Chat API

A Flask-based API for handling Web Chat UI to Chatbot backend communication.

Setup

1. Create a virtual environment:

python -m venv venv
source venv/bin/activate  # On Windows: venv\Scripts\activate

2. Install dependencies:

pip install -r requirements.txt

3. Create a .env file with the following variables:

DATABASE_URL=postgresql://user:password@localhost:5432/chat_db
FLASK_APP=src.app:create_app()
FLASK_ENV=development
FLASK_DEBUG=1
PORT=5000
HOST=0.0.0.0

4. Initialize the database:

flask db init
flask db migrate
flask db upgrade

Running the Application

Development:

flask run

Production:

gunicorn src.app:create_app()

API Endpoints

Send Message

• POST /api/chat/message
• Body:

{
    "message": "Hello!",
    "user_id": "user123",
    "session_id": "session123"
}

Get Chat History

• GET /api/chat/history/<session_id>

Deployment on DigitalOcean with CapRover

1. Create a new app in CapRover

2. Set up the following environment variables in CapRover:

   • DATABASE_URL
   • FLASK_APP
   • FLASK_ENV=production
   • FLASK_DEBUG=0

3. Deploy using CapRover's deployment interface

Database Setup on DigitalOcean

1. Create a new PostgreSQL database on DigitalOcean
2. Update the DATABASE_URL in your environment variables with the new database credentials
3. Run database migrations after deployment