Python: Preparing Python and Flask for production deployment

This documentation is part of the Creating a REST API guide. You can view the complete guide here: How to create a REST API using Flask.

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While this guide uses Flask's built-in development server, for production it is essential to use a production-ready WSGI server such as Gunicorn. Follow these steps:

1. Install Gunicorn:

   pip install gunicorn
   pip freeze > requirements.txt
   

2. Start your app using Gunicorn with the app:app argument (where the first app is the filename and the second app is the Flask instance):

   ENV=production gunicorn app:app \
     --error-logfile - \
     -b 0.0.0.0:8080
   

3. Create a Makefile to simplify switching between development and production modes:

   .DEFAULT_GOAL := dev
   
   # By default, Stackhero for Python executes the "run" rule. We override it to run the 'prod' rule.
   run: prod
   
   prod:
    	ENV=production gunicorn app:app \
    	  --error-logfile - \
    	  -b 0.0.0.0:8080
   
   dev:
    	python app.py
   

You can run your server in development mode using make dev (or simply make), and in production mode using make prod.