Request object properties in Flask - Mini Project: Build & Apply

Exploring Flask Request Object Properties

📖 Scenario: You are building a simple Flask web app that receives user data through a form submission. You want to access different parts of the incoming request to understand what the user sent.

🎯 Goal: Learn how to access key properties of the Flask request object such as method, args, and form to handle user input.

📋 What You'll Learn

Create a Flask app with a route that accepts GET and POST requests

Access the HTTP method used in the request

Access query parameters from the URL

Access form data sent via POST

💡 Why This Matters

🌍 Real World

Web apps often need to read user input sent via URLs or forms. Understanding how to access request data is essential for building interactive websites.

💼 Career

Backend developers working with Flask or similar frameworks must know how to handle incoming request data to process user input and build APIs.

1

Set up a basic Flask app with a route

Import Flask and request from flask. Create a Flask app called app. Define a route at '/' that accepts both GET and POST methods with a function called index.

Flask

from flask import Flask, request

# Create a Flask app called app
# Define a route '/' that accepts GET and POST methods with a function index

Need a hint?

Remember to import both Flask and request. Use @app.route decorator with methods=['GET', 'POST'].

2

Access the HTTP method of the request

Inside the index function, create a variable called method and set it to request.method to get the HTTP method used.

Flask

from flask import Flask, request

app = Flask(__name__)

@app.route('/', methods=['GET', 'POST'])
def index():
    # Get the HTTP method used in the request
    # Your code here

Need a hint?

Use request.method to find out if the request is GET or POST.

3

Access query parameters from the URL

Inside the index function, create a variable called name and set it to request.args.get('name') to get the value of the query parameter named name.

Flask

from flask import Flask, request

app = Flask(__name__)

@app.route('/', methods=['GET', 'POST'])
def index():
    method = request.method
    # Get the 'name' query parameter from the URL
    # Your code here

Need a hint?

Use request.args.get('name') to access query parameters sent in the URL.

4

Access form data sent via POST

Inside the index function, create a variable called email and set it to request.form.get('email') to get the value of the form field named email.

Flask

from flask import Flask, request

app = Flask(__name__)

@app.route('/', methods=['GET', 'POST'])
def index():
    method = request.method
    name = request.args.get('name')
    # Get the 'email' form field from POST data
    # Your code here

Need a hint?

Use request.form.get('email') to access form data sent in a POST request.