Masonite is the rapid application Python development framework that strives for: beautiful and elegant syntax, actual batteries included with a lot of out of the box functionality, and extremely extendable. Masonite works hard to be fast and easy from install to deployment so developers can go from concept to creation in as quick and efficiently as possible. Try it once and you’ll fall in love.

• Easily send emails with the Mail Provider and the SMTP and Mailgun drivers.
• Send websocket requests from your server with the Broadcast Provider and Pusher and Ably drivers.
• IOC container and auto resolving dependency injection.
• Service Providers to easily add functionality to the framework.
• Extremely simple static files configured and ready to go.
• Active Record style ORM called Orator.
• An extremely useful command line tool called craft commands.
• Extremely extendable.

These, among many other features, are all shipped out of the box and ready to go. Use what you need when you need it.

In order to use Masonite, you’ll need:

• Python 3.4+
• Pip

If you are running on a Linux flavor, you’ll need the Python dev package and OpenSSL. You can download this package by running:

{% code-tabs %} {% code-tabs-item title="terminal" %}

$ sudo apt-get install python-dev libssl-dev

{% endcode-tabs-item %} {% endcode-tabs %}

Or you may need to specify your python3.x-dev version:

{% code-tabs %} {% code-tabs-item title="terminal" %}

$ sudo apt-get install python3.6-dev libssl-dev

{% endcode-tabs-item %} {% endcode-tabs %}

Masonite works at being simple to install and get going. We use a simple command line that will become your best friend. You’ll never want to develop again without it. We call it the craft command line tool.

We can download our craft command line tool by just running:

{% code-tabs %} {% code-tabs-item title="terminal" %}

$ pip install masonite-cli

{% endcode-tabs-item %} {% endcode-tabs %}

{% hint style="danger" %} You may have to use sudo if you are on a UNIX machine {% endhint %}

Great! We are now ready to create our first project. We should have the new craft command. We can check this by running:

{% code-tabs %} {% code-tabs-item title="terminal" %}

$ craft

{% endcode-tabs-item %} {% endcode-tabs %}

This should show a list of command options. If it doesn't then try closing your terminal and reopening it or running it with sudo if you are on a UNIX machine. We are currently only interested in the craft new command. To create a new project just run:

{% code-tabs %} {% code-tabs-item title="terminal" %}

$ craft new project_name
$ cd project_name

{% endcode-tabs-item %} {% endcode-tabs %}

This will get the latest Masonite project template and unzip it for you. We just need to go into our new project directory and install the dependencies in our requirements.txt file.

You can optionally create a virtual environment if you don't want to install all of masonite's dependencies on your systems Python. If you use virtual environments then create your virtual environment by running:

{% code-tabs %} {% code-tabs-item title="terminal" %}

$ python -m venv venv
$ source venv/bin/activate

{% endcode-tabs-item %} {% endcode-tabs %}

or if you are on Windows:

{% code-tabs %} {% code-tabs-item title="terminal" %}

$ python -m venv venv
$ ./venv/Scripts/activate

{% endcode-tabs-item %} {% endcode-tabs %}

Now lets install our dependencies. We can do this simply by using a craft command:

{% code-tabs %} {% code-tabs-item title="terminal" %}

$ craft install

{% endcode-tabs-item %} {% endcode-tabs %}

This installs all the required dependencies of Masonite, creates a .env file for us, generates a new secret key, and puts that secret key in our .env file. After it’s done we can just run the server by using another craft command:

{% code-tabs %} {% code-tabs-item title="terminal" %}

$ craft serve

{% endcode-tabs-item %} {% endcode-tabs %}

Congratulations! You’ve setup your first Masonite project! Keep going to learn more about how to use Masonite to build your applications. You can learn more about craft by reading The Craft Command documentation.