Flask-SQLAlchemy setup - Mini Project: Build & Apply

Flask-SQLAlchemy setup

📖 Scenario: You are building a simple web app to store book information. You want to save book titles and authors in a database using Flask and SQLAlchemy.

🎯 Goal: Create a Flask app with SQLAlchemy configured, define a Book model, and set up the database connection.

📋 What You'll Learn

Create a Flask app instance named app

Configure the app with SQLALCHEMY_DATABASE_URI set to sqlite:///books.db

Create a SQLAlchemy object named db linked to the app

Define a Book model with id, title, and author fields

Ensure the id is the primary key and an integer

Use db.Column and appropriate types for fields

💡 Why This Matters

🌍 Real World

Flask with SQLAlchemy is commonly used to build web apps that need to store and manage data in databases.

💼 Career

Understanding how to set up Flask with SQLAlchemy is essential for backend web development roles using Python.

1

Create Flask app instance

Write code to import Flask from flask and create a Flask app instance called app.

Flask

# Import Flask and create app instance
# Your code here

Need a hint?

Use Flask(__name__) to create the app.

2

Configure database URI

Add a configuration line to app.config setting SQLALCHEMY_DATABASE_URI to 'sqlite:///books.db'.

Flask

from flask import Flask
app = Flask(__name__)
# Configure SQLALCHEMY_DATABASE_URI
# Your code here

Need a hint?

Use app.config['SQLALCHEMY_DATABASE_URI'] = 'sqlite:///books.db'.

3

Create SQLAlchemy object

Import SQLAlchemy from flask_sqlalchemy and create a db object by passing app to SQLAlchemy.

Flask

from flask import Flask
app = Flask(__name__)
app.config['SQLALCHEMY_DATABASE_URI'] = 'sqlite:///books.db'
# Import SQLAlchemy and create db object
# Your code here

Need a hint?

Use db = SQLAlchemy(app) after importing.

4

Define Book model

Define a class Book that inherits from db.Model. Add three fields: id as an integer primary key, title as a string of max length 100, and author as a string of max length 50. Use db.Column and appropriate types.

Flask

from flask import Flask
app = Flask(__name__)
app.config['SQLALCHEMY_DATABASE_URI'] = 'sqlite:///books.db'
from flask_sqlalchemy import SQLAlchemy
db = SQLAlchemy(app)

# Define Book model
# Your code here

Need a hint?

Define Book class with fields using db.Column and types.