Python Noob - a couple questions involving a web app

[Arnaud Delobelle]

"Kyle T. Jones" <seriously?@youvegottabekidding.net> writes:

> Been programming for a long time, but just starting out with
> Python. Not a professional programmer, just that guy in one of those
> organizations that won't hire a pro, instead saying "Hey, Kyle knows
> computer stuff - let's have him do this (and that, and the other,
> etc)".
>
> So, the higher ups want a web app that'll let them enter (from an
> intranet page) a rather simple, but quite lengthy, list - details to
> be stored in a MySQL database... just normal stuff here, entering,
> editing, and deleting entries, sorting, etc.
>
> On the internet side of things, folks get the info served up to them,
> can sort it in a few ways, etc - it's pretty basic stuff.
>
> So, normally, I'd just put something together with Javascript and some
> PHP scripts on the back end - so the Javascript is used to make
> requests, the php stuff makes the calls to the database then returns
> the appropriate info.
>
> I was thinking of doing the backend using Python instead of PHP - more
> just to get some hands-on experience with the language than anything
> else.
>
> So, first - is that a non-starter? - in other words, is it just
> something that lends itself more to PHP than Python?  That's how I
> would normally do it, just thought this would be a good opportunity to
> get some "practice" with Python.  And I know Python supports MySQL
> interactions, which, other than returning some info, is all that
> really needs to be done server-side.
>
> In a broader sense, any suggestions in terms of what I should be wary
> of on the security side of things - the internet component I mentioned
> is universally accessible... but the database itself can't be accessed
> that way directly (requests have to be sent to the PHP/Python scripts,
> which do have access to the MySQL stuff...)
>
> Any thoughts or suggestions are appreciated!
>
> Cheers.

It seems to me that it would be worth having a look at django
(http://djangoproject.com), a web framework that provides a lot of
functionality out of the box and easy integration with mysql (and other
database engines).  It has good documentation and a good tutorial as
well.  It has plenty of users and is actively developed.

-- 
Arnaud