PlanetPedia - Project Structure

/data/

Contains the data for our application

• dwarf-data.md contains data on the dwarf planets
• planets-data.md contains data on the planets of the solar system
• random-facts.md contains a list of random solar system facts

/templates/

Contains the HTML files that will be rendered for the frontend.

• layout.html contains a shared layout for each page. Do not edit this.
• index.html is the homepage. No need to edit this.
• planet-list.html is the page that will display the list of planets [TODO]
• dplanet-list.html is the page that will display the list of dwarf planets [TODO]
• random-fact.html will display a random fact [TODO]
• edit-planet.html will allow the user to edit the entry for a planet [TODO]
• error.html will just display any errors. No need to edit this.

/static/styles

Contains the (singular) CSS file needed for our application's styling: styles.css

This can be extended to add more styles, either to styles.css or in a different stylesheet file.

General note:

/static/ is meant to contain all static files; generally it contains 3 main subfolders styles (for CSS stylesheets), scripts (for JavaScript code) and media (for images, videos, etc.). We do not have any JS scripts or any media for now, but feel free to add your own.

forms.py

This will eventually contain the forms we need for our application. We will work on this during the workshop.

util.py

Some useful functions that handle reading/writing data, conversion to different formats, etc. Do not edit this.

app.py

Our Flask application will be written here. We will work on this during the workshop.

TODO: If you have time, read through app.py to get an idea of what will happen during the workshop.

PlanetPedia - The project

Like Wikipedia, but less extensive. Users can read about the planets in the solar system and edit entries that appear to be erroneous.

Routes, Handlers, HTML files

A route is a URL pattern.

A handler is a function that handles requests made to a particular route.

The table below matches each route in the application to its handler as well as the relevant HTML file (if any).

Route	Handler	HTML File (if any)	Description
/	hello	index.html	Homepage of the application.
/leave	leave	None (redirects elsewhere)	Leave the application.
/random-fact	get_random_fact	random-fact.html	Get a random solar system fact.
/planets	planets	planet-list.html	Get the list of planets.
/dwarf-planets	dwarf_planets	dplanet-list.html	Get the list of dwarf planets.
/edit/planet/<planet_name>	edit_planet_entry(planet_name)	edit-planet.html	Allow user to edit an entry about a planet.

Setup and Installation

Note: We will do this during the workshop as well. No need to do this in advance.

1. Ensure you have Python 3.10+ installed on your system, along with pip.
2. Clone/fork/download the source code from this repository.
3. cd into the folder with these files such that app.py appears in the working directory.
4. Create a Python virtual environment:

On Linux/MacOS:

python3 -m venv .venv

On Windows:

py -m venv .venv

5. Activate the virtual environment:

On Linux/MacOS:

source .venv/bin/activate

On Windows:

.venv\Scripts\activate

6. Install the necessary modules:

pip install flask flask-wtf wtforms

Or, from the requirements.txt:

pip install -r requirements.txt

7. Turn on debug mode for Flask:

On Linux/MacOS:

export FLASK_DEBUG=1

On Windows:

set FLASK_DEBUG=1

8. Run the command flask run, and then open up a browser and go to the URL http://localhost:5000/. The application should be set up if ALL previous instructions have been followed.