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Zach Merrill Avatar

Zach Merrill

Zach has a degree in Accounting, but has taken the jump into the world of programming. He had many unsuccessful attempts to get out of tutorial paralysis, but found PDM and has started building full stack python apps. He’s interested in continually learning about Python, programming, and all things tech.

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Zach Merrill
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    From Backend to Frontend: Connecting FastAPI and Streamlit

    Zach Merrill

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    5 min read

    In my previous Pybites article, I showed how I built and deployed a book tracking API using FastAPI, Docker, and Fly.io. That project taught me a lot about backend development, containers, and deploying modern APIs. But a backend alone isn’t enough—users need an interface. And FastAPI’s Swagger UI, while useful for testing, just isn’t user-friendly enough for everyday use. So, I decided to build a frontend. My goal? A fast, Python-based UI with minimal hassle. That’s when I turned to Streamlit. In this article, I’ll explain why I used Streamlit and how I was able to connect my deployed backend…

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    FastAPI Deployment Made Easy with Docker and Fly.io

    Zach Merrill

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    8 min read

    For the PDM program I worked on a FastAPI project to track books using the Google Book API and also provide AI powered recommendations using Marvin AI. As the project came closer to deployment, I knew that I wanted to try out containerization for a reliable and repeatable way to deploy. I chose Docker due to its widespread use, open-source nature, and consistent behavior across environments.If you’re new to Docker or looking for a straightforward guide to deploying a FastAPI app with Docker and Fly.io, this post is for you. FastAPI Set Up for Docker Before deploying the app, we…