Calling a python function over the web using AJAX?

Question

Hi, I want to send a string to a python function I have written and want to display the return value of that function on a web page. After some initial research, WSGI sounds like the way to go. Preferably, I don't want to use any fancy frameworks. I'm pretty sure some one has done this before. Need some reassurance. Thanks!

Answer 1

You can try Flask, it's a framework, but tiny and 100% WSGI 1.0 compliant.

from flask import Flask
app = Flask(__name__)

@app.route("/")
def hello():
    return "Hello World!"

if __name__ == "__main__":
    app.run()

Note: Flask sits on top of Werkzeug and may need other libraries like sqlalchemy for DB work or jinja2 for templating.

Answer 2

You can use cgi...

#!/usr/bin/env python

import cgi

def myMethod(some_parameter):
    // do stuff
    return something

form = cgi.FieldStorage()

my_passed_in_param = form.getvalue("var_passed_in")
my_output = myMethod(my_passed_in_param)
print "Content-Type: text/html\n"
print my_output

This is just a very simple example. Also, your content-type may be json or plain text... just wanted to show an example.

Answer 3

In addition to Flask, bottle is also simple and WSGI compliant:

from bottle import route, run

@route('/hello/:name')
def hello(name):
    return 'Hello, %s' % name

run(host='localhost', port=8080)
# --> http://localhost:8080/hello/world

Answer 4

I find it hard to believe that what you are asking for is all you will want in the end. If you want something that will help you include things like flash charts on the page(s) you are creating easily, please also take a look at WHIFF http://whiffdoc.appspot.com -- thanks!