Purpose

This example app implements a web service and multiple client apps.

Project structure

project_folder/
│
├── expo-client		# Mobile app example, it consumes the web service
├── scripts		    # scripts for installing Git, Python, creating environments, etc.
├── tkinter-client	# GUI app example, it consumes the web service
├── web-service		# FastAPI web service app with 2 methods
└── README.md

Project setup

Option 1: Locally on Windows

Download the setup file windows_project_setup.bat from /scripts/ folder, and put it in the directory where you want the GitHub repo to be cloned.

Change the value of ORIGIN_REPO at the start of the file, to your own repository.

Execute the script windows_project_setup.bat. You should run it in administrator mode. To run it, double-click on the file, or navigate to the project folder in the terminal and run:

windows_project_setup.bat

Option 2: Locally on Linux

Download the setup file linux_project_setup.sh from /scripts/ folder, and put it in the directory where you want the GitHub repo to be cloned.

Change the value of ORIGIN_REPO at the start of the file, to your own repository.

Make the script executable

chmod +x linux_project_setup.sh

Execute the script:

./linux_project_setup.bat.sh

Option 3: replit.com platform

Do not use the scripts from /scripts folder, they are intended to be run on Windows/Linux locally, and not Replit platform

web-service and tkinter-client can be easily set up in Replit, expo-client cannot.

1. Have a GitHub account
2. Have a replit.com account
3. Import code from this repository to your Replit account Suggestion - fork this repository on GitHub, and clone your copy of it.

git clone https://github.com/REPOSITORY-USERNAME/REPOSITORY-NAME

5. Create an environment if needed

python -m venv your-new-env

6. Activate environment (create one if it does not exist) Windows:

your-new-env\Scripts\activate

Linux

source your-new-env/bin/activate

7. Install dependencies

pip install -r requirements.txt

8. Start the project (refer to instructions from the sub-project readme file)
   expo-client/README.md tkinter-client/README.md web-service-client/README.md

9. Add your repository as a remote, and commit your changes there Useful commands

git remote -v                                                                 # View existing remotes
git remote add origin https://github.com/USERNAME/REPOSITORY_NAME.git         # Add a new remote called 'origin'
git remote set-url origin https://github.com/USERNAME/REPOSITORY_NAME.git     # Change URL for remote called 'origin'

Remove git credentials if you are on a public laptop

Run the correct file from the scripts folder.

Notes

$${\color{red}Important! \space Sensitive \space information \space should \space not\space be \space committed \space to \space the \space GitHub \space repository \space }$$

Usernames, passwords, SSH keys, API keys (OPEN_AI API key!) must not be committed to your repository, even if it is private.
Such values could be stored in .env, .config, and other files. You would create these files on the server manually, your app would read sensitive parameters from these files.
You could include an example .env file in your project, however, called .env_example, with dummy values such as:

openai_key = abc123

These files must be specified in your .gitignore file.

One repository for the web service and multiple clients

In this repository, the web service and client apps are bundled together. In most cases, it is better to separate projects into separate repositories. Consider that for your future projects.
Each of these projects uses a separate environment because a GUI app and a backend web service have different requirements/dependencies and this is how it (often) works in real-life scenarios.

Environment management

Sub-projects use venv for this purpose. uv, Poetry and other alternatives are better, but these would have to be installed (another step during setup). Consider using an alternative for your personal projects in the future.

GUI clients

You could use https://github.com/ParthJadhav/Tkinter-Designer to first design a very user-friendly UI in Figma, and then import and use it for your app.
You could also use an entirely different framework for building your Desktop app, for example:

• PyQt / PySide (Python bindings for the Qt framework)
• Kivy
• PyGame (intended for game development)
• etc.