creating a small test server on my local computer

[John Salerno]

Ok, this is completely unnecessary so I don't intend to get into stuff
that's beyond my skill, but I'm wondering how simple it would be to use
Python to create a server that runs on my computer so I can test my
webpages (because otherwise I have to keep sending them to our IT person
so he can upload them to the server).

The catch is that I need a server that supports SSI and I have no clue
how to write something like this. If it's already been included in the
standard library, then that would be great, otherwise I won't really
mess with it.

Thanks.

 

[Irmen de Jong]

Ok, this is completely unnecessary so I don't intend to get into stuff
that's beyond my skill, but I'm wondering how simple it would be to use
Python to create a server that runs on my computer so I can test my
webpages (because otherwise I have to keep sending them to our IT person
so he can upload them to the server).

Why do you need to use Python for the server?

The catch is that I need a server that supports SSI and I have no clue
how to write something like this. If it's already been included in the
standard library, then that would be great, otherwise I won't really
mess with it.

Apache supports server side includes. And is fairly straightforward
to install (or even already installed on most linux systems that I know
of) Configuring can be a bit troublesome depending on your demands,
but there is lots and lots of information available.

--Irmen

 

[John Salerno]

Why do you need to use Python for the server?

Well, perhaps I don't know what I'm talking about. I'm on an XP machine
and I just needed a way to test my web pages, and I thought Python could
be used to create a server to do this. But I know nothing about network
programming...

 

[Mirco Wahab]

Thus spoke John Salerno (on 2006-09-29 21:13):

Well, perhaps I don't know what I'm talking about. I'm on an XP machine
and I just needed a way to test my web pages, and I thought Python could
be used to create a server to do this. But I know nothing about network
programming...

My advice would be (because Apache installations on
WinXP don't usually support Python (except pulling
the whole thing into each CGI invocation) - download
and install a VMWare Player
( http://www.vmware.com/products/player/ ),
download a pre-built virtual machine w/Apache and
Python preinstalled and configured (=> 190MB):
( http://www.rpath.org/rbuilder/project/lamp/build?id=4912 )
and give the virtual machine a shared ip number
on your own network card (mostly trivial) - thats it.

Then - you can use the virtual machine as your own full
blown web server, put your Python stuff on it (e.g. via
Samba or SSH/SFTP, => http://winscp.net/eng/download.php -)
and therefore don't bother w/setting up the whole thing
yourself.


Regards

Mirco

 

[Tim Chase]

Why do you need to use Python for the server?

Well, perhaps I don't know what I'm talking about. I'm on an XP machine
and I just needed a way to test my web pages, and I thought Python could
be used to create a server to do this. But I know nothing about network
programming...

Well, you could investigate WebStack:

http://www.boddie.org.uk/python/WebStack.html
http://cheeseshop.python.org/pypi/WebStack/1.1.2

which allows you to develop for a variety of deployment targets,
inter alia CGI, mod_python, and BaseHTTPServer. The last is nice
as you can run it on your local machine for testing. Then, to
deploy to another environment, you just tweak one file (your
adaptor file) to change from, say, BaseHTTPServer to mod_python.

The documentation is a bit terse, and lacking in some areas, but
a little debugging output goes a long way toward diagnosing
problems with your code.

In my experience, it takes targeting WebStack's abstraction
framework rather than any of the particular platforms, but the
portability is unbeatable.

Just a satisfied customer of Boddie's work,

-tkc

 

[Mirco Wahab]

Thus spoke Mirco Wahab (on 2006-09-29 21:32):

Thus spoke John Salerno (on 2006-09-29 21:13):
My advice would be (because Apache installations on
...

download a pre-built virtual machine w/Apache and
Python preinstalled and configured (=> 190MB):
( http://www.rpath.org/rbuilder/project/lamp/build?id=4912 )
and give the virtual machine a shared ip number
on your own network card (mostly trivial) - thats it.
...

forget this virtual appliance (above), better use
this one:

http://www.vmware.com/vmtn/appliances/directory/289
[Python Web Developer Appliance]
...
includes a complete set of tools for developing and
deploying web applications using Python
...

The only problem here - it's OpenBSD based ;-))

But they have a nice documentation somewhere:
http://www.mcguru.net/download/pyweb/pyweb-ug/index.html

M.

 

[Roger Upole]

Well, perhaps I don't know what I'm talking about. I'm on an XP machine and I just needed a way to test my web pages, and I
thought Python could be used to create a server to do this. But I know nothing about network programming...

WinXP Pro has a web server that you can install from Add/Remove
Programs in the control panel. You can use it to do Python CGI or
ASP.

Roger

 

[Paul Boddie]

Well, you could investigate WebStack:
[...]

The documentation is a bit terse, and lacking in some areas, but
a little debugging output goes a long way toward diagnosing
problems with your code.

Suggestions for improvement are very welcome! And I do value the
expertise of WebStack users in improving the experience of developing
with WebStack. Right now, it seems like I have total control over the
framework, but if people want to contribute things on a more democratic
footing, I'd be happy to look for project hosting somewhere:
recommendations on that topic would be welcome, of course.

In my experience, it takes targeting WebStack's abstraction
framework rather than any of the particular platforms, but the
portability is unbeatable.

Just a satisfied customer of Boddie's work,

I'm *very* pleased to hear it!

I suppose I should get on with finishing off the next release, which is
just a bunch of fixes and possibly some Django support.

Paul

 

[Ant]

Thus spoke John Salerno (on 2006-09-29 21:13): ....
My advice would be (because Apache installations on
WinXP don't usually support Python (except pulling
the whole thing into each CGI invocation) - download
and install a VMWare Player

This sounds a horribly complicated way of doing things. If you read the
OP's post, it seems he is simply trying to serve straight HTML pages
(but with Server Side Includes) locally for testing, rather than having
to pester his operations guys to put them up on the company servers.

If it's just HTML and SSI, then Apache is the easy answer on XP. The
download is a simple .msi installer, and you'll just be able to drop
the html files in the htdocs directory to start serving them.
(http://httpd.apache.org/download.cgi)

If you look at the docs for a majority of the Python webservers, they
recommend putting them behind Apache for production use, and for good
reason, Apache httpd is probably the most mature, stable and feature
rich web server out there.

(Incidentally, adding python support with mod_python is a breeze on XP
- just another installer and uncommenting a couple of lines in the
httpd.conf file. But then for actual python development it may be
simpler to get started using a framework such as TurboGears or Django,
which both have very good introductory tutorials.)

 

[John Salerno]

This sounds a horribly complicated way of doing things. If you read the
OP's post, it seems he is simply trying to serve straight HTML pages
(but with Server Side Includes) locally for testing, rather than having
to pester his operations guys to put them up on the company servers.

If it's just HTML and SSI, then Apache is the easy answer on XP. The
download is a simple .msi installer, and you'll just be able to drop
the html files in the htdocs directory to start serving them.
(http://httpd.apache.org/download.cgi)

Thanks! I'll look into this.

 

[Steve Holden]

Thanks! I'll look into this.

Yup, I'd second that as an approach. I have Apache on my XP system, with
mod_python and all the trimmings.

regards
Steve