There are two ways you can install and run the Flask instance - through Docker or by installing the dependencies in your own virtual environment.
Following this link, you can install the Docker engine for your OS. Docker allows you to run programs on a Linux VM, which already contains the neccesary dependencies and files. If you've never worked with Docker, please parse through this video, it will help a lot.
After installing Docker and you have the engine open, go to the directory which contains the Dockerfile and run:
docker build -t codeclash_backend .
You will need to do this everytime there are or you make any updates to the project.
Once the Dockerfile is built, run:
docker run -p 5000:5000 codeclash_backend
This will host the Flask server on your terminal so long as port 5000 is not being used.
After pulling the repository, create a virtual environment in the root folder (same level as setup.py).
For Windows:
python -m venv venv
For Mac:
python3 -m venv venv
If you do create a virtual environment some other way, please name it venv. This is so the virtual environment is not pushed to the repository.
After installing the virtual environment, activate the virtual environment on the command prompt. Make sure you're in the folder which contains venv, and run:
For Windows:
venv/Scripts/activate.bat
For Mac:
. venv/bin/activate
Now, you have activated the python virtual environment onto your terminal. You will need to perform the command above anytime you close your terminal.
In the terminal which has activated the virtual environment you will now install the dependencies for the project. Run the command:
pip install -e .
Anytime you pull the repository, you will need to check for changes in the neccesary dependences. If the dependencies have changed in the project, running the command above will install the newest dependencies.
Once you have installed the dependencies and are in the terminal which has your virtual environment activate, so long as you are in the same folder which contains setup.py, you can run:
python startup.py
This will start up a local Flask instance, which you can use to test the routes of the backend.
In order to run tests on the sockets, run the command:
coverage run -m unittest discover