Question

Flask deployment issue with imports

Posted on January 16, 2017
Ubuntu 16.04 Apache
Asked by dougcreighton

I followed this guide.

Most of my files are almost identical to the guide (except FlaskApp is changed to the project name HopUpon). except for __init__.py which looks like this:

from flask import *
import json
#import airport_finder2
#import pandas as pd
app = Flask(__name__)

@app.route('/')
def index():
  return render_template('quicksearch.html')

if __name__ == '__main__':
  app.run(debug=True)

This file works but when I uncomment airport_finder2 or pandas as pd I am unable to reach the website. It endlessly searches.

some background on airport_finder2: this is a python file which searches through two csv files and returns a result. These files are located in the same folder as __init__.py - /var/www/HopUpon/HopUpon but I would like to move them to /var/www/HopUpon/HopUpon/static once I can get them working.

pandas: I have pip installed pandas on to the virtual environment.

wsgi: I have tried to create a log but I get an internal server error when I do.

import logging
logging.basicConfig(level=logging.DEBUG,
                    format='%(asctime)s %(levelname)-8s %(message)s',
                    datefmt='%a, %d %b %Y %H:%M:%S',
                    filename='/temp/myapp.log',
                    filemode='w')
logging.debug('A debug message')

So I have no error logs to show. Apologies. I know it would make it much easer.

My questions: Why are these imports giving errors? What errors are they giving? How do I run my Flask app in debug mode on digitalocean?

Any help will be greatly appreciated.

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dougcreighton • January 24, 2017

Accepted Answer

hey I figured out my errors.

Hanging request was due to the .conf file. add the code under WSGIScriptAlias

WSGIApplicationGroup %{GLOBAL}

My second error came from trouble my python file had finding a csv file from which it produced results. Interestingly accessing a csv file on a server with python requires you to find the temp location of that file. which is not the same as the static location. so i referred to my cvs inside __init__.py with:

from pandas import pandas as pd
import os

HERE = os.path.abspath(os.path.dirname(__file__))
file1 = os.path.join(HERE, 'file1.csv')
file2 = os.path.join(HERE, 'file2.csv')

results1 = pd.read_csv(file1)
results2 = pd.read_csv(file2)

I hope this helps others.

Jonathan Tittle • January 18, 2017

@dougcreighton

To run Flask in debug mode, from the CLI, run:

export FLASK_DEBUG=1

and then

flask run

Keep in mind, once you log out of the current session, you’ll need to run the same export again as it’s only valid for the current session (i.e. you’ll need to run that each time you login).

As for the import, the only details I can find on airport_finder point to airport_finder, as in, without the 2, so have you tried to import using airport_finder instead of airport_finder2?