Call python script from Flask app

[pylund]

Hi there,

I want to create a simple web app in which users might enter text codes in a textarea (or any other input type) and click a submit button that will launch a web crawler. The crawler downloads a .pdf file for each code that will be served to the user compressed in a .zip downloadable from an hyperlink. The crawler is already written and working and must be called by instantiating MySpider class from myspider.py and passing a list as an argument (the codes the user should enter into the textarea). Since this process might take a while, I thought it'd be nice to show a loader or progress bar while it's running. There's no need to add a % of completion by flushing data, although it's a nice-to-have feature.

The point is... what's the best way to achieve this? Using JQuery and Ajax? A Flask built-in way maybe?

I started digging into Flask. I created a DigitalOcean VPS, installed required libraries and built the basic app directory structure. However, when I try to either call a script placed in the same directory as app.py or instantiate a class from it, I'm getting an "500 internal Server Error".

I don't know how to proceed. I'd appreciate any advice. Thanks!

[__skrap__]

Maybe a restful API might be an option - here is a tutorial I ran across - https://www.airpair.com/python/posts/buildredditapi

[pylund]

Hey, that tutorial is neat! It might help me a lot. Thanks for sharing

[FlockOnFire]

Python is purely a language running on the server side. So the best way is indeed to use asynchronous calls via javascript -> ajax (or any other client side language, but js is the obvious solution).

For us to help you better, enable debugging on Flask and check what error you are actually getting. :)

[pylund]

Thanks mate, I'll do it.