Hello Web - simplest web app in python

pmasiar · 12:55 AM

Someone complained that Python web app tutorials are harder than PHP. So I created these two simple python apps to help you started.

I assume you have cgi-enabled directory.

UPDATE 1: Find your python first. In terminal, type 'which python'.

Then change first line of following scripts according where your python is: /usr/bin/python or /usr/local/bin/python or whatever you have.
(end update1)

Simplest one (3 lines): place it in CGI-enabled directory, make executable by web user (or anybody, or all):

Code:

#!/usr/bin/python
import cgi
cgi.test()

It will print your CGI environment variables and you can be sure all is OK. If not, error is in your web server settings. Also, make sure that apache can read/execute this script: ie. make ir readable/executable by all.

More complicated (35 lines including 13 lines of HTML template), but still simple:

Code:

#!/usr/bin/python
import cgi
import cgitb; cgitb.enable()
import os

##---CONSTANTS -------
BGCOLOR = '#f0f0f0'

##---TEMPLATES ----------------------------------------------------
HTML = """content-type: text/html

<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN">
<html><head><title>%(TITLE)s</title>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1">
</head><body bgcolor="%(COLOR)s"><h1>%(TITLE)s</h1>
    <h2>Hello %(NAME)s</h2>
    <hr /><h2> Who are you?</h2>
    <form action="%(SCRIPT_NAME)s" method="POST" enctype="multipart/form-data">
        <input name="person_name" type="text" size="40"><br />
        <input name="submit" type="submit" value="Try">
    </form>
</body></html>"""

def main():
    FORM = cgi.FieldStorage()
    person = FORM.getfirst('person_name')
    if not person:
        person = '(Nobody yet)'
    next_script = os.environ['SCRIPT_NAME'] # name of this script: it submits to self

    print HTML % dict(TITLE='Hello Web!', NAME=person, 
        SCRIPT_NAME=next_script, COLOR=BGCOLOR)

# idiomatic start of the main() program
if __name__ == '__main__': main()

It will ask for name, and after hitting submit, prints it in the page and asks for more. If you have this running, you are on the way.

Good luck!

January 5th, 2007	#1
pmasiar Day Old Decaf Join Date: Jun 2006 Location: CT, USA Beans: 5,268 Ubuntu 6.10 Edgy	Hello Web - 2 simple web apps in python (3 lines and 35 lines) Someone complained that Python web app tutorials are harder than PHP. So I created these two simple python apps to help you started. I assume you have cgi-enabled directory. UPDATE 1: Find your python first. In terminal, type 'which python'. Then change first line of following scripts according where your python is: /usr/bin/python or /usr/local/bin/python or whatever you have. (end update1) Simplest one (3 lines): place it in CGI-enabled directory, make executable by web user (or anybody, or all): Code: #!/usr/bin/python import cgi cgi.test() It will print your CGI environment variables and you can be sure all is OK. If not, error is in your web server settings. Also, make sure that apache can read/execute this script: ie. make ir readable/executable by all. More complicated (35 lines including 13 lines of HTML template), but still simple: Code: #!/usr/bin/python import cgi import cgitb; cgitb.enable() import os ##---CONSTANTS ------- BGCOLOR = '#f0f0f0' ##---TEMPLATES ---------------------------------------------------- HTML = """content-type: text/html <!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"> <html><head><title>%(TITLE)s</title> <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1"> </head><body bgcolor="%(COLOR)s"><h1>%(TITLE)s</h1> <h2>Hello %(NAME)s</h2> <hr /><h2> Who are you?</h2> <form action="%(SCRIPT_NAME)s" method="POST" enctype="multipart/form-data"> <input name="person_name" type="text" size="40"><br /> <input name="submit" type="submit" value="Try"> </form> </body></html>""" def main(): FORM = cgi.FieldStorage() person = FORM.getfirst('person_name') if not person: person = '(Nobody yet)' next_script = os.environ['SCRIPT_NAME'] # name of this script: it submits to self print HTML % dict(TITLE='Hello Web!', NAME=person, SCRIPT_NAME=next_script, COLOR=BGCOLOR) # idiomatic start of the main() program if __name__ == '__main__': main() It will ask for name, and after hitting submit, prints it in the page and asks for more. If you have this running, you are on the way. Good luck! Last edited by pmasiar; January 6th, 2007 at 12:55 AM..

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