of the debugger in action:
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
.. image:: _static/debugger.png
|
|
|
|
:align: center
|
|
|
|
:class: screenshot
|
|
|
|
:alt: screenshot of debugger in action
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
More information on using the debugger can be found in the `Werkzeug
|
|
|
|
documentation`_.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
.. _Werkzeug documentation: http://werkzeug.pocoo.org/docs/debug/#using-the-debugger
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Have another debugger in mind? See :ref:`working-with-debuggers`.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Routing
|
|
|
|
-------
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Modern web applications use meaningful URLs to help users. Users are more
|
|
|
|
likely to like a page and come back if the page uses a meaningful URL they can
|
|
|
|
remember and use to directly visit a page.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Use the :meth:`~flask.Flask.route` decorator to bind a function to a URL. ::
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
@app.route('/')
|
|
|
|
def index():
|
|
|
|
return 'Index Page'
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
@app.route('/hello')
|
|
|
|
def hello():
|
|
|
|
return 'Hello, World'
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
You can do more! You can make parts of the URL dynamic and attach multiple
|
|
|
|
rules to a function.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Variable Rules
|
|
|
|
``````````````
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
You can add variable sections to a URL by marking sections with
|
|
|
|
``<variable_name>``. Your function then receives the ``<variable_name>``
|
|
|
|
as a keyword argument. Optionally, you can use a converter to specify the type
|
|
|
|
of the argument like ``<converter:variable_name>``. ::
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
@app.route('/user/<username>')
|
|
|
|
def show_user_profile(username):
|
|
|
|
# show the user profile for that user
|
|
|
|
return 'User %s' % username
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
@app.route('/post/<int:post_id>')
|
|
|
|
def show_post(post_id):
|
|
|
|
# show the post with the given id, the id is an integer
|
|
|
|
return 'Post %d' % post_id
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
@app.route('/path/<path:subpath>')
|
|
|
|
def show_subpath(subpath):
|
|
|
|
# show the subpath after /path/
|
|
|
|
return 'Subpath %s' % subpath
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Converter types:
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
========== ==========================================
|
|
|
|
``string`` (default) accepts any text without a slash
|
|
|
|
``int`` accepts positive integers
|
|
|
|
``float`` accepts positive floating point values
|
|
|
|
``path`` like ``string`` but also accepts slashes
|
|
|
|
``uuid`` accepts UUID strings
|
|
|
|
========== ==========================================
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Unique URLs / Redirection Behavior
|
|
|
|
``````````````````````````````````
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Take these two rules::
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
@app.route('/projects/')
|
|
|
|
def projects():
|
|
|
|
return 'The project page'
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
@app.route('/about')
|
|
|
|
def about():
|
|
|
|
return 'The about page'
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Though they look similar, they differ in their use of the trailing slash in
|
|
|
|
the URL. In the first case, the canonical URL for the ``projects`` endpoint
|
|
|
|
uses a trailing slash. It's similar to a folder in a file system; if you
|
|
|
|
access the URL without a trailing slash, Flask redirects you to the
|
|
|
|
canonical URL with the trailing slash.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
In the second case, however, the URL definition lacks a trailing slash,
|
|
|
|
like the pathname of a file on UNIX-like systems. Accessing the URL with a
|
|
|
|
trailing slash produces a 404 “Not Found” error.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
This behavior allows relative URLs to continue working even if the trailing
|
|
|
|
slash is omitted, consistent with how Apache and other servers work. Also,
|
|
|
|
the URLs will stay unique, which helps search engines avoid indexing the
|
|
|
|
same page twice.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
.. _url-building:
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
URL Building
|
|
|
|
````````````
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
To build a URL to a specific function, use the :func:`~flask.url_for` function.
|
|
|
|
It accepts the name of the function as its first argument and any number of
|
|
|
|
keyword arguments, each corresponding to a variable part of the URL rule.
|
|
|
|
Unknown variable parts are appended to the URL as query parameters.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Why would you want to build URLs using the URL reversing function
|
|
|
|
:func:`~flask.url_for` instead of hard-coding them into your templates?
