Assignment 7 - Deployment

Objectives

• More practice working with remote servers.
• Practicing extending an existing application, albeit simply.

Setup

1. If not done already, complete the Labs on working with remote servers so that you can connect to the ada.cis.uncw.edu server.
2. If not done already, complete Lab: Flask server app to sign-up for, check out, and run the assignment.

Part A - extend the web app

Work on your computer to extend and test the assn7 app.

1. Create and work in a new branch.
2. Open the file templates/index.html and the header line to <h1>Welcome to [YOUR_NAME]'s Flask Quizzer!</h1>
3. Add at least three more MultipleChoiceQuestions to the list in questions.py.
4. Start the server app on your computer using flask --app app run --debug. Full setup and running instructions are in Lab: Flask server app.
5. (See note below) Test your changes using a web browser as a client, i.e., navigate to http://127.0.0.1:5000.
6. Commit and push your branch.
7. Merge your branch into main. Commit and push main to GitHub.

Testing the server app locally

You test your app by calling the API endpoints. Do this by putting an endpoint URL into the address bar of your browser.

You will need to get the unique id (UUID) of the question you want to check. The UUIDs will change every time you start your server. You can get them by trying random questions, like in the video below, or (even better) you can add a print() statement to the loop in questions.py to print them out when they’re made.

Like below:

Part B - deploy and run your app on ada

You must be on the hawkwifi, a UNCW lab computer, or the VPN to connect to ada.cis.uncw.edu.

Setup on ada

1. Connect to the ada server and clone your assn7 GitHub repo there as described in Lab: Working on ada.
2. cd into your project directory
3. Create the virtual environment needed to run flask with the following commands:

   python3 -m venv .venv
   source .venv/bin/activate
   pip install -r requirements.txt
   

   You should see several libraries install.

Running on ada

1. Make sure you are in the project directory.
2. Your ada Terminal must show the text (.venv) before you can run the server. If you do not see (.venv), run source .venv/bin/activate to activate the virtual environment.

3. flask --app app run -h 0.0.0.0 -p [5-digit]  # put a number between 20000-50000
   

   Use a different port number if you see an error like Port 23456 is in use by another program. Either identify and stop that program, or start the server with a different port.

Updating your code on ada

If you find a bug, or want to change something in your code, work on it on your local computer first. Commit and push to GitHub. Then connect to ada, pull your changes, and try them there.

Submission due Monday, December 2

1. Commit and push all your changes to GitHub.
2. Permanently run your server on ada by doing the following:

   nohup flask --app app run -h 0.0.0.0 -p [5-digit port number]
   

   You will see different output.
3. Hit CTRL-Z to suspend the server
4. Run the command bg to put the server in the background.
5. Run cat nohup.out. Note the URL in that file.
6. Open a browser and put in your URL address to verify that can accessing the app remotely.
7. Submit your server’s URL including the port on the Canvas assignment page: https://uncw.instructure.com/courses/83039/assignments/1258974

Assignment 7 Rubric

• (10pts) git log history shows commits to a feature branch and merge into main with required changed to the app.
• (15pts) Final version deployed, accessible, and functional on ada with URL submitted to the Canvas assignment.