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Sloan the DEV Moderator
Sloan the DEV Moderator

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Coding flask websites in an online environment

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Is there any way to code a flask website without setting up a local environment — i.e online on a website or any such service?

Oldest comments (9)

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bradtaniguchi profile image
Brad

As a Chromebook user I've used a number of web-based tools to build a number of things. However I haven't tried to build anything significant with Python with any of these tools so take my advice with a grain of salt.

Flask is a framework to create web servers in Python, as such where you can develop Python apps and get sensible ways to access the public ports should work. This means any container based web IDE/tool should work. If you aren't sure what "a container based web IDE" is its basically a site you go to that connects to a server somewhere that "runs" a container where you can run back-end code. This is slightly different than a site like codepen or stackblitz which for all intensive purposes just runs code on the client-side using the browser itself to execute what your writing.

Some examples I'd checkout would be:

  • gitpod - free-tier, github integration
  • codesandbox - free-tier
  • repl.it - free-tier, github integration (?)
  • glitch - free-tier, Python support available, but not primary focus
  • github codespaces - free-tier, closed beta, VSCode integration

There are a couple others, but aren't free and thus not included. If you are willing to pay you technically can get an entire full dev environment on the cloud somewhere and connect to it any number of ways.

Good luck!

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ben profile image
Ben Halpern

Between gitpod going open source recently and codespaces getting out of beta at some point, to go along with all the other ones in the space, I think this space may really pick up steam. It seems like web-based development has always been "around the corner", but I feel pretty great about the big picture.

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bradtaniguchi profile image
Brad

I find the single most fascinating part of the idea of "cloud based development environments" is that its actually just computing going full circle.

Way back there was "dumb-terminals" that connected to the large mainframe. I see the future being "dumb-terminals" connecting through the internet connecting to the cloud. Leveraging internet infrastructure, massive computing power available within the cloud, and virtualization means the end user can have a weak/cheap/simple system, but pay for access to what they need from the cloud.

Pay as you go, but for a development environment :D

PS. This trend exists in other facets as-well, such as services like Stadia and GeForce now. What worked for Netflix could work for other subscription services, all of which end up running on what is essentially the cloud.

An interesting time!

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lysofdev profile image
Esteban Hernández

Try repl.it. They have Node servers and support Python so maybe you can try running a Flask server and see if you can connect.

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ironcladdev profile image
Conner Ow

You can use repl.it.
See this template: repl.it/@templates/Multi-Page-Flas...

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bemmio profile image
Edward Mike

Hmmmm, I see

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bemmio profile image
Edward Mike

Y

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bemmio profile image
Edward Mike

Gb

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vulcanwm profile image
Medea • Edited

I find repl.it really helpful as I do all my coding there.
Like I made my game Munity on repl.it