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
1. Reversing is often more descriptive than hard-coding the URLs.
|
|
|
|
2. You can change your URLs in one go instead of needing to remember to
|
|
|
|
manually change hard-coded URLs.
|
|
|
|
3. URL building handles escaping of special characters and Unicode data
|
|
|
|
transparently.
|
|
|
|
4. If your application is placed outside the URL root, for example, in
|
|
|
|
``/myapplication`` instead of ``/``, :func:`~flask.url_for` properly
|
|
|
|
handles that for you.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
For example, here we use the :meth:`~flask.Flask.test_request_context` method
|
|
|
|
to try out :func:`~flask.url_for`. :meth:`~flask.Flask.test_request_context`
|
|
|
|
tells Flask to behave as though it's handling a request even while we use a
|
|
|
|
Python shell. See :ref:`context-locals`. ::
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
from flask import Flask, url_for
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
app = Flask(__name__)
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
@app.route('/')
|
|
|
|
def index():
|
|
|
|
return 'index'
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
@app.route('/login')
|
|
|
|
def login():
|
|
|
|
return 'login'
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
@app.route('/user/<username>')
|
|
|
|
def profile(username):
|
|
|
|
return '{}'s profile'.format(username)
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
with app.test_request_context():
|
|
|
|
print(url_for('index'))
|
|
|
|
print(url_for('login'))
|
|
|
|
print(url_for('login', next='/'))
|
|
|
|
print(url_for('profile', username='John Doe'))
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
/
|
|
|
|
/login
|
|
|
|
/login?next=/
|
|
|
|
/user/John%20Doe
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
HTTP Methods
|
|
|
|
````````````
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Web applications use different HTTP methods when accessing URLs. You should
|
|
|
|
familiarize yourself with the HTTP methods as you work with Flask. By default,
|
|
|
|
a route only answers to ``GET`` requests. You can use the ``methods`` argument
|
|
|
|
of the :meth:`~flask.Flask.route` decorator to handle different HTTP methods.
|
|
|
|
::
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
@app.route('/login', methods=['GET', 'POST'])
|
|
|
|
def login():
|
|
|
|
if request.method == 'POST':
|
|
|
|
return do_the_login()
|
|
|
|
else:
|
|
|
|
return show_the_login_form()
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
If ``GET`` is present, Flask automatically adds support for the ``HEAD`` method
|
|
|
|
and handles ``HEAD`` requests according to the the `HTTP RFC`_. Likewise,
|
|
|
|
``OPTIONS`` is automatically implemented for you.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
.. _HTTP RFC: https://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc2068.txt
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Static Files
|
|
|
|
------------
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Dynamic web applications also need static files. That's usually where
|
|
|
|
the CSS and JavaScript files are coming from. Ideally your web server is
|
|
|
|
configured to serve them for you, but during development Flask can do that
|
|
|
|
as well. Just create a folder called :file:`static` in your package or next to
|
|
|
|
your module and it will be available at ``/static`` on the application.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
To generate URLs for static files, use the special ``'static'`` endpoint name::
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
url_for('static', filename='style.css')
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
The file has to be stored on the filesystem as :file:`static/style.css`.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Rendering Templates
|
|
|
|
-------------------
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Generating HTML from within Python is not fun, and actually pretty
|
|
|
|
cumbersome because you have to do the HTML escaping on your own to keep
|
|
|
|
the application secure. Because of that Flask configures the `Jinja2
|
|
|
|
<http://jinja.pocoo.org/>`_ template engine for you automatically.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
To render a template you can use the :func:`~flask.render_template`
|
|
|
|
method. All you have to do is provide the name of the template and the
|
|
|
|
variables you want to pass to the template engine as keyword arguments.
