Flask app wont launch 'ImportError: cannot import name 'cached_property' from 'werkzeug' '

Question

I've been working on a Flask app for a few weeks. I finished it today and went to deploy it... and now it won't launch.

I haven't added or removed any code so assume something has changed in the deployment process?

Anyway, here is the full error displayed in the terminal:

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "C:\Users\Kev\Documents\Projects\Docket\manage.py", line 5, in <module>
    from app import create_app, db
  File "C:\Users\Kev\Documents\Projects\Docket\app\__init__.py", line 21, in <module>
    from app.api import api, blueprint, limiter
  File "C:\Users\Kev\Documents\Projects\Docket\app\api\__init__.py", line 2, in <module>
    from flask_restplus import Api
  File "C:\Users\Kev\.virtualenvs\Docket-LasDxOWU\lib\site-packages\flask_restplus\__init_
_.py", line 4, in <module>
    from . import fields, reqparse, apidoc, inputs, cors
  File "C:\Users\Kev\.virtualenvs\Docket-LasDxOWU\lib\site-packages\flask_restplus\fields.
py", line 17, in <module>
    from werkzeug import cached_property
ImportError: cannot import name 'cached_property' from 'werkzeug' (C:\Users\Kev\.virtualen
vs\Docket-LasDxOWU\lib\site-packages\werkzeug\__init__.py)

Also here's the code in the three files mentioned.

manage.py:

from apscheduler.schedulers.background import BackgroundScheduler
from flask_script import Manager
from flask_migrate import Migrate, MigrateCommand

from app import create_app, db

app = create_app()
app.app_context().push()

manager = Manager(app)

migrate = Migrate(app, db)

manager.add_command('db', MigrateCommand)

from app.routes import *
from app.models import *

def clear_data():
    with app.app_context():
        db.session.query(User).delete()
        db.session.query(Todo).delete()
        db.session.commit()
        print("Deleted table rows!")

@manager.command
def run():
    scheduler = BackgroundScheduler()
    scheduler.add_job(clear_data, trigger='interval', minutes=15)
    scheduler.start()
    app.run(debug=True)

if __name__ == '__main__':
    clear_data()
    manager.run()

app/__init__.py:

from flask import Flask
from flask_sqlalchemy import SQLAlchemy
from flask_login import LoginManager

from config import Config

db = SQLAlchemy()

login = LoginManager()

def create_app():
    app = Flask(__name__)
    app.config.from_object(Config)
    db.init_app(app)

    login.init_app(app)
    login.login_view = 'login'

    from app.api import api, blueprint, limiter
    from app.api.endpoints import users, todos, register
    from app.api.endpoints.todos import TodosNS
    from app.api.endpoints.users import UserNS
    from app.api.endpoints.register import RegisterNS

    api.init_app(app)

    app.register_blueprint(blueprint)

    limiter.init_app(app)

    api.add_namespace(TodosNS)
    api.add_namespace(UserNS)
    api.add_namespace(RegisterNS)

    return app

api/__init__.py:

from logging import StreamHandler
from flask_restplus import Api
from flask import Blueprint
from flask_limiter import Limiter
from flask_limiter.util import get_remote_address

blueprint = Blueprint('api', __name__, url_prefix='/api')

limiter = Limiter(key_func=get_remote_address)
limiter.logger.addHandler(StreamHandler())

api = Api(blueprint, doc='/documentation', version='1.0', title='Docket API',
          description='API for Docket. Create users and todo items through a REST API.\n'
                      'First of all, begin by registering a new user via the registration form in the web interface.\n'
                      'Or via a `POST` request to the `/Register/` end point', decorators=[limiter.limit("50/day", error_message="API request limit has been reached (50 per day)")])

I've tried reinstalling flask & flask_restplus but no-luck.

Answer 1

The proper answer for May 2020: flask-restplus is dead, move to flask-restx.

From noirbizarre/flask-restplus#778 (comment):

flask-restplus work has been discontinued due to maintainers not having pypi keys. See the drop in replacement, flask-restx. It's an official fork by the maintainer team. We have already fixed the issue there

From noirbizarre/flask-restplus#777 (comment):

No. Flask-restplus is no longer maintained. The former maintainers do not have privileges to push to pypi, and after many months of trying, we forked the project. Check out flask-restx. It's a drop in replacement and we are roadmapping, designing, and making fixes...for instance, we already patched for Werkzeug

So the real solution is to move to flask-restx rather than pinning to an old version of Werkzeug.

Answer 2

Downgrading to Werkzeug==0.16.1 solves this

see https://github.com/noirbizarre/flask-restplus/issues/777#issuecomment-583235327

EDIT

Wanted to add that a permanent(long term) solution would be to move to flask_restx as flask-restplus is no longer being maintained.

See how to migrate from flask-restplus