Creating a Storefront Web App with Flask & Python

Flask is a web framework for Python that makes it easy to create web applications. In this article, we’ll walk through the process of building a storefront web app and shopping cart using Flask and Python.

Setting up the Environment

Before we begin, make sure you have Python and pip installed on your computer. You can install Flask using pip by running the following command in your terminal:

$ pip install flask

Creating the Storefront Web App

Start by creating a new Python file for your storefront web app. In this example, we’ll name our file app.py. Import the Flask module and create a new instance of the Flask class:

from flask import Flask
app = Flask(__name__)

Next, define a route for the homepage of your web app. This route will display a list of products available for purchase:

@app.route('/')
def index():
    products = [
        {'name': 'T-shirt', 'price': 20.00},
        {'name': 'Jeans', 'price': 50.00},
        {'name': 'Sneakers', 'price': 80.00}
    ]
    return render_template('index.html', products=products)

Building the Shopping Cart

To implement a shopping cart in your web app, you can use Flask’s session object to store the items that the user adds to their cart. When a user clicks the “Add to Cart” button, you can store the selected product in the session. Here’s an example of how you can implement this functionality:

@app.route('/add_to_cart/')
def add_to_cart(product_name):
    if 'cart' not in session:
        session['cart'] = []
    session['cart'].append(product_name)
    return redirect('/')

Conclusion

With Flask and Python, creating a storefront web app and shopping cart is a straightforward process. By following the steps outlined in this article, you can build your own customizable storefront web app with a fully functional shopping cart.