capyWeather

A simple Flask web app that displays a 7-day weather forecast for any location, powered by WeatherAPI.com. Built as the final project for a DevOps bootcamp — the goal was to take a small Python app from source all the way to a production-style deployment using containers, a reverse proxy, and a systemd-managed service.

Tech stack

• Backend: Python 3.9, Flask
• Templating: Jinja2
• Production server: Gunicorn
• Reverse proxy: Nginx
• Container: Docker (multi-stage build)
• Process manager: systemd (for bare-metal deploy)
• External API: WeatherAPI.com

Screenshot

Add a screenshot of the running app here, e.g. ![capyWeather screenshot](docs/screenshot.png)

Prerequisites

• A free API key from WeatherAPI.com
• For local dev: Python 3.9+
• For container deploy: Docker
• For systemd deploy: Ubuntu (or any systemd-based Linux), Python 3, pip

Environment variables

Variable	Required	Description
WEATHER_API_KEY	Yes	Your API key from WeatherAPI.com

Run locally

pip install -r requirements.txt
export WEATHER_API_KEY=your_key_here   # PowerShell: $env:WEATHER_API_KEY="your_key_here"
python app.py

Visit http://localhost:5000.

Deploy with Docker

Pull and run the pre-built image:

docker run -dti -p 80:80 -e WEATHER_API_KEY=your_key_here danos23/weatherapp:final

Or build from source:

docker build -t capyweather .
docker run -dti -p 80:80 -e WEATHER_API_KEY=your_key_here capyweather

Deploy on a server with systemd + Nginx

1. Copy the project files to your target machine (e.g., /home/ubuntu/web-app).
2. Install Python and pip:

   sudo apt install python3 python3-pip

3. Install the Python dependencies:

   pip3 install -r requirements.txt

4. Set the API key (e.g., in /etc/environment or a systemd Environment= directive).
5. Install the systemd unit:

   sudo cp gunicorn_webapp.service /etc/systemd/system/
   sudo systemctl daemon-reload
   sudo systemctl enable --now gunicorn_webapp

6. (Optional) Drop nginx.conf into /etc/nginx/conf.d/ and reload Nginx to expose the app on port 80.

Project layout

web-app/
├── app.py                       # Flask application
├── templates/
│   ├── layout.html              # Base template
│   └── home.html                # Forecast view
├── Dockerfile                   # Multi-stage Python -> Nginx image
├── nginx.conf                   # Reverse proxy config
├── gunicorn_webapp.service      # systemd unit
├── requirements.txt             # Python dependencies
└── README.md