The following instructions are referenced from, and a part of, Udacity's Full Stack Web Developer Nanodegree Program. Lesson 3. The Backend: Databases and Applications. For details on the program and its courses, visit Udacity's FSND site at: Udacity Fullstack Nanodegree

If you don't already have Git installed, download Git from git-scm.com. Install the version for your operating system.

On Windows, Git will provide you with a Unix-style terminal and shell (Git Bash).
(On Mac or Linux systems you can use the regular terminal program.)

You will need Git to install the configuration for the VM. If you'd like to learn more about Git, take a look at our course about Git and Github.

VirtualBox is the software that actually runs the VM. You can download it from virtualbox.org, here. Install the platform package for your operating system. You do not need the extension pack or the SDK. You do not need to launch VirtualBox after installing it.

Ubuntu 14.04 Note: If you are running Ubuntu 14.04, install VirtualBox using the Ubuntu Software Center, not the virtualbox.org web site. Due to a reported bug, installing VirtualBox from the site may uninstall other software you need.

Vagrant is the software that configures the VM and lets you share files between your host computer and the VM's filesystem. You can download it from vagrantup.com. Install the version for your operating system.

Windows Note: The Installer may ask you to grant network permissions to Vagrant or make a firewall exception. Be sure to allow this.

Open your copy of the github repo locally, or unzip the files and open a Git terminal in the folder's location.

Using the terminal, change directory to the folder (cd folderpath), then type vagrant up to launch your virtual machine.

Once it is up and running, type vagrant ssh. This will log your terminal into the virtual machine, and you'll get a Linux shell prompt. When you want to log out, type exit at the shell prompt. To turn the virtual machine off (without deleting anything), type vagrant halt. If you do this, you'll need to run vagrant up again before you can log into it.

Now that you have Vagrant up and running type vagrant ssh to log into your VM. change to the /vagrant directory by typing cd /vagrant. This will take you to the shared folder between your virtual machine and host machine.

Type ls to ensure that you are inside the directory that contains project.py, database_setup.py, and two directories named 'templates' and 'static'

Now type python database_setup.py to initialize the database.

Type python lotsofmenus.py to populate the database with restaurants and menu items. (Optional)

Type python project.py to run the Flask web server. In your browser visit http://localhost:5000 to view the restaurant menu app. You should be able to view, add, edit, and delete menu items and restaurants.

The following serialized JSON endpoints for this project are available:

All restaurants /restaurant/JSON

Specific restaurant info /restaurant/int:restaurant_id/menu/JSON

Specific restaurant menu info /restaurant/int:restaurant_id/menu/int:menu_id/JSON