Phonemate-App-Backend

A REST API created using the Flask micro-framework for the smartphone recommender android application "PhoneMate".

Getting Started

Prerequisites

• Python - Version v3.5.2
  Check if Python 3 is already installed.

  python --version

  If Python 3 is not already installed, you can install it using the following command (For Debian systems):

  sudo apt-get install python3=3.5.2*

  
  
• Pip - Version v9.0.1
  Check if pip is already installed.

  pip --version

  If not, install it using the follwing command (For Debian systems):

  sudo apt-get install python3-pip

  
  
• virtualenv - Version v15.1.0
  Check if virtualenv is already installed.

  virtualenv --version

  If not, install it as follows:

  pip install virtualenv

  
  
• MongoDB - Version v3.4.13
  Instructions to download it are available at the following link:
  MongoDB Community Edition Server: https://docs.mongodb.com/manual/administration/install-community/
  

Installing

• 1. Clone the project and put it in your home folder
     This can be done using the Github Clone or download button or by using the following command:

     git clone https://github.com/vishvanatarajan/Phonemate-App-Backend.git

• 2. Open the project folder and create a virtual environment.

     cd <your_project_directory> (Phonemate-App-Backend)
     virtualenv venv

• 3. Activate the virtual environment.

     source venv/bin/activate

• 4. Inside the project folder, create a folder called instance.
     Now, create two files inside this folder:
     • 1. init.py - To mark this folder as a Python package.
     • 2. config.py - A file that stores project sensitive information such as SECRET-KEY, API keys, etc.
          

     #Sample contents for instance/config.py
     
     DEBUG = True
     DATABASE_URI = "mongodb://localhost:27017/<database_name>
     DATABASE_NAME = <database_name>
     SECRET_KEY = "your-secret-key-needs-to-be-put-here"
     BCRYPT_LOG_ROUNDS = 14 #can be changed according to requirements, but this is ideal
     DEVELOPER_EMAIL = <give the developer email id>
     DEVELOPER_PASSWORD = <give the password against which this account will be validated>

• 5. The SECRET_KEY can be generated with the following Python code:

     import os
     os.urandom(24)

• 6. Open the project folder in the terminal and install the required Python modules using the following command:

     pip install -r requirements.txt

• 7. Final Directory structure

     Phonemate-App-Backend <project_folder>
     ├── instance
     │   ├── config.py
     │   └── __init__.py
     ├── phonemate
     │   ├── __init__.py
     │   ├── models
     │   │   ├── __init__.py
     │   │   ├── tokens.py
     │   │   └── users.py
     │   ├── static
     │   └── views.py
     ├── venv
     ├── requirements.txt
     └── run.py

Running the Server

• 1. Activate virtual environment: In the project directory, open the terminal and type,

     source venv/bin/activate

• 2. Start your mongod server, if it is not already started.
     To check status of mongod server in Ubuntu 16.04, type the following command in the terminal:

     sudo systemctl status mongodb

     In case the server is stopped, start it is using the following command:

     sudo systemctl start mongodb

• 3. Run the project.
     

     python run.py

Built With

• Flask - A microframework for Python based on Werkzeug and Jinja 2.
• MongoDB - A Free and Open Source document based NoSQL database.
• MongoEngine - A Document-Object Mapper (think ORM, but for document databases) for working with MongoDB from Python.
• Flask-Bcrypt - A Flask extension that provides bcrypt hashing utilities to securely store password or other sensitive information in the database.
• Flask-CORS - A Flask extension for handling Cross Origin Resource Sharing (CORS), making cross-origin AJAX possible.

Debugging Tips

• 1. If database errors are encountered, ensure that the DATABASE_URI in the [instance/config.py] is correct.
• 2. Format of Authorization token to be sent is - "Bearer <JWT_encoded_token>".
     If this format is not followed, JWT Signature errors will be encountered.
• 3. Whenever a HTTP request is sent, ensure that it always has a content-type: application/json.
     

Note

By default, the app is set to run on http://localhost:5000
If you wish to change it to the IP of your machine, go to the run.py file and change its content as follows:

#run.py

from phonemate import app

if __name__ == "__main__":
    app.run(host="0.0.0.0", port=5000)

Link to Phonemate android application

The source code for the Phonemate android application can be found at the following link:
Link to the Phonemate android application