The Flask Ecosystem has a lot of extensions. I'll introduce a couple I've stumbled over. There is also an awesome list, but it contains too many extensions and too little explanation when to use what.
Databases
Flask-SQLAlchemy and
Flask-Migrate (Alembic)
are pretty much standard. The first one is a binding to the de-facto standard
ORM in Python (SQLAlchemy) and the second one is for creating Migrations with
Alembic.
REST API
Flask-RESTPlus is good for creating nice REST APIs. It also generates a swagger page 🙂
flask-restless works directly on the models. I haven't used it so far.
Worse alternatives:
- Flask-Restful: No autogenerated Swagger
Forms
Flask-WTF is for creating forms, including CSRF, file upload, and reCAPTCHA.
Flask-Mail provides a simple interface to set up SMTP with your Flask application and to send messages from your views and scripts.
Role Management
User management
Flask-Login provides user session management for Flask. It handles the common tasks of logging in, logging out, and remembering your users’ sessions over extended periods of time.
Here is a usage example:
from flask_login import LoginManager
from flask_login import current_user, login_user, login_required, logout_user
login_manager = LoginManager()
login_manager.login_view = 'auth.login'
@login_manager.user_loader
def load_user(id):
return User.query.get(int(id))
@login_required
@app.route('/private')
def some_private_view():
return 'You can only watch this if you're logged in'
@auth.route('/login', methods=['GET', 'POST'])
def login():
if current_user.is_authenticated:
return redirect(url_for('main.index'))
form = LoginForm() # You have to create LoginForm on your own
if form.validate_on_submit():
user = User.query.filter_by(email=form.email.data).first()
if user is None or not user.check_password(form.password.data):
flash('Invalid email or password', 'error')
return redirect(url_for('auth.login'))
login_user(user, remember=form.remember_me.data)
return redirect(url_for('some_private_view'))
return render_template('login.html', form=form)
@auth.route("/logout")
@login_required
def logout():
logout_user()
return redirect(url_for('main.index'))
@auth.route('/register', methods=['GET', 'POST'])
def register():
if current_user.is_authenticated:
return redirect(url_for('main.index'))
form = RegistrationForm() # You have to write RegistrationForm on your own
if form.validate_on_submit():
user = User(email=form.email.data)
user.set_password(form.password.data)
db.session.add(user)
db.session.commit()
user = User.query.filter_by(id=user.id).first_or_404()
user.display_name = 'user_{}'.format(user.id)
db.session.commit()
flash('Congratulations, you are now a registered user!')
return redirect(url_for('auth.login'))
return render_template('register.html', form=form)
There is also Flask-User and Flask-Security which both offer you to give you the following:
- Registration
- Forgotten Password
- Login / Logout
Instead of using those, you might want to combine Flask-Principal, Flask-Login, Flask-Mail.