devilbox/docs/examples/setup-reverse-proxy-python-flask.rst

Setup reverse proxy Python Flask

This example will walk you through adding a version specific Python Flask docker container, creating a simple Flask hello world application and have its requirements specified in requirements.txt automatically installed. Once setup, your application will be ready via docker-compose up, proxied to the web server and can be reached via valid HTTPS.

Note

This example is using an additional Docker image, so you are able to specify any Python version you like and even be able to add multiple Docker images with different versions.

Table of Contents

local

Overview

The following configuration will be used:

Project name	VirtualHost directory	Database	TLD_SUFFIX	Project URL
my-flask	/shared/httpd/my-flask		loc	http://my-flask.loc https://my-flask.loc

Note

* Inside the Devilbox PHP container, projects are always in /shared/httpd/. * On your host operating system, projects are by default in ./data/www/ inside the Devilbox git directory. This path can be changed via env_httpd_datadir.

The following Devilbox configuration is required:

Service	Implications
Webserver	Reverse proxy vhost-gen template need to be applied
Python Flask	Docker Compose override file must be applied.
.env	FLASK_PROJECT variable must be declared and set.
.env	PYTHON_VERSION variable can be declared and set.

Additionally we will set the listening port of the Flask appliation to 3000.

For a detailed overview about the Compose file see: custom_container_enable_python_flask

Walk through

It will be ready in ten simple steps:

1. Configure Python Flask project name and versoin
2. Enter the PHP container
3. Create a new VirtualHost directory
4. Create Flask hello world application
5. Symlink virtual docroot directory
6. Add reverse proxy vhost-gen config files
7. Copy Python Flask compose file
8. Setup DNS record
9. Restart the Devilbox
10. Visit http://my-flask.loc in your browser

1. Configure Python Flask project name and version

The Python Flask container will only serve a single project. In order for it to know where to find your project, you will have to add an environment variable (FLASK_PROJECT), telling it what the directory name of your project is.

Additionally you can define the Python version (PYTHON_VERSION) under which you want to run your Flask project.

Available Python versions can be seen here: https://github.com/devilbox/docker-python-flask

Add the following variable to the very end of your .env file:

FLASK_PROJECT=my-flask

#PYTHON_VERSION=2.7
#PYTHON_VERSION=3.5
#PYTHON_VERSION=3.6
#PYTHON_VERSION=3.7
PYTHON_VERSION=3.8

2. Enter the PHP container

All work will be done inside the PHP container as it provides you with all required command line tools.

Navigate to the Devilbox git directory and execute shell.sh (or shell.bat on Windows) to enter the running PHP container.

host> ./shell.sh

* enter_the_php_container * work_inside_the_php_container * available_tools

3. Create new VirtualHost directory

The vhost directory defines the name under which your project will be available. ( <vhost dir>.TLD_SUFFIX will be the final URL ).

devilbox@php-7.0.20 in /shared/httpd $ mkdir my-flask

env_tld_suffix

4. Create Flask hello world application

4.1 Add your code

# Navigate to your project directory
devilbox@php-7.0.20 in /shared/httpd $ cd my-flask

# Create a directory which will hold the source code
devilbox@php-7.0.20 in /shared/httpd/my-flask $ mkdir app

# Create the main.py file with your favourite editor
devilbox@php-7.0.20 in /shared/httpd/my-flask/app $ vi main.py

"""Flask example application."""
from flask import Flask

app = Flask(__name__)

@app.route("/")
def index():
    """Serve the default index page."""
    return "Hello World!"


if __name__ == "__main__":
    """Ensure Flask listens on all interfaces."""
    app.run(host='0.0.0.0')

4.2 Add dependencies

You can optionally add a requirements.txt file which will be read during startup. The Python Flask container will then automatically install all Python libraries specified in that file.

# Navigate to your project directory
devilbox@php-7.0.20 in /shared/httpd $ cd my-flask

# Create and open the file with your favourite editor
devilbox@php-7.0.20 in /shared/httpd/my-flask $ vi requirements.txt

requests

5. Symlink virtual docroot directory

# Navigate to your project directory
devilbox@php-7.0.20 in /shared/httpd $ cd my-flask

# Create the docroot directory
devilbox@php-7.0.20 in /shared/httpd/my-flask $ ln -s app htdocs

env_httpd_docroot_dir

6. Add reverse proxy vhost-gen config files

6.1 Create vhost-gen template directory

Before we can copy the vhost-gen templates, we must create the .devilbox template directory inside the project directory.

# Navigate to your project directory
devilbox@php-7.0.20 in /shared/httpd $ cd my-flask

# Create the .devilbox template directory
devilbox@php-7.0.20 in /shared/httpd/my-flask $ mkdir .devilbox

env_httpd_template_dir

6.2 Copy vhost-gen templates

Now we can copy and adjust the vhost-gen reverse proxy files for Apache 2.2, Apache 2.4 and Nginx.

