Running CGI from within CGI

[rodmc]

I am new to using Python as a CGI platform, so please excuse me if
this is a dumb question.

Anyway I have written a series of web forms (with Python scripts)
which allow the user input but also retrieve data from a database. The
data entry stage works fine however retrieving data is a little more
tricky. However I need to find a way to call the scripts directly from
within other CGI's. At present when I go to the next page I call the
normal HTML page as below:

p = open('somefile.html')
some = p.read()
p.close()
print some
However I would like to execute a script instead so calling for
example myscript.py - thus populating the existing forms with data.
This does not seem to work when I modify the above method. Is there
another way to do it? Thanks in advance.

Kind regards,

rod

[Bruno Desthuilliers]

rodmc a écrit :

I am new to using Python as a CGI platform, so please excuse me if
this is a dumb question.

Anyway I have written a series of web forms (with Python scripts)
which allow the user input but also retrieve data from a database. The
data entry stage works fine however retrieving data is a little more
tricky. However I need to find a way to call the scripts directly from
within other CGI's. At present when I go to the next page I call the
normal HTML page as below:

p = open('somefile.html')
some = p.read()
p.close()
print some
However I would like to execute a script instead so calling for
example myscript.py - thus populating the existing forms with data.
This does not seem to work when I modify the above method. Is there
another way to do it? Thanks in advance.

The QuickAndDirtyWay(tm) would be to use execfile IIRC. But since you
*don't* want to do it that way, the best thing to do would be to factor
out common code into functions in a distinct module (or in as many
modules as needed), then rewrite your cgi scripts so they import the
relevant modules and call the appropriate functions.

And while we're at it, I'd greatly recommand giving a look at the
various templating packages around (may I recommand Mako ?) and the
FormEncode package for HTTP forms conversion/validation ?

HTH

[rodmc]

Thanks for the details, is execfile full of security issues or
something?

You are right about exploring templates, I may explore that later.
However I need to integrate the forms in with another system, which
will not be using templates. I suspect I may have taken the long way
round but I suppose it also means I learn a little more Python :-)

Cheers,

rod

On Feb 14, 3:26 pm, Bruno Desthuilliers <bruno.
[e-mail]:

rodmc a écrit :

I am new to using Python as a CGI platform, so please excuse me if
this is a dumb question.

Anyway I have written a series of web forms (with Python scripts)
which allow the user input but also retrieve data from a database. The
data entry stage works fine however retrieving data is a little more
tricky. However I need to find a way to call the scripts directly from
within other CGI's. At present when I go to the next page I call the
normal HTML page as below:

p = open('somefile.html')
some = p.read()
p.close()
print some

However I would like to execute a script instead so calling for
example myscript.py - thus populating the existing forms with data.
This does not seem to work when I modify the above method. Is there
another way to do it? Thanks in advance.

The QuickAndDirtyWay(tm) would be to use execfile IIRC. But since you
*don't* want to do it that way, the best thing to do would be to factor
out common code into functions in a distinct module (or in as many
modules as needed), then rewrite your cgi scripts so they import the
relevant modules and call the appropriate functions.

And while we're at it, I'd greatly recommand giving a look at the
various templating packages around (may I recommand Mako ?) and the
FormEncode package for HTTP forms conversion/validation ?

HTH