Flask App Directory Structure

Directory Structure

If you want to build a website based on the Flask framework for python. I recommend you organize you app as:

~/AppHome
        |-- run.py
        |-- config.py
        |__ /myapp
                |-- __init__.py
                |__ /subapp1
                        |-- __init__.py
                        |-- models.py
                        |-- views.py
                        |-- viewmodel.py
                |__ /templates
                        |-- base.html
                        |-- index.html
                        |__ /subapp1
                                |-- subapp1_index.html
                                |-- otherpage.html
                |__ /static
                        |__ /js
                        |__ /css
        |-- setup.py
        |-- MANIFEST.in
        |-- Requirements.txt
        |__ /env
        |
        |-- manage.py
        |__ /migrations
                |__ ...
        |__ /etl
                |__ ...
        |
        |-- fabfile.py

What I have shown above is the overall structure of a Flask application that will transition over to production smoothly. Let me explain the structure briefly before we dive into any code.

• run.py is the actual python code that will import the app and execute
• config.py is the file for storing configurations for the app
• myapp is the folder containing the python code and its dependencies such as templates and static files
• myapp/__init__.py is typically where I create the Flask app instance and do all the configuration
• myapp/subapp1 is a sub-package under the myapp packages. I recommend using sub-packages to organize your web application with the help of Blueprints.
  • myapp/subapp1/__init__.py is the place to create the Blueprint definition and other initializations corresponding to your sub-package.
  • myapp/subapp1/models.py is the place to define the SQLAlchemy models.
  • myapp/subapp1/views.py is the place to define the routes that the submodule will provide
  • myapp/subapp1/viewmodel.py is the bridge between model and view. Use this file to create functions to wrap your database queries using models defined in models.py that ``views.py can call. In the future, should you want to add caching support, you can directly add here and have the benefit of caching.
  • templates folder with its sub structure contains the Flask html templates. By mirroring the template sub-folders similar to the app sub-modules, it would be easier to maintain.
  • static folder contains all the static resources. By isolating this folder, we could use other servers such as nginx to serve static content.
• setup.py script can contain the setup script to bundle your app.
• MANIFEST.in typically contains resources about your package, other resources that you wish to package.
• Requirements.txt is the place to put all your package dependencies. You can easily install all dependencies using pip.
• env can contain your virtual environment for development.
• manage.py is the place to put any kinds of Flask related scripts, such as database migrations.
• migrations folder containing configuration and scripts associated with database migration.
• etl is a folder to put scripts related to ETL tasks. This is something that you could move to a different location. Though sometimes it is convenient to group them if you do need to share code with your app.
• fabfile.py to automate local and server side tasks that need to be run often.

... to be continued.