How do I call a python function from a cgi script with javascript?

Question

I also want to use the XMLHttpRequest object in a javascript function to send info about the currently selected option from a dropdown list (the one called 'Users' in the code below) as an argument to a function in my Python script, and then get the return value from that function and use it to setup another list ('Tasks' in the code below) I want to do this so that I can update the information in "Tasks" using data that I have gotten as a return value from the Python function I am doing it this way because I need the page to not have to reload. If you know a better way to implement this I would be open to ideas.

def main():
with open("Users.json", 'r') as data_file:
    usersDictionary = json.load(data_file)
Users=usersDictionary["Users"]
print "Content-Type: text/html"
print ""
print """
<html>
<head>
    <script>
      function setTaskList(){
          #Insert Javascript which will call python function here...
      }
        </script>
        <title>TestPage</title>
    </head>
    <body onload="setTaskList()">
        <form>"""
print """<select name="Users" onchange="setTaskList()">"""
for user in Users:
    if(not(len(user["Tasks"]["High"])==0 and len(user["Tasks"]["Med"])==0 and len(user["Tasks"]["Low"])==0)):
        print """<option value="{0}">{1}</option>""".format(user["UID"], user["name"])
print "</select>"
print """<select name="Tasks" disabled="disabled">"""
print "</select>"
print"""<input type="Submit" value="Add Task"/>
<button type="button">Delete Task</button>"""
print"""
        </form>
</body>
</html>"""

main()

For the code below, I want to be able to get the data from input boxes when submit is clicked, and send the info gotten from the input boxes and radio buttons to a python function to process it and add it as a JSON object to a JSON dictionary and then update a JSON file, and then return to the previous page (which is the one with the code above) (assume that is called index.py).

print "Content-Type: text/html"
print ""
print"""<html>
<head>
    <title>Title</title>
</head>
<body>
    <form  action = "/~theUser/cgi-bin/index.cgi" method = "POST">
        Task Name:   <input type = "text" name = "TaskName" 
placeholder="Task name" />  <br />
        Task Description:    <input type = "text" name = "TaskDescription" 
placeholder="task description" /> <br />
        User ID:    <input type = "text" name = "UID" placeholder="User Id" 
/> <br />
        Priority <br/>
        <input type="radio" name="gender" value="High"> High<br>
        <input type="radio" name="gender" value="Medium"> Medium<br>
        <input type="radio" name="gender" value="Low"> Low<br>
        <input type = "submit" value = "Submit" />
    </form>
</body>
</html>"""

Can anyone help, I'm really new to this CGI stuff, and would really appreciate it. Also if you know a better for me to do this, please let me know. Thanks!

Kikanye · Accepted Answer · 2018-02-27 03:30:30Z

So after long trial and error, and waiting on an answer that never came, I figured out how to do this myself so I thought I might help whoever was in need of this out I was able to send a request from my python cgi script using javascript like so:

print "Content-Type: text/html"
print ""
print """
<html>
<head>
    <script>
    function getTasks() { 
       //put more processing in the function as needed
       var xmlhttp;
       var parameters = "This must be a string which will be the parameters 
       you will receive in your python script";
       var scriptName = "pythonScript To CommunicateWith.py";
       //may be .cgi as well depending on how you are using it
       if (window.XMLHttpRequest) {
           xmlhttp = new XMLHttpRequest();
        } else {
             xmlhttp = new ActiveXObject("Microsoft.XMLHTTP");
        }
        xmlhttp.open("POST", scriptName, true);
        xmlhttp.onreadystatechange = function () {
            if (xmlhttp.readyState == 4 && xmlhttp.status == 200) {
                //retrieve a json response and parse it into userTasks
                usersTasks = JSON.parse(xmlhttp.responseText);
             }
        }
        xmlhttp.send(parameters);
     }
    </script>

In my python script which the java script hits here is how I get the arguments and process them:

#!usr/bin/python
import sys
import json

args=sys.stdin.readlines() #args comes in as a list with one item in it 
which is the parameter that you sent in from javascript

arguments=args[0]
print "Content-Type: text/html"
print ""

def getTasks(userName):
    """This function will do some processing and get the required return 
    value"""
    taskList=[]
    #read JSON file and get the info.
    with open("Somefile.json", 'r') as data_file:
        usersDictionary = json.load(data_file)
    data_file.close()
    """...do some process ing of data here, which will set some data into 
    the list called taskList"""
    return taskList #Return a list of all the tasks for the user.

print json.dumps(getTasks(arguments)) 
"""convert the json to a string and print it out. what you print out here 
will be what you will get as a string in the .responseText of the 
XMLHttpRequest 
object"""

Using Pycharm and the python CGIHTTPServer function to debug helped me here. Hope this helps someone out there.

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

How do I call a python function from a cgi script with javascript?

1 Answer 1

Comments

Your Answer

Hot Network Questions

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

1 Answer 1

Comments

Your Answer

Sign up or log in

Post as a guest

Related