Sending HTML POST data to a Python script

Question

I want to post data to a python script using a basic html form. My background is PHP and that's super easy with the $_POST superglobal. However, after hours of googling and YouTube, I'm still no closer. I've tried the Requests library but I want to RECEIVE information, not send it. I know I can probally use Flask but I would rather not have a framework. Is there a python equivalent to a superglobal?

Basically, I have an html form like,

<form method="post" name="MyFrom" action="data.php">
<input name="Data" type="text">
<input name="Submit1" type="submit" value="submit">
</form>

The data.php looks like,

<?php
echo '<pre>';
print_r($_POST);
echo '</pre>';
?>

Which prints out... Array ( [Data] => 123 [Submit1] => submit ) ... and the "Data" value I can then assign to a variable and use latter down the script. Basically, I want a Python file (like data.py) that can understand the incoming post data.

Are you trying to render the HTML using python? And then put information into your html page that python can consume? — C.Nivs
– C.Nivs, Commented Apr 12, 2020 at 3:22
I think the python process needs to be reading from a socket/web-address for that to occur. The HTML is doing an http post to an arbitrary address (best I can tell). You'd need python to be running a basic HTTP server and the url of that server is what your html posts to — C.Nivs
– C.Nivs, Commented Apr 12, 2020 at 3:51
You are in need of some sort of backend to make this work, Flask is a framework that enables this, and there are many others (django, bottle, etc). If you're looking for a built in, simple one, the http module can be of help — C.Nivs
– C.Nivs, Commented Apr 12, 2020 at 3:59
I have Apache2.4 configured for my PHP app and added the CGI for python and now can run Python scripts from the web browser. Just missing a way to send information to the script. — James
– James, Commented Apr 12, 2020 at 4:11

anjsimmo · Accepted Answer · 2020-04-13 01:59:08Z

1

While frameworks that run on WSGI, such as Flask, are much more suitable for building complex applications, a simple Python CGI script comes close to the way that PHP works.

form.html

<form method="post" name="MyFrom" action="/cgi-bin/data.py">
<input name="Data" type="text">
<input name="Submit1" type="submit" value="submit">
</form>

cgi-bin/data.py (don't forget to mark as executable)

#!/usr/bin/env python3
import cgi

print("Content-type:text/html\r\n\r\n")
print('<pre>')
form = cgi.FieldStorage()
for var in form:
    print("field:", var)
    print("value:", form[var].value)
print('</pre>')

You can test it using python3 -m http.server --cgi 8000 or install a full webserver like Apache with the CGI module.

edited Apr 13, 2020 at 1:59

answered Apr 12, 2020 at 6:08

anjsimmo

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