Pivot! Switching from Django to Flask

Pivot! Switching from Django to Flask – Patrick's Software Blog

When I first starting getting into Python, I thought it was an amazing language. My first venture into web application development with Python was using the Django framework. While I enjoyed learning about Django and building my first web application using the Django framework, I didn’t feel the excitement to jump into another web application using Django. I can’t pinpoint what the exact reason was, but it just felt like the abstraction of a lot of functionality in Django just added additional complexity (if that makes any sense).

After reading Real Python Part II by Michael Herman, I was really excited to learn about the Flask web framework. After spending just a little bit of time researching Flask, I knew that this was the direction that I want to go with my learning and developing of web applications. Flask is AWESOME! It gives you flexibility to choose the tools you want, it gives you control over as much level of detail in your application that you want, and there are a lot of resources to help you learn about the framework.

The level of excitement that I’ve had in creating my first Flask application is so much greater than when using Django. I just always felt like I had a better understanding of what I was doing and what the application was doing. What that said, I’m switching the focus of my blog to Python Web Application Development using Flask!

I going to be documenting the steps/process that I go through to re-write the Kennedy Family Recipes App using Flask. This will be in a series of blog posts covering setting up the environment (virtual environments, configuration management with git/GitLab, unit testing), user management (login, logout, hashing passwords, email confirmation, password resets), databases (models, SQLAlchemy, migrations), deployment (Digital Ocean).

As a reference, here are a few great resources about Flask that really inspired me:

• Real Python:
  • Part II by Michael Herman – this book/course is what got me excited about Flask. Excellent! Best $ that I’ve spent on technical material in a long time.
• Miguel Grinberg’s Material:
  • Flask Mega-Tutorial: A great blog/course on developing a Flask application
  • Blog – great articles on Flask-related topics. Just great reads!
  • Flask Web Development– This book expands on the concepts presented in the Mega-Tutorial and I learned a great deal about Flask from this book. Some of the source code doesn’t get generated clearly on the Kindle, but there is always the GitHub repo to look at the source code.
• Explore Flask by Robert Picard:
  • Another great reference for Flask development, with some great topics on user management.
• Full Stack Python by Matt Makai:
  • Additional resources on Flask and how I found most of the resources listed here!