ansaurus

Question

What python html generator module should I use in a non-web application?

Answer 1

+4 A:

Maybe you could try Markdown instead, and convert it to HTML on the fly?

clee 2010-10-08 03:04:45

Hmmm... Nice idea. Will consider it for sure.

Sergio Acosta 2010-10-08 03:58:39

Answer 2

+2 A:

You don't necessarily need something complex - for instance, here's a ~150 line library to generate HTML in a functional manner:

http://github.com/Yelp/PushmasterApp/blob/master/pushmaster/taglib.py

(Full disclosure, I work with the person who originally wrote that version, and I also use it myself.)

Amber 2010-10-08 03:12:21

Thanks!, I will check it out. Specially, thanks for recommending something that you have used.

Sergio Acosta 2010-10-08 04:01:05

Answer 3

+1 A:

Why would a templating engine necessarily be overkill? You don't need the whole web framework just to use the templating engine (at least, for most templating engines). Mako for example can be used stand-alone just fine, and I often use it to generate html files (reports from a db and such)

Steven 2010-10-08 10:02:46

Answer 4

+1 A:

i recommend having a look at shpaml

flow 2010-10-08 16:52:58

Answer 5

+1 A:

If you have just some simple static HTML files. Then why not use string templates like so.

import string

TEMPLATE_FORMAT = """
<html>
<head><title>Trial</title></head>
<body>
    <div class="myclass">$my_div_data</div>
</body>
"""
my_div_data = "some_data_to_display_in_HTML"
TEMPLATE    = string.Template(TEMPLATE_FORMAT)
html_data   = TEMPLATE.safe_substitute(my_div_data)
open("out.html", "w").write(html_data)

Give this a shot if you don't have too big HTML files to generate. Saves you on the learning you need to do if you decide to use libraries.

MovieYoda 2010-10-08 18:44:26

Answer 6

+1 A:

ElementTree can produce html with some limitations. I'd write it like this:

from xml.etree.ElementTree import ElementTree, Element, SubElement
import sys 

html = Element('html')

head = SubElement(html, 'head')
style = SubElement(head, 'link')
style.attrib = {'rel': 'stylesheet', 'href': 'style.css', 'type': 'text/css'}
body = SubElement(html, 'body')

para = SubElement(body, 'p')
para.text = 'Lorem ipsum sit amet'

doc = ElementTree(html)
doc.write(sys.stdout)

In case of moderately complex html I'd stick with some templating engine: Jinja2, Mako, Cheetah, just to name a few.

eGlyph 2010-10-08 19:03:57

ansaurus

tags:

views:

answers:

What python html generator module should I use in a non-web application?

related questions