|
|
|
|
Here's a simple example of how to render a template::
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
from flask import render_template
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
@app.route('/hello/')
|
|
|
|
@app.route('/hello/<name>')
|
|
|
|
def hello(name=None):
|
|
|
|
return render_template('hello.html', name=name)
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Flask will look for templates in the :file:`templates` folder. So if your
|
|
|
|
application is a module, this folder is next to that module, if it's a
|
|
|
|
package it's actually inside your package:
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
**Case 1**: a module::
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
/application.py
|
|
|
|
/templates
|
|
|
|
/hello.html
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
**Case 2**: a package::
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
/application
|
|
|
|
/__init__.py
|
|
|
|
/templates
|
|
|
|
/hello.html
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
For templates you can use the full power of Jinja2 templates. Head over
|
|
|
|
to the official `Jinja2 Template Documentation
|
|
|
|
<http://jinja.pocoo.org/docs/templates>`_ for more information.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Here is an example template:
|
|
|
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.. sourcecode:: html+jinja
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<!doctype html>
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<title>Hello from Flask</title>
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{% if name %}
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<h1>Hello {{ name }}!</h1>
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{% else %}
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<h1>Hello, World!</h1>
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{% endif %}
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Inside templates you also have access to the :class:`~flask.request`,
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:class:`~flask.session` and :class:`~flask.g` [#]_ objects
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as well as the :func:`~flask.get_flashed_messages` function.
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Templates are especially useful if inheritance is used. If you want to
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know how that works, head over to the :ref:`template-inheritance` pattern
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documentation. Basically template inheritance makes it possible to keep
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certain elements on each page (like header, navigation and footer).
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Automatic escaping is enabled, so if ``name`` contains HTML it will be escaped
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automatically. If you can trust a variable and you know that it will be
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safe HTML (for example because it came from a module that converts wiki
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markup to HTML) you can mark it as safe by using the
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:class:`~jinja2.Markup` class or by using the ``|safe`` filter in the
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template. Head over to the Jinja 2 documentation for more examples.
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Here is a basic introduction to how the :class:`~jinja2.Markup` class works::
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>>> from flask import Markup
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>>> Markup('<strong>Hello %s!</strong>') % '<blink>hacker</blink>'
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Markup(u'<strong>Hello <blink>hacker</blink>!</strong>')
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>>> Markup.escape('<blink>hacker</blink>')
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Markup(u'<blink>hacker</blink>')
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>>> Markup('<em>Marked up</em> » HTML').striptags()
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u'Marked up \xbb HTML'
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.. versionchanged:: 0.5
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Autoescaping is no longer enabled for all templates. The following
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extensions for templates trigger autoescaping: ``.html``, ``.htm``,
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``.xml``, ``.xhtml``. Templates loaded from a string will have
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autoescaping disabled.
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.. [#] Unsure what that :class:`~flask.g` object is? It's something in which
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you can store information for your own needs, check the documentation of
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that object (:class:`~flask.g`) and the :ref:`sqlite3` for more
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information.
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Accessing Request Data
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----------------------
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For web applications it's crucial to react to the data a client sends to
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the server. In Flask this information is provided by the global
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:class:`~flask.request` object. If you have some experience with Python
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you might be wondering how that object can be global and how Flask
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manages to still be threadsafe. The answer is context locals:
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.. _context-locals:
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Context Locals
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``````````````
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.. admonition:: Insider Information
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If you want to understand how that works and how you can implement
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tests with context locals, read this section, otherwise just skip it.
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Certain objects in Flask are global objects, but not of the usual kind.
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These objects are actually proxies to objects that are local to a specific
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context. What a mouthful. But that is actually quite easy to understand.
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Imagine the context being the handling thread. A request comes in and the
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web server decides to spawn a new thread (or something else, the
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underlying object is capable of dealing with concurrency systems other
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than threads). When Flask starts its internal request handling it
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figures out that the current thread is the active context and binds the
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current application and the WSGI environments to that context (thread).
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It does that in an intelligent way so that one application can invoke another
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application without breaking.
