BaseHTTPServer
You can use this to make a simple HTTP web server.
Official Documentation
[http://www.python.org/doc/2.3.4/lib/module-BaseHTTPServer.html BaseHTTPServer module documentation] - what we use directly
[http://www.python.org/doc/2.3.4/lib/module-SocketServer.html SocketServer module documentation] - behind the BaseHttpServer
Example Code
Responding with an HTML Page
1 import time
2 import BaseHTTPServer
3
4
5 HOST_NAME = 'something.somewhere.net' # !!!REMEMBER TO CHANGE THIS!!!
6 PORT_NUMBER = 80 # Maybe set this to 9000.
7
8
9 class MyHandler(BaseHTTPServer.BaseHTTPRequestHandler):
10 def do_HEAD(s):
11 s.send_response(200)
12 s.send_header("Content-type", "text/html")
13 s.end_headers()
14 def do_GET(s):
15 """Respond to a GET request."""
16 s.send_response(200)
17 s.send_header("Content-type", "text/html")
18 s.end_headers()
19 s.wfile.write("<html><head><title>Title goes here.</title></head>")
20 s.wfile.write("<body><p>This is a test.</p>")
21 # If someone went to "http://something.somewhere.net/foo/bar/",
22 # then s.path equals "/foo/bar/".
23 s.wfile.write("<p>You accessed path: %s</p>" % s.path)
24 s.wfile.write("</body></html>")
25
26 if __name__ == '__main__':
27 server_class = BaseHTTPServer.HTTPServer
28 httpd = server_class((HOST_NAME, PORT_NUMBER), MyHandler)
29 print time.asctime(), "Server Starts - %s:%s" % (HOST_NAME, PORT_NUMBER)
30 try:
31 httpd.serve_forever()
32 except KeyboardInterrupt:
33 pass
34 httpd.close()
35 print time.asctime(), "Server Stops - %s:%s" % (HOST_NAME, PORT_NUMBER)
Responding with URL Redirection
This code demonstrates simple URL redirection:
1 """
2 URL redirection example.
3 """
4
5 import BaseHTTPServer
6 import time
7 import sys
8
9
10 HOST_NAME = 'something.somewhere.net' # !!!REMEMBER TO CHANGE THIS!!!
11 PORT_NUMBER = 80 # Maybe set this to 9000.
12 REDIRECTIONS = {"/slashdot/": "http://slashdot.org/",
13 "/freshmeat/": "http://freshmeat.net/"}
14 LAST_RESORT = "http://google.com/"
15
16 class RedirectHandler(BaseHTTPServer.BaseHTTPRequestHandler):
17 def do_HEAD(s):
18 s.send_response(301)
19 s.send_header("Location", REDIRECTIONS.get(s.path, LAST_RESORT))
20 s.end_headers()
21 def do_GET(s):
22 s.do_HEAD()
23
24 if __name__ == '__main__':
25 server_class = BaseHTTPServer.HTTPServer
26 httpd = server_class((HOST_NAME, PORT_NUMBER), RedirectHandler)
27 print time.asctime(), "Server Starts - %s:%s" % (HOST_NAME, PORT_NUMBER)
28 try:
29 httpd.serve_forever()
30 except KeyboardInterrupt:
31 pass
32 httpd.close()
33 print time.asctime(), "Server Stops - %s:%s" % (HOST_NAME, PORT_NUMBER)
See Also
DocXmlRpcServer -- self-documenting XML-RPC servers
CgiScripts -- using invoked CGI scripts, rather than running micro-web servers
Discussion
I'd ultimately like to see a BaseHttpServer here that can both handle XML-RPC requests (with that request handler,) and normal web requests (with a custom handler.)
Yes- I know and love TwistedPython. But I want to make something that works in a single install. -- LionKimbro DateTime(2004-05-31T01:13:16Z)
I'd also like to add code here showing how to service a POST request.
-- LionKimbro DateTime(2004-07-03T23:07:53Z)
There exist tools like CherryPy which will create a single-file Python HTTP server (based on BaseHTTPServer). This is a fair amount easier to work with than the raw BaseHTTPServer. For most cases, using a more complete framework will be preferable (see WebProgramming). -- IanBicking
I like the BaseHttpServer because it is in the default Python distributions. I encourage all work towards putting a standard web framework into the default Python distribution. I'm not picky, just as long as something is chosen. -- LionKimbro DateTime(2005-01-25T04:53:53Z)