Sending HTML form input to python script

Question

I'm trying to send a HTML form input from a page to a python script. This is just for testing purposes so ignore the poor code. Basically I don't know how to define the action= part to reference the search() function in the python script. I just need to get the basic functionality working. I'm using web2py as the framework which is probably relevant:

Controller: default.py

def index():
 return dict()
def search():
 import urllib
 q=request.vars.q
 result1 = urllib.urlopen('http://www.google.com/search?q=%s' % q)
 return dict(result1=result1)

default/search.html:

{{extend 'layout.html'}}
<form method=get action=???>
<input name=q>
<input type=submit value=search>
</form>

Answer 1

It looks like the form itself is served via the search() function, so you can just set action="", and it will submit back to the search() function. Also, you should put quotes around your HTML attribute values, and you should add some logic to check whether there is anything in request.vars.q, because when the page first loads with an empty form, there is no query to process.

• adohertyd: Thanks for this Anthony but it doesn't seem to be working. When I put a word into the search box the page just opens again with a blank search box. Also regarding the logic, wouldn't request.vars.q only come into play when the form is submitted no? By logic do you mean if request.vars.q is null: do something?
• Anthony: Nothing is being displayed when you submit a query because your view doesn't do anything with the results -- it only displays the form. The problem is that the result is the full HTML web page from Google, so you can't easily just show it within your page (you'll have to do some scraping to pull out the relevant content). And yes, by logic, I meant something like if request.vars.q: [make the query].
• adohertyd: Thanks for the great input Anthony much appreciated

Answer 2

What you are doing there is correct for GET requests. For POST requests you need to pass the fields as the data parameter.

urllib.urlopen('http://www.google.com/search', data=urllib.urlencode({'q':'FOO'}))

does the search as a POST request for example.

See here for more info.

• Peter: Indeed, but this a just a silly example. Google returns "405: Method Not Allowed" to that request.
• Anthony: But a Google search should be a GET request, not a POST. Also, the data argument above should be urllib.urlencode({'q': 'FOO'}).
• Anthony: OK, but what question were you answering with this example?
• Peter: My understanding of the question is that the questioner has a website that he wishes to test by writing hacky python scripts that fill out forms for him, as if they where web-browsers. He doesn't understand how to get python to produce a GET or a POST request respectively.
• Anthony: No, I think he just has a form that he wants to post to the search() function in his default.py controller file. The value from the "q" field in the form is then used as the query for a Google search (he has already asked a related question on the web2py mailing list).