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So what does this mean to you? Basically you can completely ignore that
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this is the case unless you are doing something like unit testing. You
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will notice that code which depends on a request object will suddenly break
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because there is no request object. The solution is creating a request
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object yourself and binding it to the context. The easiest solution for
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unit testing is to use the :meth:`~flask.Flask.test_request_context`
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context manager. In combination with the ``with`` statement it will bind a
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test request so that you can interact with it. Here is an example::
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from flask import request
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with app.test_request_context('/hello', method='POST'):
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# now you can do something with the request until the
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# end of the with block, such as basic assertions:
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assert request.path == '/hello'
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assert request.method == 'POST'
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The other possibility is passing a whole WSGI environment to the
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:meth:`~flask.Flask.request_context` method::
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from flask import request
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with app.request_context(environ):
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assert request.method == 'POST'
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The Request Object
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``````````````````
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The request object is documented in the API section and we will not cover
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it here in detail (see :class:`~flask.Request`). Here is a broad overview of
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some of the most common operations. First of all you have to import it from
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the ``flask`` module::
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from flask import request
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The current request method is available by using the
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:attr:`~flask.Request.method` attribute. To access form data (data
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transmitted in a ``POST`` or ``PUT`` request) you can use the
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:attr:`~flask.Request.form` attribute. Here is a full example of the two
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attributes mentioned above::
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@app.route('/login', methods=['POST', 'GET'])
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def login():
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error = None
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if request.method == 'POST':
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if valid_login(request.form['username'],
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request.form['password']):
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return log_the_user_in(request.form['username'])
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else:
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error = 'Invalid username/password'
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# the code below is executed if the request method
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# was GET or the credentials were invalid
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return render_template('login.html', error=error)
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What happens if the key does not exist in the ``form`` attribute? In that
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case a special :exc:`KeyError` is raised. You can catch it like a
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standard :exc:`KeyError` but if you don't do that, a HTTP 400 Bad Request
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error page is shown instead. So for many situations you don't have to
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deal with that problem.
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To access parameters submitted in the URL (``?key=value``) you can use the
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:attr:`~flask.Request.args` attribute::
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searchword = request.args.get('key', '')
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We recommend accessing URL parameters with `get` or by catching the
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:exc:`KeyError` because users might change the URL and presenting them a 400
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bad request page in that case is not user friendly.
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For a full list of methods and attributes of the request object, head over
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to the :class:`~flask.Request` documentation.
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File Uploads
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````````````
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You can handle uploaded files with Flask easily. Just make sure not to
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forget to set the ``enctype="multipart/form-data"`` attribute on your HTML
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form, otherwise the browser will not transmit your files at all.
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Uploaded files are stored in memory or at a temporary location on the
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filesystem. You can access those files by looking at the
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:attr:`~flask.request.files` attribute on the request object. Each
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uploaded file is stored in that dictionary. It behaves just like a
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standard Python :class:`file` object, but it also has a
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:meth:`~werkzeug.datastructures.FileStorage.save` method that allows you to store that
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file on the filesystem of the server. Here is a simple example showing how
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that works::
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from flask import request
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@app.route('/upload', methods=['GET', 'POST'])
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def upload_file():
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if request.method == 'POST':
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f = request.files['the_file']
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f.save('/var/www/uploads/uploaded_file.txt')
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...
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If you want to know how the file was named on the client before it was
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uploaded to your application, you can access the
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:attr:`~werkzeug.datastructures.FileStorage.filename` attribute. However please keep in
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mind that this value can be forged so never ever trust that value. If you
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want to use the filename of the client to store the file on the server,
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pass it through the :func:`~werkzeug.utils.secure_filename` function that
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Werkzeug provides for you::
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from flask import request
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from werkzeug.utils import secure_filename
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@app.route('/upload', methods=['GET', 'POST'])
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def upload_file():
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if request.method == 'POST':
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f = request.files['the_file']
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f.save('/var/www/uploads/' + secure_filename(f.filename))
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...
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For some better examples, checkout the :ref:`uploading-files` pattern.
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Cookies
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```````
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To access cookies you can use the :attr:`~flask.Request.cookies`
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attribute. To set cookies you can use the
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:attr:`~flask.Response.set_cookie` method of response objects. The
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:attr:`~flask.Request.cookies` attribute of request objects is a
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dictionary with all the cookies the client transmits. If you want to use
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sessions, do not use the cookies directly but instead use the
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:ref:`sessions` in Flask that add some security on top of cookies for you.
