Getting Started with Flask: Installation, Project Setup, and Bootstrap Integration

Flask is a lightweight Python web micro‑framework built on Werkzeug and Jinja2, allowing rapid development of web sites and services.

Install Flask using the command pip install Flask.

Create a new Flask project in PyCharm (or another IDE) by selecting Flask as the project type and naming it flask_test; the default template and folder settings are sufficient.

The generated file structure includes a static directory for CSS/JS, a templates directory for HTML files, and a flask_test.py script.

You can customize the static and template locations with: app = Flask(__name__, static_folder='', template_folder='') Run flask_test.py (e.g., right‑click → Run). The app starts on port 5000; accessing http://127.0.0.1:5000/ invokes the hello_world view.

To add Bootstrap, first install the extension with pip install flask-bootstrap, then import and initialize it in your script:

from flask_bootstrap import Bootstrap<br/>bootstrap = Bootstrap()<br/>bootstrap.init_app(app)

Create template files such as base.html (the layout that extends Bootstrap’s base) and hello_world.html. Place them in the templates folder.

Update the route to render the template:

@app.route('/')<br/>def hello_world():<br/>    return render_template('hello_world.html')

After restarting the server and visiting http://127.0.0.1:5000/, a page with a navigation bar and styled content appears, demonstrating Flask’s simplicity and the power of integrating Bootstrap.

The tutorial concludes with a brief preview of future Flask template topics.