written by Eric J. Ma on 2021-05-12 | tags: python software development til
Today, I learned that it's possible to create a desktop app that uses Flask as the webserver, Python for application logic, and HTML/CSS/JS for the front-end.
The logic basically that we split the desktop app code into the front-end and back-end, and we let the front-end and back-end communicate data using JSON. The backend code does whatever complex logic is needed, while the front-end code simply does the rendering. It's basically a very familiar pattern for server-based applications.
One tool that helps with this is flaskwebgui, by GitHub user @ClimenteA. I found out about this tool by reading a dev.to article on using FastAPI to create a desktop application.
I also saw another article on using Svelte.js + Flask to create a Python app. That one also looks like a simple pattern to follow, with the advantage that Svelte.js makes reactivity very simple.
Of course, if you're looking to stay in a single language without this separation of concerns, it's feasible to stay with a single framework, like Streamlit, ipywidgets, Panel, and more. Indeed, for some projects, it may be more pragmatic to stick with a single language depending on the language skillset of those working on that project.
@article{
ericmjl-2021-desktop-flask,
author = {Eric J. Ma},
title = {Desktop Python applications with Flask},
year = {2021},
month = {05},
day = {12},
howpublished = {\url{https://ericmjl.github.io}},
journal = {Eric J. Ma's Blog},
url = {https://ericmjl.github.io/blog/2021/5/12/desktop-python-applications-with-flask},
}
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