• Clone the repo
• Create the virtual environment: virtualenv venv
• Activate virtual environment: source venv/bin/activate
• Install packages: pip install -r requirements.txt
• Make sure environment is set up: ./test_venv.py
• Anything pip installs will be reflected in venv; pip freeze > requirements.txt to update
• Deactivate it when finished: deactivate

Before installing the Python MySQL connector, MySQL must be installed locally (otherwise I got pip errors):

• On macOS: brew install mysql
• Note: brew install mysql-connector-c didn't fix the pip errors--if you already did, brew unlink mysql-connector-c and just install mysql

Then, in virtual environment, install a python mysql package:

• pip install pymysql (import pymysql) or pip install mysqlclient (import MySQLdb)
• Note: kept having different issues arise with mysqlclient; recommend pymysql instead