recommendations for python web programming tools

[Matthew Wilson]

I am about to start designing a web application for my office intranet.
It is pretty simple: we need a way to track conversations with contacts
and a way to update contact information.

I could do it all in PHP or perl-mason, but I really like python's
syntax and I have the time to learn something new. I've never used any
of the web stuff for python. I need something that is easy and quick to
learn. I need support for connection to MySQL, simple user
authentication based on passwords, and either a templating system, or
the ability to embed python code in html, like PHP. I already have
Apache installed and running on a Red Hat linux box.

I don't need the most high-performance system. We have 8 users at the
most that will be logging in simultaneously.

All recommendations are welcome.

[Jay O'Connor]

Matthew Wilson wrote:

I am about to start designing a web application for my office intranet.
It is pretty simple: we need a way to track conversations with contacts
and a way to update contact information.

I could do it all in PHP or perl-mason, but I really like python's
syntax and I have the time to learn something new. I've never used any
of the web stuff for python. I need something that is easy and quick to
learn. I need support for connection to MySQL, simple user
authentication based on passwords, and either a templating system, or
the ability to embed python code in html, like PHP. I already have
Apache installed and running on a Red Hat linux box.

I don't need the most high-performance system. We have 8 users at the
most that will be logging in simultaneously.

All recommendations are welcome.

If you want something simple and focused, I have both some simple
username/password and templating libraries I use for python web work.
Contact me offline if you're interested

Take care,
Jay

[Dennis Lee Bieber]

Matthew Wilson fed this fish to the penguins on Tuesday 18 November
2003 07:53 am:

I am about to start designing a web application for my office
intranet. It is pretty simple: we need a way to track conversations
with contacts and a way to update contact information.

<snip>
learn. I need support for connection to MySQL, simple user
authentication based on passwords, and either a templating system, or
the ability to embed python code in html, like PHP. I already have
Apache installed and running on a Red Hat linux box.

I don't need the most high-performance system. We have 8 users at the
most that will be logging in simultaneously.

All recommendations are welcome.
I'm not an expert, but have you looked at Zope?

-- ================================================== ============ <
wl*****@ix.netcom.com | Wulfraed Dennis Lee Bieber KD6MOG <
wu******@dm.net | Bestiaria Support Staff <
================================================== ============ <
Bestiaria Home Page: http://www.beastie.dm.net/ <
Home Page: http://www.dm.net/~wulfraed/ <

[Matthew Wilson]

In article <ja************@beastie.ix.netcom.com>, Dennis Lee Bieber wrote:

I'm not an expert, but have you looked at Zope?

I looked a little at Zope, and it looks like it has a huge learning
curve. Is that true? How long would it take for a person that's
written lots of CGI scripts to get up to speed on Zope?

Maybe I *should* take a look at Zope.

[Kirk Strauser]

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At 2003-11-18T17:11:40Z, Matthew Wilson <mw*****@sarcastic-horse.com> writes:

I looked a little at Zope, and it looks like it has a huge learning curve.
Is that true?
It depends. What's your OOP experience level? Zope doesn't *require* OOP
methods, but that's where it gets much of its power.
How long would it take for a person that's written lots of CGI scripts to
get up to speed on Zope?

Are you already decent with Python? If so, install Zope and work through
the built-in tutorial. You should be able to get up and running in no time.
- --
Kirk Strauser
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[Skip Montanaro]

Matthew> I looked a little at Zope, and it looks like it has a huge
Matthew> learning curve. Is that true?

For most people, yes.

Matthew> How long would it take for a person that's written lots of CGI
Matthew> scripts to get up to speed on Zope?

Awhile.

Skip

[Skip Montanaro]

Dennis> Matthew Wilson fed this fish to the penguins on Tuesday 18
Dennis> November 2003 07:53 am:

I am about to start designing a web application for my office
intranet. It is pretty simple: we need a way to track conversations
with contacts and a way to update contact information.

Dennis> I'm not an expert, but have you looked at Zope?

I am not an expert, but Zope is often overkill, especially if your
requirements don't match Zope's assumptions.

I recently discovered Quixote from MEMS Exchange (well, I've known about it
for awhile, but only recently began experimenting with it) and have become
quite enamored with it. It looks like if your environment meets these basic
criteria:

* unix-y platform

* your website developers are already Python programmers

* you don't need to support remote site editing by potentially hostile
folks (like your marketing and engineering departments)

then you might want to take a close look at Quixote. It's programming model
is somewhat different than that for most other web app/publishing systems.
You essentially program in Python for most tasks and sprinkle in some HTML
instead of the other way around. It's also got a very small footprint. The
full source tree is under 700k, so it's quite possible that if you need to
consult the source you'll actually be able to find the relevant source to
gaze at.

Details can be found here:

http://www.mems-exchange.org/software/quixote/

Skip

[Graham Fawcett]

Skip Montanaro <sk**@pobox.com> wrote in message news:<ma************************************@pytho n.org>...

Dennis> Matthew Wilson fed this fish to the penguins on Tuesday 18
Dennis> November 2003 07:53 am:

>> I am about to start designing a web application for my office
>> intranet. It is pretty simple: we need a way to track conversations
>> with contacts and a way to update contact information.

Dennis> I'm not an expert, but have you looked at Zope?

I am not an expert, but Zope is often overkill, especially if your
requirements don't match Zope's assumptions.

I recently discovered Quixote from MEMS Exchange (well, I've known about it
for awhile, but only recently began experimenting with it) and have become
quite enamored with it. It looks like if your environment meets these basic
criteria:

* unix-y platform

* your website developers are already Python programmers

* you don't need to support remote site editing by potentially hostile
folks (like your marketing and engineering departments)

I would second Skip's recommendation of Quixote -- it's an excellent
framework. I just wanted to add that a Unix-like platform isn't a
requirement; Quixote works very well on the Win32 platform.

Best of luck,

-- Graham

[S Kemplay]

Hi Mathew,

I would suggest you look at cherrypy - cherrypy.org.

Very (very) easy to get up and running with. It includes a powerful but simple
to use templating language to allow the seperation of code and presentation.
And comes complete with very clear and complete documentation. Also connects
to many databases including MySQL.

Cheers
Sean

On Wed, 19 Nov 2003 02:53 am, Matthew Wilson wrote:

I am about to start designing a web application for my office intranet.
It is pretty simple: we need a way to track conversations with contacts
and a way to update contact information.

I could do it all in PHP or perl-mason, but I really like python's
syntax and I have the time to learn something new. I've never used any
of the web stuff for python. I need something that is easy and quick to
learn. I need support for connection to MySQL, simple user
authentication based on passwords, and either a templating system, or
the ability to embed python code in html, like PHP. I already have
Apache installed and running on a Red Hat linux box.

I don't need the most high-performance system. We have 8 users at the
most that will be logging in simultaneously.

All recommendations are welcome.