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Reading cookies::
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from flask import request
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@app.route('/')
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def index():
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username = request.cookies.get('username')
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# use cookies.get(key) instead of cookies[key] to not get a
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# KeyError if the cookie is missing.
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Storing cookies::
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from flask import make_response
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@app.route('/')
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def index():
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resp = make_response(render_template(...))
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resp.set_cookie('username', 'the username')
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return resp
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Note that cookies are set on response objects. Since you normally
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just return strings from the view functions Flask will convert them into
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response objects for you. If you explicitly want to do that you can use
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the :meth:`~flask.make_response` function and then modify it.
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Sometimes you might want to set a cookie at a point where the response
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object does not exist yet. This is possible by utilizing the
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:ref:`deferred-callbacks` pattern.
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For this also see :ref:`about-responses`.
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Redirects and Errors
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--------------------
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To redirect a user to another endpoint, use the :func:`~flask.redirect`
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function; to abort a request early with an error code, use the
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:func:`~flask.abort` function::
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from flask import abort, redirect, url_for
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@app.route('/')
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def index():
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return redirect(url_for('login'))
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@app.route('/login')
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def login():
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abort(401)
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this_is_never_executed()
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This is a rather pointless example because a user will be redirected from
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the index to a page they cannot access (401 means access denied) but it
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shows how that works.
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By default a black and white error page is shown for each error code. If
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you want to customize the error page, you can use the
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:meth:`~flask.Flask.errorhandler` decorator::
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from flask import render_template
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@app.errorhandler(404)
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def page_not_found(error):
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return render_template('page_not_found.html'), 404
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Note the ``404`` after the :func:`~flask.render_template` call. This
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tells Flask that the status code of that page should be 404 which means
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not found. By default 200 is assumed which translates to: all went well.
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See :ref:`error-handlers` for more details.
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.. _about-responses:
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About Responses
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---------------
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The return value from a view function is automatically converted into a
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response object for you. If the return value is a string it's converted
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into a response object with the string as response body, a ``200 OK``
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status code and a :mimetype:`text/html` mimetype. The logic that Flask applies to
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converting return values into response objects is as follows:
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1. If a response object of the correct type is returned it's directly
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returned from the view.
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2. If it's a string, a response object is created with that data and the
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default parameters.
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3. If a tuple is returned the items in the tuple can provide extra
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information. Such tuples have to be in the form ``(response, status,
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headers)`` or ``(response, headers)`` where at least one item has
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to be in the tuple. The ``status`` value will override the status code
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and ``headers`` can be a list or dictionary of additional header values.
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4. If none of that works, Flask will assume the return value is a
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valid WSGI application and convert that into a response object.
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If you want to get hold of the resulting response object inside the view
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you can use the :func:`~flask.make_response` function.
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Imagine you have a view like this::
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@app.errorhandler(404)
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def not_found(error):
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return render_template('error.html'), 404
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You just need to wrap the return expression with
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:func:`~flask.make_response` and get the response object to modify it, then
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return it::
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@app.errorhandler(404)
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def not_found(error):
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resp = make_response(render_template('error.html'), 404)
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resp.headers['X-Something'] = 'A value'
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return resp
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|
.. _sessions:
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|
|
Sessions
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|
|
--------
|
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|
In addition to the request object there is also a second object called
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:class:`~flask.session` which allows you to store information specific to a
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user from one request to the next. This is implemented on top of cookies
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for you and signs the cookies cryptographically. What this means is that
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the user could look at the contents of your cookie but not modify it,
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unless they know the secret key used for signing.
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In order to use sessions you have to set a secret key. Here is how
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sessions work::
|
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|
from flask import Flask, session, redirect, url_for, escape, request
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app = Flask(__name__)
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# Set the secret key to some random bytes. Keep this really secret!
