The REST API built with Python, Flask, Flask-RESTful, and Flask-SQLAlchemy.
REST API lets users register and log in, as well as create stores and items. There are two folders: models and resources (with item.py, store.py, and user.py files in both folders) and app.py, db.py, blacklist.py files.
A Model is a representation of what our application deals with internally. Whenever two parts of application communicate with one another, they'll do so mainly by using Models.
A Resource is what defines how clients will interact with REST API. In the resource are defined the endpoints where clients will have to send requests with required data. Resources use Models to communicate with other parts of the application and to interact with the database.
The REST API was created using Python 3.7. To run the APP you need to install with pip packages listed in requirements.txt (better to use virtual environment):
pip install -r requirements.txt
The entire application is contained within the app.py file.
python app.py
In app.py Flask application is initialized and configured. API resources is also seted up.
Database Python object is created, so all other files import the database variable from this file.
This file contains the blacklist of the JWT tokens – it will be imported by app and the logout resource. Thus tokens can be added to the blacklist when the user logs out.
The ItemModel contains a definition of what data application deals with, and ways to interact with that data. Essentially it is a class with four properties:
- id;
- name;
- price;
- store_id.
Methods in the class can be used to find items by name, save them to the database, or retrieve them.
The StoreModel is another definition of data application deals with. It contains two properties:
- id;
- name.
Because every ItemModel has a store_id property, StoreModels are able to use SQLAlchemy to find the ones that have a store_id equal to the StoreModel's id. It can do that by using SQLAlchemy's db.relationship().
The UserModel contains 3 properties:
- id;
- username;
- password.
The resources/item.py defines an Item and ItemList resources which can be used to retrieve one or multiple items at once via the API.
The Store resource defines how users can get, create and delete stores. StoreList resource is defined to retrieve all stores in our API. As we run APP using SQLite, the restriction of creating a store before creating an item does not apply. You could give an item a store_id of a store that doesn't exist, and SQLite would accept it. But for fully-fledged database, such as PostgreSQL or MySQL, the restriction works, so the id of the store and the store_id of the item must match.
These resource defines creating and updating data as well as user authentication, token refresh, log outs, and more.