[Tutor] web applications??

[Magnus Lyckå]

At 14:09 2004-07-15 -0700, Jeff Peery wrote:
>hello, I would like to put my wxpython application up on the web for our 
>customers to use.  I don't want them to download it because it's sort of a 
>one time use application. they just need it to calculate a number they 
>need to use our products.

If we're talking vanilla MS Windows, wxPython applications
can only run locally. There are certainly ways to run such
applications remotely (e.g. Citrix or VNC), but in Windows
that will require other installation efforts, lead to more
security issues to consider, and possibly require expansive
licenses.

In Unix it's much simpler (using X), but there are still
serious security issues here.

>Is it possible to just execute my wxpython application from our server? or 
>do I need to write the application in some sort of web-python variation.

Not if you are talking about WWW.

One option which might be viable (but I haven't really
done that) is to use Jython and Java's Swing for the
user interface. Then you might be able to make your
program into a Java applet.

For a more traditional web solution, you might want to look
at Quixote http://www.mems-exchange.org/software/quixote/
etc.

A solution which only assumes a vanilla web browser on
the client side is certainly a good thing, unless you
know for sure what platforms your users use when they
want to run this thingie...

>If customers can simply execute the application from the web, how do I 
>learn about how to set this up - is it as simple as uploading the 
>executable and creating a link?

The simplest way out might be to use something like
cx_Freeze or py2exe to make your application into a
single executable (and possibly a few dlls). That way
it's a small effort do download, install and run the
program. You certainly don't want to force them to
download and install first Python and then wxPython
before they get to your app...

If there is data on a central server, you can certainly
write your wxPython application so that it accesses data
from your server across the web.

But if all they need to do is to calculate a number, I
guess they don't need a full featured GUI.


--
Magnus Lycka (It's really Lyckå), magnus at thinkware.se
Thinkware AB, Sweden, www.thinkware.se
I code Python ~ The Agile Programming Language