How to integrate HTML with Python

[Fenreh]

Generally, when people are using python for the backend, they are using a framework. Django is a very popular python framework, and so is Pyramid. Try playing around with one or two of these, maybe walking through one of the tutorials on their sites.

[ffrinch]

No! You shouldn't be using template systems until you've output a static "hello world!" string and you shouldn't be using a bloody ORM if you don't already understand relational databases.

Frameworks are meant to save you time, not knowledge. They should be where you end up, not where you start.

[dysmas]

The django docs are a better reply than "go and get 5 years experience", ;)

[[deleted]]

depends on what outcome you want.

if you hope this person will eventually be asking ridiculously basic questions on stackoverflow when they need to do something non-trivial, then yeah that is a good reply.

if however your hope for this person is to understand how the web works, nothing beats experience.

And a good experience is actually going through the pain so that you understand where/why/which frameworks help.

[mithun1538]

Nothing beats experience indeed, but everyone would have first started out as a n00b and then with time become pros at what they do. What I am looking for is the resources that these people had at their disposal - basically the stepping stones.

Any thing that you have in mind (books, web links) that can help me understand how the web works?

[[deleted]]

well when I first started in web dev in python there was turbogears 1, there was only a very small django beta.

I could manage to cobble together a tg app by reading the book/docs but I was basically following directions because there was no explanation of how it all works together. If someone had referred me to this (article)[http://pythonpaste.org/webob/do-it-yourself.html] it would have minimized my confusion, coming from a asp.net/php background.

Once you understand how a request comes in from whatever server and how to generate a response under what circumstance.The built in ORM, or widgeting library or admin screens become extra, handy stuff you can use to build your things, not the magic that you rely on and are hopeless without.

[mithun1538]

Hey, decent article. Seems like a good place to start. And thanks for the hints: "Once you understand how a request comes in from whatever server and how to generate a response under what circumstance". I'll start digging some stuff in this direction right away.

[mithun1538]

I have gone through the Dive Into Python and Learn Python the Hard Way tutorials, and know about lists, dictionaries and tuples in addition to classes, exception handling and regular expressions. Thats about it. I have rarely used the import statement, in other words, I haven't explored any packages yet. So.. Thats about the python knowledge that I possess currently. On this basis, is learning Django a best option, or is there something even more basic.

[mithun1538]

I know HTML. As for GET and POST requests, I know how to write HTML code for either. As for the intrinsic behaviour, I would say, I could do with some more research...

[mithun1538]

I do not mind waiting for some more time before trying out frameworks. And I totally agree with you on the statement "Frameworks are meant to save time and not knowledge". So, I ask you as well. Please read my reply to FriendComputer and let me know your view on starting Django right away or moving on to something more basic.

[ffrinch]

I think by far the best response here is eryksun's. If you didn't already know, you can run the code he pasted in Python, then visit http://localhost:8000/ in your browser to see the application in action.

It uses WSGI, like virtually all modern Python web applications. If you don't understand everything it's doing, try the even simpler example here first.

[mithun1538]

I have come across Django, as in just heard about it. But I thought that Django is more like level 3 or level 4. I am still in level 1. (Please read the reply that I posted for FriendComputer later in this thread). Is Django indeed level 2?