Python on the Web

Python module Y202

Python on the Web

Exercises, examples and other material relating to training module Y202. This topic is presented on public courses Learning to program in Python, Python Programming

Python is an excellent language for text string handling, doing exactly what's required of a language that's to be used on your Web server, to read and filter user inputs, and to return Web pages in response.

Related technical and longer articles

Nasty Characters in Web Applications

Articles and tips on this subject		updated
4536	Json load from URL, recursive display, Python 3.4 Reading a json object from a remote URL (or it that's not available from a local file), displaying the contents of the object, modifying it, and printing it out. A Python 3.4 example from today's Python course. See [here] for full source code. Note that in Python 2, you would have used urllib2 which ...	2015-10-14 (short)
4404	Which (virtual) host was visited? Tuning Apache log files, and Python analysis We host a number of domains on our main server, and in order to avoid fragmentation of log files, we keep a sinle composite log. Rather than use a standard logfile format henceforth, I've changed the second field to carry the virtual host name accessed for the request, as that was missing up until this ...	2015-01-23
4089	Quick and easy - showing Python data hander output via a browser From today's intermediate Python course - a new example of how to very quickly present the results of running an application on the web - [here]. The objective was to provide an almost-trivial way of letting results be viewed via a remote browser. No forms, no validation needed, no formatting of the ...	2013-05-18
1745	Moodle, Drupal, Django (and Rails) In the 1970s, we had C and in that decade and the following one, we put together our systems in that language and its derivatives. In the 1990s, we had Perl and in that decade and the following one, we put together our systems in that language are related ones. In the 2010s, we'll have a wide range ...	2010-01-31
2365	Counting Words in Python via the web I love writing things in Python - it's a great language for achieving a great deal in a short time. And it works well got Simple CGI scripts. Today's challenge - to count the number of words (and number of DIFFERENT words) in a piece of text, so give an idea of how much work would be involved in translating ...	2009-08-19
2238	Handling nasty characters - Perl, PHP, Python, Tcl, Lua Are your writing or maintaining a web based application that uses forms? If so, you have better be aware of some of the nasty characters that are around! The < character, when echoed back from a users's input 'unchallenged', may form the start of a tag. So that in a relatively benign case, a user ...	2009-06-21
433	FTP - how to make the right transfers If you're transfeerring files from one computer to another, you'll probably use an FTP client program - either something with a GUI or the FTP command itself on your local machine, and that will talk to an FTP daemon on the server. It's important to note that you need to navigate to the right directory ...	2008-05-17
426	Robust checking of data entered by users 10 steps to testing the bullet proofing user inputs or how to avoid being caught by nasties when your script goes live! 1. Test it works with intended entries. It's not going to be much good if it falls over when someone entered a valid piece of data! 2. Test it works (fails correctly) with erroneous ...	2008-05-17
903	Pieces of Python From a most interesting Saturday which was spent doing a one on one session on thread, wxPython, etc - some Python snippets that provide unusual demos and hard-to-find answers: The Backtic operator evaluates an expression and returns the result as a string val1 = 16 val2 = 18 result = "The result ...	2006-11-01
237	Crossfertilisation, PHP to Python Rasmus Lerdorf's "Do you PHP" talk on our Geek Cruise last October was brilliant - I heard so much about what's behind PHP and how its originator intends it to be used that it give me a real strong understanding of best practise - you'll find further details availble here and elsewhere on this site. Python ...	2006-06-05

Examples from our training material

hsapp1.py	Web application mark 1 - 3 pages, sessions, hidden fields
hsapp2.py	Web application, Mark 2 - 3 pages, sessions, hidden fields
hsdemo.htp	Template for hsapp1 and hsapp2
inf.py	Simple web demo - produce form, complete form, act on data entered to form
jhandle	Python 3.4 urllib urlopen and json
martin.html	Translation coster - HTML form
martin.py	Translation coster - CGI script
piddle.py	CGI, Python, Web server, HTML - reporting server time
place.py	Python / CGI - read from a form, run an application, fill in a template to respond
pybrow	Browser client
pyhello	Embedding plain text app on the web
pyserv	basic web server
python_mysql_web.py	Python, MySQL, CGI (Web) board
pytop	Analysis of current web log file
tellmewhen.py	Running a Python program through CGI
template.htp	Template for simple web example
visitor.py	Analysing a web access log file

Pictures

Re-using HTML templates and web helpers for efficient coding

Background information

Some modules are available for download as a sample of our material or under an Open Training Notes License for free download from [here].

Topics covered in this module

Introduction to Python on the Web.
Reading from a form, using templates, other techniques.
Web and Python subjects - state, security, modPython etc..
Where does my Python run?.
How do I link pages together?.
What about security considerations?.
Can I make the Python run more efficiently on the Web?.

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