On the 14^th of September 2015, Avinash Meetoo replied to this email on the Linux User Group of Mauritius (LUGM) mailing list and showed interest in doing a presentation for the next LUGM meetup.

The meetup happened today in Curepipe. I was not able to attend it physically, but thanks to Logan who did the necessary for setting up a Google Hangout session, I joined around 13h00. Shortly after, Avinash started his presentation “Introduction to Flask”.

He welcomed everyone who joined and gave a quick brief about the underlying infrastructure of webapps. I particularly liked the way he explained the model-view-controller (MVC) software design pattern; taking from there he talked about Python frameworks. The popular Django framework comes first, Avinash says. Django should be a powerful framework when a lot is needed for a project, like an interface for backend etc. However, if someone wants a pretty quick setup, say for example a prototype for demo’ing to customers or a small web application, there is this Python micro-framework called Flask that comes handy. Avinash explains why it’s called a “micro” framework; reason being it’s limitation to a subset of functions that full stack Python frameworks would offer. Nonetheless, the functions in Flask are pretty enough for setting up web applications.

Avinash mentioned how he uses Flask in his many projects at Knowledge Seven and how he designed his web application electionsmauritius.com. He and his wife, Christina, came up with an idea about a web application to help Mauritians vote intelligently, two weeks before the General Elections 2014. Avinash then put his genius in the making of the “Elections Mauritius” webapp.

During the presentation, Avinash showed a demo of a simple web application and unveiled the code behind his “Elections Mauritius” web application. The prez lasted for approximately 50 mins including the questions & answers at the end. Those who missed the Hangout session can still catch up on YouTube and once again, thank you Avinash :)

Flask logo used from flask.pocoo.org.