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app.secret_key = b'_5#y2L"F4Q8z\n\xec]/'
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@app.route('/')
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def index():
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if 'username' in session:
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return 'Logged in as %s' % escape(session['username'])
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|
return 'You are not logged in'
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|
|
@app.route('/login', methods=['GET', 'POST'])
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|
|
def login():
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|
|
if request.method == 'POST':
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|
session['username'] = request.form['username']
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|
return redirect(url_for('index'))
|
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|
|
return '''
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|
|
|
<form method="post">
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|
|
<p><input type=text name=username>
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|
|
<p><input type=submit value=Login>
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|
|
</form>
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|
'''
|
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|
|
@app.route('/logout')
|
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|
|
def logout():
|
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|
|
# remove the username from the session if it's there
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|
|
session.pop('username', None)
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|
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return redirect(url_for('index'))
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The :func:`~flask.escape` mentioned here does escaping for you if you are
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not using the template engine (as in this example).
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.. admonition:: How to generate good secret keys
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A secret key should be as random as possible. Your operating system has
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ways to generate pretty random data based on a cryptographic random
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generator. Use the following command to quickly generate a value for
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:attr:`Flask.secret_key` (or :data:`SECRET_KEY`)::
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$ python -c 'import os; print(os.urandom(16))'
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b'_5#y2L"F4Q8z\n\xec]/'
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A note on cookie-based sessions: Flask will take the values you put into the
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session object and serialize them into a cookie. If you are finding some
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values do not persist across requests, cookies are indeed enabled, and you are
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not getting a clear error message, check the size of the cookie in your page
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responses compared to the size supported by web browsers.
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Besides the default client-side based sessions, if you want to handle
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sessions on the server-side instead, there are several
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Flask extensions that support this.
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Message Flashing
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----------------
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Good applications and user interfaces are all about feedback. If the user
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does not get enough feedback they will probably end up hating the
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application. Flask provides a really simple way to give feedback to a
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user with the flashing system. The flashing system basically makes it
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possible to record a message at the end of a request and access it on the next
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(and only the next) request. This is usually combined with a layout
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template to expose the message.
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To flash a message use the :func:`~flask.flash` method, to get hold of the
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messages you can use :func:`~flask.get_flashed_messages` which is also
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available in the templates. Check out the :ref:`message-flashing-pattern`
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for a full example.
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Logging
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-------
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.. versionadded:: 0.3
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Sometimes you might be in a situation where you deal with data that
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should be correct, but actually is not. For example you may have some client-side
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code that sends an HTTP request to the server but it's obviously
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malformed. This might be caused by a user tampering with the data, or the
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client code failing. Most of the time it's okay to reply with ``400 Bad
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Request`` in that situation, but sometimes that won't do and the code has
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to continue working.
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You may still want to log that something fishy happened. This is where
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loggers come in handy. As of Flask 0.3 a logger is preconfigured for you
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to use.
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Here are some example log calls::
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app.logger.debug('A value for debugging')
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app.logger.warning('A warning occurred (%d apples)', 42)
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app.logger.error('An error occurred')
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The attached :attr:`~flask.Flask.logger` is a standard logging
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:class:`~logging.Logger`, so head over to the official `logging
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documentation <https://docs.python.org/library/logging.html>`_ for more
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information.
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Read more on :ref:`application-errors`.
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Hooking in WSGI Middlewares
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|
---------------------------
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|
If you want to add a WSGI middleware to your application you can wrap the
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|
internal WSGI application. For example if you want to use one of the
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|
middlewares from the Werkzeug package to work around bugs in lighttpd, you
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|
can do it like this::
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|
from werkzeug.contrib.fixers import LighttpdCGIRootFix
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app.wsgi_app = LighttpdCGIRootFix(app.wsgi_app)
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|
Using Flask Extensions
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|
----------------------
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|
Extensions are packages that help you accomplish common tasks. For
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|
example, Flask-SQLAlchemy provides SQLAlchemy support that makes it simple
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|
and easy to use with Flask.
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|
For more on Flask extensions, have a look at :ref:`extensions`.
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|
Deploying to a Web Server
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|
-------------------------
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|
Ready to deploy your new Flask app? Go to :ref:`deployment`.
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