Make python talk to local Flask app via browser

Question

This might be a simple architecture question but I can't figure it out.

What I have:

Basically I have two apps running locally on my Raspberry pi:

One C++ app (Voicecommand) that allows me to execute commands from my microphone and run various python scripts. On certain keywords, I can run a python script to open the browser or do anything.
One simple Flask app, with a couple of basic views

What I want:

When I say a keyword (e.g. weather), I want my local Flask app to return the weather (already have the function and view for this), ideally in small frame without reloading the whole page.

What I thought about:

I thought about having my local app making JS calls within the browser but couldn't really figure out how. Best thing I could think of was an equivalent of Applescript to inject the JS call in the browser... From then, I could easily make an ajax call to my weather view and return the result without refreshing the page. I also thought about using something like React or Angular, or connecting the two apps but I'm not 100% sure on how.

William Gaul · Accepted Answer · 2015-03-19 04:49:08Z

1

This is somewhat tricky because you want to update a client based on some event on the server, where normally the interaction is all one way (i.e. client makes a request, server responds, that's it).

What I would do is set up some sort of two way protocol, such as WebSockets. One decent library for Flask is Flask-SocketIO. You can then have your Python scripts from the C++ app hit an endpoint in your Flask app, and that endpoint can emit() a message to the client. On the client side, you can receive these events and update your views accordingly.

answered Mar 19, 2015 at 4:49

William Gaul

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