Registering url routes for your Flask app or blueprint in lazy way :)

Based on original snippet from Flask documentation!

• Python 2.6, 2.7 or 3.3+
• Flask 0.8 or higher

# pip install Flask-LazyViews

Flask-LazyViews is licensed under the BSD License.

project/app.py

from flask import Flask
from flask.ext.lazyviews import LazyViews


app = Flask(__name__)
views = LazyViews(app)

views.add('/', 'views.home')
views.add('/page/<int:page>', 'views.page')

project/views.py

from flask import render_template


def home():
    return render_template('home.html')


def page(page_id):
    page = get_page(page_id)
    return render_template('page.html', page=page)

project/app.py

...

from project.test import blueprint as test_blueprint

...

app.register_blueprint(test_blueprint, url_prefix='/test')

project/test/__init__.py

from flask import Blueprint
from flask.ext.lazyviews import LazyViews


blueprint = Blueprint('test', __name__)
views = LazyViews(blueprint, '.views')

views.add('/', 'test')
views.add('/advanced', 'advanced_test', methods=('GET', 'POST'))

project/test/views.py

from flask import render_template, request


def advanced_test():
    context = generate_context(request.form)
    return render_template('test/advanced.html', **context)


def test():
    return render_template('test/test.html')

The main point of Flask-LazyViews is simplifying process of adding views to the app and blueprint using lazy technique from Flask documentation.

Also the next goal is simplifying viewname definition. For most cases our views functions placed in .views module of app or blueprint, so we don't need to input full path to that module.

This especially useful for blueprints. Let see the example above, if we using original snippet - we'll need to provide path to blueprint's views module:

add_url(blueprint, '/', 'test.views.test')

but with Flask-LazyViews we could to ignore test.

From other side if your view functions placed in some other location or you need to provide full path to its - you still could do this.

Also you could setup import_prefix like done in Django's patterns:

views = LazyViews(app, 'views')
views.add('/', 'home')
views.add('/page/<int:id>', 'page', methods=('GET', 'POST'))

Be careful with import_prefix value if you used __name__ as Flask application name or blueprint import_name. Setting relative path could cause server errors.

Add admin view if Flask-Admin extension is added to Flask application.

admin = Admin(app)
views = LazyViews(app, 'views')
views.add_admin('PageAdmin', name='Page Admin')

Add error handler to Flask application or blueprint, e.g.:

views = LazyViews(app, 'views')
views.add_error(404, 'error')
views.add_error(500, server_error_view)

Add custom URLs for serving static files. It useful when you want handle some static files outside static_url, e.g.:

views = LazyViews(app)
views.add_static('/favicon.ico', defaults={'filename': 'img/favicon.ico'})

If you found some bug in Flask-LazyViews library, please, add new issue to the project's GitHub issues.

• Fixes #3. Make LazyView proxy class lazy again. Fix circullar imports and working outside application context

• Python 3 support (only for Flask 0.10+)
• Flask 0.10+ support
• Fixes #2. Access view function documentation and repr while loading views via strings

• Add support of adding admin views to Flask applications via add_admin method.
• Configure Travis CI support.

• Implement add_error shortcut method for adding custom error handling for Flask application or blueprint.

• Implement init_app and init_blueprint methods for configuring LazyViews instance outside main application module or for multiple applications.
• Add add_static shortcut method for adding custom URL rules for serving static files.
• Add ability to register real view functions with LazyViews instance.

• Initial release.