Deploying the API

We have been hosting the CultureMesh API on Bluehost on the same server as the main CultureMesh website. Bluehost uses Apache, so we use flup and Fast CGI in combination with a custom .htaccess file to serve the Flask endpoints.

We specify in api.fcgi that a Python 3 binary from a dedicated virtual environment is to be used to run the Flask application.

Here are the docs on Flup and Fast CGI.

Currently, there is no more action for deployment than installing the API source on the Bluehost server, creating the credentials.py file, and letting Apache, flup, and the Python 3 binary run and serve the API Flask application.