Python web development, really

[Richard Jones]

On Tue, 21 Jan 2003 4:16 am, Afanasiy wrote:
> I would love to use Python instead of PHP for web development, but
> I have so far been confused by the options, or perhaps lack thereof,
> given my strict requirements. I would appreciate suggestions.
>
> I've looked at some Python options and have experience in quite a
> few platforms previously. I have always disliked PHP as a language,
> but at the same time have found it very accessible and useful.
>
> Possible solutions should do 99% of the following :
>
> * Run on the same hardware I use currently
>
> * Be as fast or faster than Apache+PHP
>   (I'm sorry to say Zope/Roxen are not)
>   (This might mean it must use Apache)

Not much is going to be faster than Apache+PHP. Python can certainly reach the 
same or similar speeds though.


> * Use a similar amount of memory
>   (ie. not Java/.NET related)

This is pretty open-ended. Suffice to say though that Python doesn't consume 
wads of memory on its own. The rest is up to your application.


> * Provide a fairly equivalent framework w/ sessions, cookies, get, post
>   (Described in http://www.boddie.org.uk/python/web_frameworks.html)
>   (eg. I should not have to write code to parse query strings, etc.)
>   (PHP is somewhat unique in the ways it can bring in post variables)

I'm confused. A number of the frameworks on the page you link there support 
all of the above. Are you stating that this is a requirement that isn't met 
(which it clearly is) or that it _is_ met?


> * Allow all errors to be caught and handled so users never see them
>   (I currently send them to an email address)
>   (Users are notified an error occurred and a developer contacted)

Built into Python. try/except is part of the language itself.


> * Allow sending of email

Built into Python. Use the smtplib module.


> * Allow sending of raw binary data, for restricted file downloading
>   (eg. http://example.com/sendfile.php?id=A6DE12FAB3...etc)
>   (This requires header manipulation, specifically the mime type)
>   (That sort of thing should be part of the framework 3 bullets up)

Any of the frameworks you reference above can do this. Python can do this by 
itself with no framework:

   print "Content-Type: image/png"
   print
   print open('/path/to/image.png').read()



> * Allow SSL secured authorize.net credit card processing
>   (I currently use PHP's libcurl+ssl module)

I presume by the reference to libcurl you want to make a request of an SSL 
website. This is built into python. Use the urllib2 module.


> * Allow similarly powerful regex capabilities
>   (I currently use PHP's pcre module)

Built into Python. Use the re module.


> * Big plus, but optional, auto prepend/append files
>   (eg. Apache+PHP has .htaccess directives like this )
>   (    php_value auto_prepend_file "_header.php"     )
>   (    php_value auto_append_file "_footer.php"      )
>   (granular down to the directory

That would be dependent on the framework you chose, but they would all support 
some version of this.


> * Finally, very optional plus, global application scoped variables
>   (PHP does NOT allow this, but I know why)
>   (I do not want to hear why you think this is bad)
>   (I know why it is good, I know why it can be bad)

Most of the frameworks will support this in some manner. If they don't, then 
using the stand-alone ZODB would be a trivial addition to your application. 
Or you could use a relational database. It's up to you.



     Richard