how to call python scripts from php

Question

I need to pass a value from PHP to a Python script which then writes the value into a csv file. But, I'm having difficulties, my python when called writes an empty csv file. What could be the problem.

<?php
if (isset($_POST['data'])){
  $data = $_POST['data'];
  $result = exec("python processData.py .$data");
  echo $result;
  }                
 ?>

and processData.py

import nltk
from nltk.corpus import stopwords
from nltk import stem
import re   
import sys
import csv

mysentence = sys.argv[1]
f = open("output.csv", "wb")
tokens = nltk.word_tokenize(mysentence)
d = [i.lower() for i in tokens if (not tokens in stopwords.words('english'))]    
porter = nltk.PorterStemmer()
for t in tokens:
    result = porter.stem(t)    
    f.write(result+"\n")
    print result
f.close()

You might try opening the file in append "a" mode so that any previous files are not overwritten. — John Dorian
– John Dorian, Commented Feb 18, 2014 at 20:24
A few observations not directly related to your question: You assign to d but you do not use the result. if (not tokens in stopwords.words('english')) is not idiomatic Python. It would be better to write if tokens not in stopwords.words('english'). — Steven Rumbalski
– Steven Rumbalski, Commented Feb 18, 2014 at 20:28
even then he is evaluating for each i in tokens when it only depends on tokens as a whole ... likely a large slowdown\ — Joran Beasley
– Joran Beasley, Commented Feb 18, 2014 at 20:32

Joran Beasley · Accepted Answer · 2014-02-18 20:33:39Z

1

$result = exec("python processData.py .$data");

is likely the problem if you typed : $data = "hello little world"; it woudl pass as

 $result = exec("python processData.py .hello little world");

sys.argv would be

  ["processData.py",".hello","little","world"]

unfortunately im not sure how nltk would handle that but surely not as you are intending

as an aside

d = [i.lower() for i in tokens if (not tokens in stopwords.words('english'))]

should be rewriten

if  tokens not in stopwords.words('english'):
   d = [i.lower() for i in tokens]
else: #if your actually planning on using d anywhere ... currently your just throwing it out
      # not using d makes all of this just as effective as a pass statement
   d = []

edited Feb 18, 2014 at 20:33

answered Feb 18, 2014 at 20:27

Joran Beasley

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gryphes · Accepted Answer · 2014-02-18 20:26:28Z

0

Maybe the . before $data, try this:

$result = exec("python processData.py {$data}");

Regards!

answered Feb 18, 2014 at 20:26

gryphes

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1 Comment

ArchieTiger Over a year ago

@grphes, it didnt work. From cmd processData.py "my data" works, but it wouldnt work from php

gung - Reinstate Monica · Accepted Answer · 2014-07-01 15:05:34Z

0

There is no issue with the exec() or anything. The problem is that the nltk module is not able to locate the nltk_data directory. For it just locate where the nltk_data is present in your system: usually ~/nltk_data. Now import add that path when you run the function.

import nltk;

Now, nltk.data.path is a list of locations where to search for the modules. You can just do:

nltk.data.path.append("your location/directory");

edited Jul 1, 2014 at 15:05

gung - Reinstate Monica

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answered Jul 1, 2014 at 14:47

Javesh

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