Embedding Python code as a preprocessor PHP style

Question

I'm going back over an old project where I added preprocessor functionality to Essence' and I realised that my previous solution of writing a domain specific language and associated lexer/parser was overkill.

Instead I just need to be able to embed dynamic language code into the file, isolate it at runtime, eval and insert the results. In other words very similar to the PHP model of inserting dynamic code into HTML. I'd rather not use PHP as Python is much easier to distribute as part of a larger project (IronPython or Jython)

So the question goes, how best to implement something like the following:

<code>Python goes here</code>
Lots of essence <code>Python</code> prime code goes here

I don't want to have to alter the structure of the Essence' file (if I remove all the code blocks everything left should be able to be syntactically correct. It needs to be able to insert text in place of a code block like PHP.

Finally security wise I'm not bothered about code injection, as it would be the user themselves choosing the file to execute although if there were security benefits to one model over another with no extra costs that would obviously be good.

Cheers in advance

Answer 1

Your best bet is to use one of the already made (and battle tested) Templating Engines. The two big ones that I've used are Mako, and Cheetah. They allow you to embed code right in the page, and are mostly used as the View in an MVC architecture.

If you feel that using one of those engines is overkill for your project, here is a small tutorial on how to implement basic templates yourself. Keep in mind that the example will need to be modified to suit your particular project/needs.