I'm writing a web application in Python, intended for use by teachers and pupils in a classroom. It'll run from a hosted website, but I also want people to be able to download a self-contained application they can install locally if they want more performance or they simply won't have an Internet connection available in the classroom.
The users aren't going to be able to manage instructions like "first install Python, then install dependencies, download the .tar.gz archive and type these commands into the command line...". I need to be able to create an all-in-one type installer that can potentially install Python, dependencies (Python-LDAP), some Python code, and register a Python-based web server as a Windows Service.
I've had a look through previous questions, but none quite seem relevant. I'm not concerned about the security of source code (my application will be open source, I'll sell content to go with it), I just need non-technical Windows users to be able to download and use my application with no fuss.
My current thoughts are to use NSIS to create an installer that includes Python and Python-LDAP as MSIs, then registers my own simple Python-based web server as a Windows service and puts a shortcut in the start menu / on the desktop linking to http://localhost. Is this doable with NSIS - can NSIS check for currently installed copies of Python, for instance? Is there a better way of doing this - is there a handy framework available that lets me shove my code in a folder and bundle it up to make an installer?
Using NSIS is great (i use it too) but i would suggest using a "packager" like pyinstaller (my personal fav, alternatives bb_freeze, py2exe) to create an exe before the using NSIS
The primary benefit you get by doing this is;
Your download is smaller as you're not bundling the whole Python Standard Lib and extra stuff your app wont need and you get an exe file to boot!
You can try the Bitnami Stack for Django that includes Apache, MySQL,Python, etc in an all-in-one installer. It is free/open source
Related
I have a client for whom I have created a program that utilizes a variety of data and machine learning packages. The client would like for the program to be easily run without installing any type of python environment. Is this possible?
I am assuming the best bet would be to transform the .py file into a .exe file but am unsure of how to do this if I have packages that need to be installed before the program can be run.
Are there websites that exist that allow you to easily host complex .py files on them to be run by anyone that accesses the URL?
I think you are looking for "freezing", which package everything including the interpreter, libs and packages into a single executable file.
There are several tools for this purpose:
https://wiki.python.org/moin/Freeze
https://docs.python-guide.org/shipping/freezing/
I think the use of colaboratory that is cloud service provided by Google might be better. Your client who has to sign up for Google account can not only run the python program, but also utilize any major python packages on the cloud (of course, it's possible to install the necessary packages into the client's cloud space), without constructing the python environment on client's local PC. What's more, it's at free!
Background:
I am still new to Python so apologies if this is a naive question. I was originally looking to develop a tool for Windows with a GUI, however, reading around I get the impression that it may be simpler to have my compiled python code somehow 'wrapped' in simpleHTTPServer so users can interact via localhost (much like Jupyter notebook/labs).
Question:
Is there a standard/recommended way to have a compiled python program interface with the user via a localhost port in their web browser? I assume this is a fairly common approach and that a package may already even exist but I've not been able to find anything that gives guidance on how to tackle it.
Alternatively, is is feasible to somehow compile a Django development project to run on localhost?
Ideally, I want an executable file that users can run and their browser opens up at the localhost port required.
If you wish to quickly make a GUI based Python tool, you should consider using Django, a very straightforward framework for WebApps. It is very quick to learn and implement, and you shall very easily be able to integrate highly advanced functionalities too into your tool with ease.
When it comes to distribution of code, you can convert the entire Django App into a windows exe file for ease of distribution and use. There are many python packages that allow you to port python to windows executable files. I would recommend using PyInstaller. You may find this link useful: Recipe Executable From Django.
Alternatively, as someone suggested, you may use Docker, but that would be heavier in terms of space utilized, and will require the user to install the same.
Hope this helps!
I have a Linux web application which installs a webserver, a database, digital certificates etc using a set of .sh scripts.
In order to simplify user interaction during installation such as entering passwords, certificate details and such, I want to create a GUI installer. After much deliberation, following are some decisions and related questions
The target systems may or may not have a Desktop or a monitor installed. So providing a web interface to the install process may be the way to go. User would copy the application to the target machine, start the webservice which would then expose a web interface to continue the install. Would Python be a good choice for this?
Since this is an installer itself, the requirements to run it must be practically nil. This requires
Use python's built in SimpleHTTPServer. This will be used the one time during installation and then be killed. Any caveats to using the default python web server?
Compile app into standalone binary using one of the Freezing utilities. We don't want to depend on the user having python on their system and have been asked to account for admins who've removed python due to whatever reason. Is this precaution necessary?
Any comments on the general approach or alternative options will be greatly appreciated.
