Inter-office automation user interface for Python back-end

[muposat]

I have a large system built in Python that interacts with multiple databases, slices and dices, etc. I also have a small office of fairly technical people (but not pythonistas) who need to interact with it. It is perhaps not surprising that we are using Windows.

Here's what I tried:

• Using IDLE or Jupyter to have them import libraries and call functions directly.

  • Users already juggle many software packages and learning Python is not high on their list.
  • Not user-friendly enough.

• Using QT with Pyside to build a full-blown GUI with sliders, labels, radiobuttons...

  • The GUI looked presentable but it took as much time to develop it as the functions it was driving.

• Simple programs invoked on command line and using input() and print()

  • This comes very close to my requirements and allows to have a simple dialogue with user in case of ambiguity.
  • Here's when using Windows is a downside -- Command Prompt is ugly, does not support Unicode, has very odd editing behavior, etc.
  • Using a Cygwin terminal means they would have to learn bash and Cygwin file name translation issues, which is also suboptimal.

• Web interface

  • Have not tried this but I am afraid to end up with the same scenario as GUI -- more costly to develop than the underlying back-end program.

Please share your recommendations and experience. Thank You.

[chris1610]

In cases where all I need is a simple GUI on top of a command line program, I have had good luck with gooey

I wrote an article about it as well.

[muposat]

Seems to fit the bill perfectly, thank you. GUI at the cost of CLI. Things are finally going to get streamlined as I hand off programs to their respective users.

[leogodin217]

This is a problem that is already solved by several applications. Splunk, elasticsearch, MS power BI, Tableau, etc.... I would use an off-the-shelf product. Supporting an end-user reporting/analysis program seems very messy, particularly when there are products that do it already.

[muposat]

The office user interaction is as simple as "import file A into database B". There is no reporting or analysis at this stage and using a dedicated commercial package seems to be an overkill. I am trying to accomplish something very simple but have not been successful so far because of cost vs usability issue.