Visual Studio Community Python

| 01-05-2021
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In this video, Jeff shows how to get started with Visual Studio 2019 and Python. He even installs and uses the Intel Python distribution as well, to show ho. Python support is presently available only on Visual Studio for Windows; on Mac and Linux, Python support is available through Visual Studio Code. Download and run the latest Visual Studio installer for Windows (Python support is present in release 15.2 and later).

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In this 5-10 minute introduction to Visual Studio as a Python IDE, you create a simple Python web application based on the Flask framework. You create the project through discrete steps that help you learn about Visual Studio's basic features.

If you haven't already installed Visual Studio, go to the Visual Studio downloads page to install it for free. In the installer, make sure to select the Python development workload.

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If you haven't already installed Visual Studio, go to the Visual Studio downloads page to install it for free. In the installer, make sure to select the Python development workload.

Create the project

The following steps create an empty project that serves as a container for the application:

  1. Open Visual Studio 2017.

  2. From the top menu bar, choose File > New > Project.

  3. In the New Project dialog box, enter 'Python Web Project' in the search field on the upper right, choose Web project in the middle list, give the project a name like 'HelloPython', then choose OK.

    If you don't see the Python project templates, run the Visual Studio Installer, select More > Modify, select the Python development workload, then choose Modify.

  4. The new project opens in Solution Explorer in the right pane. The project is empty at this point because it contains no other files.

  1. Open Visual Studio 2019. Alex driver download.

  2. On the start screen, select Create a new project.

  3. In the Create a new project dialog box, enter 'Python web' in the search field at the top, choose Web Project in the middle list, then select Next:

    If you don't see the Python project templates, run the Visual Studio Installer, select More > Modify, select the Python development workload, then choose Modify.

  4. In the Configure your new project dialog that follows, enter 'HelloPython' for Project name, specify a location, and select Create. (The Solution name is automatically set to match the Project name.)

  5. The new project opens in Solution Explorer in the right pane. The project is empty at this point because it contains no other files.

Mac

Question: What's the advantage of creating a project in Visual Studio for a Python application?

Answer: Python applications are typically defined using only folders and files, but this simple structure can become burdensome as applications become larger and perhaps involve auto-generated files, JavaScript for web applications, and so on. A Visual Studio project helps manage this complexity. The project (a .pyproj file) identifies all the source and content files associated with your project, contains build information for each file, maintains the information to integrate with source-control systems, and helps you organize your application into logical components.

Does Visual Studio Community Support Python

Question: What is the 'solution' shown in Solution Explorer?

Answer: A Visual Studio solution is a container that helps you manage for one or more related projects as a group, and stores configuration settings that aren't specific to a project. Projects in a solution can also reference one another, such that running one project (a Python app) automatically builds a second project (such as a C++ extension used in the Python app).

Install the Flask library

Web apps in Python almost always use one of the many available Python libraries to handle low-level details like routing web requests and shaping responses. For this purpose, Visual Studio provides a variety of templates for web apps, one of which you use later in this Quickstart.

Here, you use the following steps to install the Flask library into the default 'global environment' that Visual Studio uses for this project.

  1. Expand the Python Environments node in the project to see the default environment for the project.

  2. Right-click the environment and select Install Python Package. This command opens the Python Environments window on the Packages tab.

  3. Enter 'flask' in the search field and select pip install flask from PyPI. Accept any prompts for administrator privileges and observe the Output window in Visual Studio for progress. (A prompt for elevation happens when the packages folder for the global environment is located within a protected area like C:Program Files.)

  1. Expand the Python Environments node in the project to see the default environment for the project.

  2. Right-click the environment and select Manage Python Packages... This command opens the Python Environments window on the Packages (PyPI) tab.

  3. Enter 'flask' in the search field. If Flask appears below the search box, you can skip this step. Otherwise select Run command: pip install flask. Accept any prompts for administrator privileges and observe the Output window in Visual Studio for progress. (A prompt for elevation happens when the packages folder for the global environment is located within a protected area like C:Program Files.)

  1. Once installed, the library appears in the environment in Solution Explorer, which means that you can make use of it in Python code.

Note

Instead of installing libraries in the global environment, developers typically create a 'virtual environment' in which to install libraries for a specific project. Visual Studio templates typically offer this option, as discussed in Quickstart - Create a Python project using a template.

Question: Where do I learn more about other available Python packages?

Answer: Visit the Python Package Index.

Add a code file

You're now ready to add a bit of Python code to implement a minimal web app.

  1. Right-click the project in Solution Explorer and select Add > New Item.

  2. In the dialog that appears, select Empty Python File, name it app.py, and select Add. Visual Studio automatically opens the file in an editor window.

  3. Copy the following code and paste it into app.py:

  4. You may have noticed that the Add > New Item dialog box displays many other types of files you can add to a Python project, including a Python class, a Python package, a Python unit test, web.config files, and more. In general, these item templates, as they're called, are a great way to quickly create files with useful boilerplate code.

Question: Where can I learn more about Flask?

Answer: Refer to the Flask documentation, starting with the Flask Quickstart.

Run the application

Python On Visual Studio

  1. Right-click app.py in Solution Explorer and select Set as startup file. This command identifies the code file to launch in Python when running the app.

  2. Right-click the project in Solution Explorer and select Properties. Then select the Debug tab and set the Port Number property to 4449. This step ensures that Visual Studio launches a browser with localhost:4449 to match the app.run arguments in the code.

  3. Select Debug > Start Without Debugging (Ctrl+F5), which saves changes to files and runs the app.

  4. A command window appears with the message Running in https://localhost:4449, and a browser window should open to localhost:4449 where you see the message, 'Hello, Python!' The GET request also appears in the command window with a status of 200.

    If a browser does not open automatically, start the browser of your choice and navigate to localhost:4449.

    If you see only the Python interactive shell in the command window, or if that window flashes on the screen briefly, ensure that you set app.py as the startup file in step 1 above.

  5. Navigate to localhost:4449/hello to test that the decorator for the /hello resource also works. Again, the GET request appears in the command window with a status of 200. Feel free to try some other URL as well to see that they show 404 status codes in the command window.

  6. Close the command window to stop the app, then close the browser window.

Question: What's the difference between the Start Without Debugging command and Start Debugging?

Answer: You use Start Debugging to run the app in the context of the Visual Studio debugger, allowing you to set breakpoints, examine variables, and step through your code line by line. Apps may run slower in the debugger because of the various hooks that make debugging possible. Start Without Debugging, in contrast, runs the app directly as if you ran it from the command line, with no debugging context, and also automatically launches a browser and navigates to the URL specified in the project properties' Debug tab.

Next steps

Congratulations on running your first Python app from Visual Studio, in which you've learned a little about using Visual Studio as a Python IDE!

Because the steps you followed in this Quickstart are fairly generic, you've probably guessed that they can and should be automated. Such automation is the role of Visual Studio project templates. Go through Quickstart - Create a Python project using a template for a demonstration that creates a web app similar to the one you created in this article, but with fewer steps.

Visual Studio Community Python Tools

To continue with a fuller tutorial on Python in Visual Studio, including using the interactive window, debugging, data visualization, and working with Git, go through Tutorial: Get started with Python in Visual Studio.

Visual Studio Community Python Tutorial

To explore more that Visual Studio has to offer, select the links below.

  • Learn about Python web app templates in Visual Studio.
  • Learn about Python debugging
  • Learn more about the Visual Studio IDE in general.