Task Manager API

A modern task management application built with Flask, SQLAlchemy, and a clean web interface. This application allows users to create, read, update, and delete tasks through both a web interface and REST API endpoints.

Features

• Clean and responsive web interface
• RESTful API endpoints
• SQLite database for data persistence
• Task status tracking
• Real-time updates without page refresh

Prerequisites

Before you begin, ensure you have the following installed:

• Python 3.9 or higher
• pip (Python package installer)

Installation

1. Clone the repository:

git clone https://github.com/TennysonGeorge/task-manager-app.git
cd task-manager-app/task-manager-api

2. Create a virtual environment:

# For macOS/Linux
python3 -m venv task-manager
source task-manager/bin/activate

# For Windows
python -m venv task-manager
task-manager\Scripts\activate

3. Install dependencies:

pip install -r requirements.txt

Running the Application

1. Activate the virtual environment (if not already activated):

# For macOS/Linux
source task-manager/bin/activate

# For Windows
task-manager\Scripts\activate

2. Start the Flask application:

python app.py

3. Access the application:

• Web Interface: Open http://127.0.0.1:5001 in your browser
• API Endpoints: Available at http://127.0.0.1:5001/tasks

API Endpoints

Method	Endpoint	Description
GET	/	Web interface
GET	/tasks	Retrieve all tasks
POST	/tasks	Create a new task
GET	/tasks/<id>	Retrieve a specific task
PUT	/tasks/<id>	Update a task
DELETE	/tasks/<id>	Delete a task

Example API Usage

Create a new task:

curl -X POST http://127.0.0.1:5001/tasks \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"title": "New Task", "description": "Task description"}'

Project Structure

task-manager-api/
├── api/
│   ├── __init__.py
│   ├── models.py      # Database models
│   └── routes.py      # API routes
├── static/
│   ├── css/
│   │   └── style.css  # Application styles
│   └── js/
│       └── script.js  # Frontend JavaScript
├── templates/
│   └── index.html     # Main HTML template
├── app.py            # Application entry point
├── requirements.txt  # Python dependencies
└── README.md        # This file

Development

To run the application in development mode with debug features:

DEBUG=true python app.py

The application will automatically reload when you make changes to the code.

Configuration

The application is configured through environment variables:

Variable	Default	Description
HOST	0.0.0.0	Interface the server binds to
PORT	5001	Port the server listens on
DEBUG	unset (off)	Set to true, 1, yes, or on to enable debug mode
SQLALCHEMY_DATABASE_URI	sqlite:///tasks.db	Database connection string

DEBUG defaults to off. Debug mode enables the Werkzeug interactive debugger, which permits arbitrary code execution by anyone who can reach the server, so it must never be enabled in a deployed environment. The Compose setup sets DEBUG=true for local development only.

Docker Support

The application includes Docker support for containerized deployment.

Using Docker Compose (recommended)

docker compose up -d --build

The app is then available at http://localhost:5001.

Useful commands:

docker compose logs -f        # follow logs
docker compose down           # stop and remove the container

Using Docker directly

1. Build the image:

docker build -t task-manager-api .

2. Run the container:

docker run -p 5001:5000 -e PORT=5000 task-manager-api

The -e PORT=5000 is required — see "Container port configuration" below.

Container port configuration

app.py defaults to port 5001, but the Dockerfile exposes 5000 and the published port mapping is 5001:5000. Without an explicit PORT, the app binds to 5001 inside the container while the mapping forwards to 5000, so nothing is reachable on the host.

docker-compose.yml therefore sets PORT=5000 so the app binds to the port that is actually mapped. Keep this in mind if you change the port mapping: the container-side port in ports: and the PORT environment variable must match.

Dependency pinning

Flask-SQLAlchemy==2.5.1 is not compatible with SQLAlchemy 2.x. With SQLAlchemy left unpinned, pip resolves to 2.x and the app crashes on import:

AttributeError: module 'sqlalchemy' has no attribute '__all__'

requirements.txt pins SQLAlchemy==1.4.54 to avoid this, and Flask-Migrate==3.1.0 to stay compatible with Flask-SQLAlchemy 2.x. These pins should be updated together if Flask-SQLAlchemy is upgraded to 3.x.

Database persistence

The Compose setup bind-mounts ./data into /app/data and sets SQLALCHEMY_DATABASE_URI=sqlite:///data/tasks.db, so tasks survive container restarts. The data/ directory is created on first run and should not be committed.

Testing

Run the test suite:

pytest

Contributing

1. Fork the repository
2. Create a feature branch
3. Commit your changes
4. Push to the branch
5. Create a Pull Request

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License - see the LICENSE file for details.