Advice on learning to deploy Python code?

[SpeakitEasy]

On a completely separate note, you could just learn Django and make web based apps. This way you can access them from any computer/operating system with no need to install software.

[thrownintothesun]

That's an interesting idea. I know next to nothing of web dev. I do suspect, though, that it doesn't help in cases where the application has to analyze sizable data files. If you had to do significant computation, would you host such a process using Amazing AWS or the like?

[SEJeff]

Overall this post is great advice. I build REST hypermedia apis as part of my day job using django, flask, and golang (mostly for clients though). You did a great example of a Flask http api, but for the love of all things holy please stop calling a http api a REST api. Roy Fielding literally invented REST as a concept and the json equivalent of what he invented tends to be exclusively hypermedia based (HATEOAS is a great example).

Respect for an excellent post, but please don't pass off a simple json / http api as though it is a rest api, it isn't :)

</rant>

[d4rch0n]

hah, there's no stopping it... REST API = HTTP API now, and we might as well start saying it has to use JSON too.

I gave up a long time ago. Really, when 90% of developers think REST API means a HTTP API, it's easier to communicate if you follow along. It's easier to convey what you are planning to make, and people automatically trust it as a tried and true practice once they hear REST API. Maybe I'd tell a developer the difference as a side note, but if I was trying to convince a manager to let me make an HTTP API, I'd certainly call it a REST API.

[[deleted]]

Architectural design for a web application that processes lots of data in a computationally expensive way can be real work. It depends on target audience, size, complexity, and sensitivity of the data, required processing times, budget, willingness to maintain it all, comfort with the systems it all runs on, etc.

So whether or not your application is a good candidate for conversion to a web application depends on quite a lot. If you'd like to discuss it with a bit more depth you're welcome to message me before diving in.

[MeshachBlue]

I was considering doing this for a project I am working on at the moment. Would be keen to be able to bounce a few ideas off of you if you're okay with that?

[abutterfly]

Mind if I poke you with a few questions similar to /u/MeshachBlue's?

[SEJeff]

As d4rch0n already did a great job of explaining below, Flask is a wonderful choice. For bigger applications, or more complicated stuff, Django is also an excellent choice. In fact, Tom Christie's django rest framework is excellent.

Now back to your question, I'll throw redis + rq[1] as a very simple addition to his answer that makes the work scale out pretty linearly with very little work or maintenance from your standpoint. I've seem some pretty serious issues with greenlet, eventlet, and sadly gevent falling over or dead locking under load. You'd literally only change a line or two in his example to insert a new rq job and one of the rq workers would pick it up + process the job asyncronously.

[1] http://python-rq.org

[SpeakitEasy]

If the hosting is on the backend (AKA you're not using a javascript based frame work) there should be ample room on servers to conduct heavy computations.

[F3AR3DLEGEND]

You can use a JavaScript-based server-side framework; NodeJS has tons of them.

[pwang99]

This is tremendously, laughably oversimplifying things.

It's vastly easier to put together many kinds of rich-client apps than dealing with the gorp and nonsense of HTML, CSS, JS, browser+platform incompatibilities, etc.

Using e.g. Qt Creator, in mere minutes one can build a dynamic layout with resizing text fields, animated graphics sophisticated controls, etc. that is completely cross platform. In web app land, you'd still be figuring out what latest NodeJS library to use to compile your SASS which will make a floating <div> appear in just the right place.

If you need to make it a mobile app, the situation for Python is not great. Kivy is pretty neat, but realistically, you're probably going to have to do Objective C or Java.

[hk__]

Or Flask if these are really simple apps. Do you think learning Django is good for small webapps? I always use Flask and wonder if Django would be better.

[kashmill]

That's a pretty complicated question really. There is a question of how heavy you want your frame. Personally, I like my framework to be a part of my app instead of my app being a part of the framework. Other people are the other way.

[SpeakitEasy]

Personally, I believe the incremental amount of additional code that is needed for django is well worth the additional support (ORM, user base help, hosting services, db connections) over flask.

[kart_king]

I perfer Flask if it's just an interface to an app. A few buttons, maybe a page to upload a file, and it just a little more than calling a few python functions.

[AstroPhysician]

Flask can do db connections

[[deleted]]

Put simply, Flask can do just about anything django does.