I'm building some simple editors with Backbone.js, and I'm hoping to be able to distribute them as apps for users to edit content in a mostly client-side way (i.e., I don't want users to have to futz with setting up stuff like MySQL or Apache).
So I was imagining a scenario like:
User downloads a .zip file
In the resulting opened folder, the user clicks index.html
That opens in a browser
Backbone app starts, stores data in localStorage
The user can then export to CSV.
Believe it or not, that would solve my problem: I want to help users edit data in a browser and then get it back out in a familiar format (CSV can be loaded into Excel, for instance).
And I’d like to do this without forcing them to configure a server. It seems like this is almost possible in the HTML5 stack. However, in at least one browser (Chrome), this doesn't work, because I get errors like this one:
XMLHttpRequest cannot load file:///users/me/project/data/Appdata.json. Origin null is not allowed by Access-Control-Allow-Origin.
(Oddly enough, I don't get that error in Firefox, and the .js or .json files load fine.)
So at this point it seems to me that there's no way around having these users use something kind of local server to serve up the Backbone interface.
So, I'm trying to figure out how to build a distributable, cross-platform executable that will allow my users to start a Flask server. (I hope to build a REST backend to a Backbone.js app.)
Is this wishful thinking? I'm assuming I can get the people in question to install Python.
Is this doable? There seem to be many ways to package up Python programs, (pyinstaller? py2exe? ...) So I thought I would ask here in case someone might know of a solution for the stack I have in mind.
TIA!
You can use Anthony Gordon McMillan’s Pyinstaller or Tuininga’s cx_Freeze
Quoting the PyInstaller website:
Features
Packaging of Python programs into standard executables, that work on
computers without Python installed.
Multiplatform: works under
Windows (32-bit and 64-bit),
Linux (32-bit and 64-bit),
Mac OS X (32-bit only, 64-bit in git, see Features/MacOsCompatibility) and
experimentally Solaris and AIX (in git).
Multiversion: works under any version of Python from 2.2 up to 2.7.
My suggestion would be to create a thin service wrapper around your code. This will allow the server to run independently of your main codebase - also allowing the user to shut down the server directly (simply right clicking the service icon and selecting "Exit").
This SO answer should help you get started.
After reading your updated question, I think something like mongoose might be more suited to your task. It is an embeddable web server that is FLOSS and has python bindings. Flask might be overkill.
Not easily. On Windows, you'd have to include Python itself. Mac and Linux usually have Python installed, but you can't be sure of what version so it's often easier to bundle your specific Python for them as well. Then you'd have to include all the dependencies that you want to run with in your package or be able to install them with pip, easy_install, etc.
You can use py2app and py2exe. This won't be cross-platform as you'll still need to make a different version for each target OS. The only way to make it cross-platform is to bundle all versions and have some cross-platform code execute the appropriate version for that platform.
If you need databases like MySQL or even SQLite things get more complicated as you'll have to include those too.
Hey everyone,
I am expanding my team and I have recently added an additional front end engineer on my site. I am currently using django to run my site but my site is using a lot of plugins, namely: django-celery, django-mailer, django-notification, and django-socialregistration.
Let me describe my situation:
He is using Mac OS X, and I have no experience in installing stuff on mac os X or configuration on that platform
I believe that getting my backend to run on his computer might be somewhat troublesome, i.e. I have to install a bunch of plugins (which are not available on pip or easy_install as they are the latest version) and I have also made heavy modification to django-socialregistration which I am currently using by symlinking to the modified code in my repos in my python path
I tried to look into solutions like pip and easy_install but I have not been able to get them to install code from github
I think the easiest way is to get my backend working on his computer and then he just commiting to the repos. Any ideas how I can make this easy?
Another, free option, is to use VirtualBox. I would recommend installing the same OS on it as your production server. Then, he's developing in the same environment as the live site, and can just check into the repo the same as you. Hey, you may want to do the same on your end--then both of your environments are the same and also the same as the live site.
Get him to set up a virtual machine on his Mac, using VMWare Fusion or Parallels, running the same operating system that you currently use for your back end. If he prefers developing using Mac tools he can do still that by sharing his local changes to the virtual machine via a shared directory.
An alternative, if that's possible, would be to set up a testing/development environment on a machine with an OS you're familiar with, then install something like Dropbox on his local machine where he can develop the frontend code, and install Dropbox on that other environment with the backend components. Dropbox would sync his local changes to that testing environment for him to run the code on.
That way, he would be able to use that environment to test his code, you wouldn't need to set up a backend on his machine (or keep it up to date) and you'd still be getting the same functionality.
Again, if that's an option.