DirectLX.dev

Company website for DirectLX built with Flask, HTMX, and Tailwind CSS.

Tech Stack

• Backend: Python Flask with Flask-SQLAlchemy
• Database: SQLite
• Frontend: HTMX for dynamic interactions, Tailwind CSS for styling
• Templating: Jinja2
• Production: Gunicorn + Nginx

Features

• Company pages (Home, About, Services, Contact)
• Blog with search and pagination
• Community forum with categories, topics, and replies
• HTMX-powered forms and dynamic content loading
• Responsive design

Project Structure

directlx.dev/
├── app.py                 # Flask application & routes
├── config.py              # Configuration settings
├── models.py              # SQLAlchemy models
├── wsgi.py                # WSGI entry point
├── requirements.txt       # Python dependencies
├── package.json           # Node dependencies (Tailwind)
├── tailwind.config.js     # Tailwind configuration
├── templates/
│   ├── base.html          # Base layout
│   ├── index.html         # Home page
│   ├── about.html         # About page
│   ├── services.html      # Services page
│   ├── contact.html       # Contact page
│   ├── blog/              # Blog templates
│   └── forum/             # Forum templates
├── static/
│   ├── css/
│   │   ├── input.css      # Tailwind source
│   │   └── styles.css     # Compiled CSS
│   ├── js/
│   │   └── htmx.min.js    # HTMX library
│   └── images/
│       └── directLX_small.png
├── instance/
│   └── directlx.db        # SQLite database
├── nginx.conf             # Nginx configuration
├── directlx.service       # Systemd service
└── deploy.sh              # Deployment script

Local Development

Prerequisites

• Python 3.10+
• Node.js (for Tailwind CSS)

Setup

# Clone and enter directory
cd directlx.dev

# Create Python virtual environment
python3 -m venv venv
source venv/bin/activate

# Install Python dependencies
pip install -r requirements.txt

# Install Node dependencies and build CSS
npm install
npm run build:css

# Run development server
python app.py

Open http://localhost:5000

Tailwind CSS

Watch for changes during development:

npm run watch:css

Rebuild CSS after template changes:

npm run build:css

Production Deployment

Automated Deployment

sudo ./deploy.sh

Manual Deployment

1. Copy files to server:

   sudo mkdir -p /var/www/html/directlx.dev
   sudo cp -r app.py config.py models.py wsgi.py requirements.txt templates static /var/www/html/directlx.dev/
   

2. Set up Python environment:

   cd /var/www/html/directlx.dev
   sudo python3 -m venv venv
   sudo venv/bin/pip install -r requirements.txt
   

3. Create environment file:

   echo "SECRET_KEY=$(python3 -c 'import secrets; print(secrets.token_hex(32))')" | sudo tee .env
   

4. Set permissions:

   sudo chown -R www-data:www-data /var/www/html/directlx.dev
   sudo chmod -R 755 /var/www/html/directlx.dev
   

5. Install systemd service:

   sudo cp directlx.service /etc/systemd/system/
   sudo systemctl daemon-reload
   sudo systemctl enable --now directlx
   

6. Configure Nginx:

   sudo cp nginx.conf /etc/nginx/sites-available/directlx.dev
   sudo ln -sf /etc/nginx/sites-available/directlx.dev /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/
   sudo nginx -t && sudo systemctl reload nginx
   

Useful Commands

# Check application status
sudo systemctl status directlx

# View application logs
sudo journalctl -u directlx -f

# Restart application
sudo systemctl restart directlx

# Reload Nginx
sudo systemctl reload nginx

Environment Variables

Variable	Description	Required
SECRET_KEY	Flask secret key for sessions	Yes (production)
DATABASE_URL	Database connection string	No (defaults to SQLite)

Database Models

• User - User accounts with authentication
• BlogPost - Blog articles with slugs
• ForumCategory - Forum category organization
• ForumTopic - Discussion topics
• ForumReply - Topic replies
• ContactMessage - Contact form submissions

API Routes

Route	Description
/	Home page
/about	About page
/services	Services page
/contact	Contact page
/blog	Blog listing
/blog/<slug>	Single blog post
/forum	Forum categories
/forum/<slug>	Category topics
/forum/<slug>/<id>	Topic with replies

License

All rights reserved.