The reverse vhost-gen templates are available in cfg/vhost-gen:

host> tree -L 1 cfg/vhost-gen/

cfg/vhost-gen/
├── apache22.yml-example-rproxy
├── apache22.yml-example-vhost
├── apache24.yml-example-rproxy
├── apache24.yml-example-vhost
├── nginx.yml-example-rproxy
├── nginx.yml-example-vhost
└── README.md

0 directories, 7 files

For this example we will copy all *-example-rproxy files into data/www/my-flask/.devilbox/ (Inside container: /shared/httpd/my-flask/.devilbox) to ensure this will work with all web servers.

host> cd /path/to/devilbox
host> cp cfg/vhost-gen/apache22.yml-example-rproxy data/www/my-flask/.devilbox/apache22.yml
host> cp cfg/vhost-gen/apache24.yml-example-rproxy data/www/my-flask/.devilbox/apache24.yml
host> cp cfg/vhost-gen/nginx.yml-example-rproxy data/www/my-flask/.devilbox/nginx.yml

6.3 Adjust ports and backend

By default, all vhost-gen templates will forward requests to port 8000 into the PHP container. Our current example however uses port 3000 and backend IP 172.16.238.250 (as defined in the Flask docker compose override file), so we must change that accordingly for all three templates.

6.3.1 Adjust Apache 2.2 template

Open the apache22.yml vhost-gen template in your project:

host> cd /path/to/devilbox
host> vi data/www/my-flask/.devilbox/apache22.yml

Find the two lines with ProxyPass and ProxyPassReverse and change the port from 8000 to 3000 as well as the backend server from php to 172.16.238.250.

# ... more lines above ... #

###
### Basic vHost skeleton
###
vhost: |
  <VirtualHost __DEFAULT_VHOST__:__PORT__>
      ServerName   __VHOST_NAME__

      CustomLog  "__ACCESS_LOG__" combined
      ErrorLog   "__ERROR_LOG__"

      # Reverse Proxy definition (Ensure to adjust the port, currently '8000')
      ProxyRequests On
      ProxyPreserveHost On
      ProxyPass / http://172.16.238.250:3000/
      ProxyPassReverse / http://172.16.238.250:3000/

# ... more lines below ... #

6.3.2 Adjust Apache 2.4 template

Open the apache24.yml vhost-gen template in your project:

host> cd /path/to/devilbox
host> vi data/www/my-flask/.devilbox/apache24.yml

Find the two lines with ProxyPass and ProxyPassReverse and change the port from 8000 to 3000

# ... more lines above ... #

###
### Basic vHost skeleton
###
vhost: |
  <VirtualHost __DEFAULT_VHOST__:__PORT__>
      ServerName   __VHOST_NAME__

      CustomLog  "__ACCESS_LOG__" combined
      ErrorLog   "__ERROR_LOG__"

      # Reverse Proxy definition (Ensure to adjust the port, currently '8000')
      ProxyRequests On
      ProxyPreserveHost On
      ProxyPass / http://172.16.238.250:3000/
      ProxyPassReverse / http://172.16.238.250:3000/

# ... more lines below ... #

6.3.3 Adjust Nginx template

Open the nginx.yml vhost-gen template in your project:

host> cd /path/to/devilbox
host> vi data/www/my-flask/.devilbox/nginx.yml

Find the lines with proxy_pass and change the port from 8000 to 3000

# ... more lines above ... #

###
### Basic vHost skeleton
###
vhost: |
  server {
      listen       __PORT____DEFAULT_VHOST__;
      server_name  __VHOST_NAME__;

      access_log   "__ACCESS_LOG__" combined;
      error_log    "__ERROR_LOG__" warn;

      # Reverse Proxy definition (Ensure to adjust the port, currently '8000')
      location / {
        proxy_set_header Host $host;
        proxy_set_header X-Real-IP $remote_addr;
        proxy_pass http://172.16.238.250:3000;
      }

# ... more lines below ... #

7. Copy Python Flask compose file

Python Flask comes with its own Docker container and can be added to the Devilbox stack via the docker-compose.override.yml file. A fully functional template already exists in the compose/ directory. All you will have to do is copy it over.

host> cd /path/to/devilbox
host> cp compose/docker-compose.override.yml-python-flask.yml docker-compose.override.yml

docker_compose_override_yml

8. DNS record

If you have Auto DNS configured already, you can skip this section, because DNS entries will be available automatically by the bundled DNS server.

If you don't have Auto DNS configured, you will need to add the following line to your host operating systems /etc/hosts file (or C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc on Windows):

127.0.0.1 my-flask.loc

• howto_add_project_hosts_entry_on_mac
• howto_add_project_hosts_entry_on_win
• setup_auto_dns

9. Restart the Devilbox

Now for those changes to take affect, you will have to restart the Devilbox.

host> cd /path/to/devilbox

# Stop the Devilbox
host> docker-compose down
host> docker-compose rm -f

# Start the Devilbox
host> docker-compose up -d php httpd bind flask1

10. Open your browser

All set now, you can visit http://my-flask.loc or https://my-flask.loc in your browser. The Python Flask application has been started up automatically and the reverse proxy will direct all requests to it.

Next steps