How to turn a simple python script to basic webapp?

Question

I would like to know what is the fastest way to turn a simple Python script into a basic web app.

For example, say I would like to create a web app that takes a keyword from the user and display the most retweeted tweet on Twitter. If I write a python script that is capable of performing that task using Twitter's API, how would I go about turning it into a web app for people to access?

I have looked at frameworks such as Django, but it would take me weeks or months to learn how to use it. I just need something quick and simple. Any such alternatives?

• Stephen B: Flask seems fairly straightforward to set up and use.
• mdegis: I second that the idea of using Flask.

Answer 1

Make a CGI script out of it. You basically get the request information from the webserver via environment variables and you print the desired HTML to stdout. There are helper libraries such as Werkzeug which help with abstracting away the handling of the environment variables by wrapping them in a Request object.

This technique is quite outdated and isn't normally used nowadays as the script has to be run on every request and thus incurs the startup cost all the time.

Nevertheless this may actually be a good solution for you because it is quick and every webserver supports it.