CODEWITHSUNDEEP
pythondjangopython-2.7
Boateye
Boateye

Reputation: 23

Run Python application from browser

I'm pretty new to programming and I've been learning python in my spare time. As a challenge to myself, I created a simple text adventure for a class project. This is not for a programming class, so the professor won't know how to compile a raw Python script, let alone have a Python interpreter on their Mac.

That being said, is it possible to run python from a browser? I'm imagining some HTML file that my professor, or anyone, can click that launches a browser and they can play my game from there.

I've learned about something called Django from my research on this subject. However, I have no idea what it is, nor how to implement it. Again, I'm pretty new to programming, so if you could "explain like I'm five", that would be great.

EDIT: I found this other thread where the OP asks a similar question, but I don't fully understand the approved answer:

execution python application from browser

Upvotes: 2

Views: 5184

Answers (3)

joemar.ct
joemar.ct

Reputation: 1216

All of the answers so far assume that your game is something that can be presented as a web app. You can only do that if you write or covert your program (or part of it) into Javascript, which may not actually work because the existing compilers (e.g. pyjs) are quite limited.

If you made your program in a GUI (using 'Tkinter', 'Pygame', wxPython, PyQt, etc.), your best option is to package your program into a Mac app using py2app or pyinstaller.

Upvotes: 0

Electron
Electron

Reputation: 308

You can host a website on an internal network and run the program from there. Read more about the Python CGI programming here to make a form that will execute your script and print the result as a html page

For example you could have a form that will ask for input in textboxes: Name: _, Value: __, SUBMIT

After they press the button, the browser will then send a request to the python program, execute it, and display the result back to the client as a html webpage.

In addition, you do not need to install any other third-party modules if you are using a school computer. However, ask you teacher before hosting the website on the school network.

The problem is that your program is a "text adventure" which requires a lot more input/output management for a CGI program.

You can use this answer for other projects.

Anyway, here are the steps to setup the server:

1) Create a folder for your website and add a "index.html" file (it can be anything)

2) Add a favicon.ico file in the folder (this will speed up the connection) You can download this one

3) Put this python program in the folder (it will be used to host the website)

import BaseHTTPServer
import CGIHTTPServer
import cgitb; cgitb.enable()
from socket import gethostbyname, gethostname


def server(port):
    server = BaseHTTPServer.HTTPServer
    handler = CGIHTTPServer.CGIHTTPRequestHandler
    server_address = ("", port)
    httpd = server(server_address, handler)
    print "Server %s:%s started" % (gethostbyname(gethostname()), str(port))
    httpd.serve_forever()

server(4) #You can change this. It is a port number

4) Create a cgi-bin folder

5) To make the website available, execute the program created in the step 3. To stop hosting it, just close the python console.

6) While the program is running, you can go into the browser and type the IP adress : port as the URL. You will see your index.html page and favicon.ico icon. Anyone who is connected to the same network can get to the website. You and only you can also get to the website in a browser by entering http:/localhost:port with "port" being the port you've set

7) The rest you need to manage yourself. I cannot create the full script because I do not know what is in your program. Read the link provided in the beginning and modify your program to make it work in the browser.

FYI: It is possible to host more than one website or an instance of the same website at once using different ports. And, you can set and read cookies using Python CGI

Please comment if something doesn't work because of an error in my answer. I will try to fix it.

Upvotes: 3

Gary Walker
Gary Walker

Reputation: 9134

Well, not really. Your basic browser generally supports 1 programming language, javascript.

However, you could use pythonanywhere" which is a hosted python environment.

You could also try skulpt which is a javacript implementation of python. I have never tried this myself.

Upvotes: 4

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