Pass multiple Python variables to PHP

Question

HTML

This is a form that accepts a user's input (url):

<form method="post" action="/" accept-charset="utf-8">
    <input type="search" name="url" placeholder="Enter a url" />
    <button>Go</button>
</form>

PHP (Laravel)

This controller stores the value of the user's input (url) into a variable for use in the python script.

$url = Input::get('url');
$name = shell_exec('path/to/python ' . base_path() . '/test.py ' . $url);
return $name;

Python

The script passes what the user input and takes the text after a forward slash and displays it.

url = sys.argv[1]
name = url.split('/')[-1]
print(name)

Going back to the PHP, it returns the value of what was executed in the Python script. If a user inputs the url: http://example.com/file.png it will successfully return the string file.png

Everything about this works, but I'm realizing that I'm limiting myself, since the shell_exec command is only going to paste out the string that is returned from the python script. What do I need to do if I want to have multiple variables returned?

Python in question

url = sys.argv[1]
name = url.split('/')[-1]
test = "pass this text too!"
# ? what goes here ?

So the HTML page should now return file.png and pass this text too!

Am I going to need to return an array or json in the python and then extract the array/json in PHP?

NOTE: I am aware of security flaws/injections in these examples, these are stripped down versions of my actual code.

Not quite an answer to your stated question, but if this is a project of more than minor complexity, I'd recommend using a database to handle communication between the various processes. SQLite has very little overhead and can work wonders if everything is on one machine. — Kal Zekdor
– Kal Zekdor, Commented Jan 8, 2015 at 20:53
@KalZekdor can you elaborate more on what you mean? What would the db store? — O P
– O P, Commented Jan 8, 2015 at 22:34
Depends on your particular application. Eg, if a user is uploading an image via php which needs to be used by python, instead of passing the path to the image as a python arg, store the image (path or data), uploader, upload date, status of the job, etc. The python script could then run through unprocessed jobs in the db and act on them. — Kal Zekdor
– Kal Zekdor, Commented Jan 14, 2015 at 7:44
As I said, it's not exactly an answer to what you're asking, but it's worth looking into (unless this is for a quick one-off script, in which case it's a bit overkill). You may be able to structure your app in a more robust manner. Passing data back and forth via command line arguments is a quick and dirty solution; easy to implement, but prone to breakage, and a maintenance nightmare. — Kal Zekdor
– Kal Zekdor, Commented Jan 14, 2015 at 7:50

Andrew_Lvov · Accepted Answer · 2015-01-08 20:46:14Z

2

You can return a an array, but be sure that elements don't contain the delimiter. Like print(','.join(name, test)). Or you can encode to json like json.dumps([name, test]), then parse json in PHP. Second one is better, of course.

answered Jan 8, 2015 at 20:46

Andrew_Lvov

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2 Comments

Halayem Anis Over a year ago

i have voted up, because i missed JSON !! and i work with it every day. shame on me :D

Andrew_Lvov Over a year ago

@HalayemAnis shame on you :D

Halayem Anis · Accepted Answer · 2015-01-08 20:50:11Z

0

In this case, your Python script has to return a formatted response, that PHP script can parse properly and determine variables with their values
for example, your python code has to return something like that :

file_name=file.png;file_extension=png;creation_date=1/1/2015;

After that in your php code yo do the necessary stuff

$varValues = explode(";", $PythonResult);
foreach($varValues as $vv) {
    $temp = explode("=", $vv);
    print 'Parameter : ' . $temp[0] . ' value : ' . $temp[1] . '<br />';
}

answered Jan 8, 2015 at 20:50

Halayem Anis

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