Flask API + MySQL on Render – README

📦 Flask API with MySQL on Render

This project is a simple Flask API that connects to a MySQL database. It supports full CRUD operations for a students table.

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🧱 Step 1: Setup Project Structure

Your file structure should look like this:

.
├── app.py
├── .env
├── .gitignore
├── requirements.txt

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📜 Step 2: Create .env

Create a .env file to store your sensitive credentials. Example:

DB_HOST=tcp.ap-northeast-1.clawcloudrun.com
DB_USER=root
DB_PASSWORD=Unitec123
DB_NAME=iscg7444
DB_PORT=40910

⚠️ Never commit this file to version control!

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🚫 Step 3: Create .gitignore

Create a .gitignore file and include:

.venv
.env

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⚙️ Step 4: Update app.py to Use .env

Replace hardcoded config with this:

import os
from dotenv import load_dotenv

load_dotenv()

db_config = {{
    'host': os.getenv('DB_HOST'),
    'user': os.getenv('DB_USER'),
    'password': os.getenv('DB_PASSWORD'),
    'database': os.getenv('DB_NAME'),
    'port': os.getenv('DB_PORT')
}}

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📦 Step 5: Create requirements.txt

Install packages and freeze:

pip install flask flask-cors python-dotenv mysql-connector-python
pip freeze > requirements.txt

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🚀 Step 6: Deploy on Render

1. Go to https://render.com and create a Web Service.
2. Connect your GitHub repository.
3. Choose Python environment.
4. Set start command to:

gunicorn app:app

5. Add environmental variables based on your .env file:

DB_HOST
DB_USER
DB_PASSWORD
DB_NAME
DB_PORT

6. Click Deploy.

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✅ Done! Your Flask API with MySQL is now running on Render.