Alright, I managed to get it working how I want (although some/most might disagree with the method). I used Flask as recommended below. The part that might be considered "wrong" is the 404 check loop. It isn't proper design and results in a "stuck script" error in some browsers if it goes on for too long. However, the script I want to run doesn't last long enough for that to be a problem.
Thanks for the help and please let me know if you have any other suggestions.
Flask App:
import threading
import subprocess
import os
import sys
from flask import Flask
from flask import render_template, abort
app = Flask(__name__)
app.debug = True
def run_script():
theproc = subprocess.Popen([sys.executable, "run_me.py"])
theproc.communicate()
@app.route('/')
def index():
return render_template('index.html')
@app.route('/generate')
def generate():
threading.Thread(target=lambda: run_script()).start()
return render_template('processing.html')
@app.route('/is_done')
def is_done():
hfile = "templates\\itworked.html"
if os.path.isfile(hfile):
return render_template('itworked.html')
else:
abort(404)
if __name__ == "__main__":
app.run()
processing.html:
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<script src="/static/jquery.min.js"></script>
</head>
<body>
<p>Processing...</p>
<script>
setInterval(function()
{
var http = new XMLHttpRequest();
http.open('HEAD', "is_done", false);
http.send();
if (http.status==200)
window.location.replace("is_done");
},2000);
</script>
</body>
</html>
Original question:
I am a beginner/intermediate Python programmer and a beginning web developer so please be gentle. What I want: A user clicks a hyperlink and is taken to an intermediate web page that says something like "Processing...". In the background (on the server) this link triggers a python script that processes a file and creates a new web page. On completion of the script, the user is redirected to the newly created page. What I have: I have a script that does the processing and spits out a new page. What I haven't figured out is how to trigger the python script and then trigger the redirect on script completion. I've looked at web frameworks like django, and cgi scripting. But I haven't found anything I feel fits the bill. It's very possible I'm just missing something completely obvious so I'd really appreciate any help. Thanks.