Basic CGI

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February 13th, 2004, 05:49 PM

XxChris

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Basic CGI

This code is from a tutorial, but it doesn't seem to work and I have no idea why. I get the typical "Internal Server Error". It's weird because It works fine if I remove the functions. I can simply print "Hello, World" and not call any function but I still get that error

Code:


#!/usr/bin/env python

import cgi
import re

def displayContent(content):

	template = open('template.html', 'r')
	input = template.read()
	template.close()
	
	subResult = re.subn('<!-- Content Here -->', content, input)
	
	if subResult[1] = 0:
		raise 'Error'
	
	print "Content-Type: text/html\n\n"
	print subResult[0]

def displayForm():

	formHandle = open('form.html', 'r')
	formInput = formHandle.read()
	formHandle.close()

	displayContent(formInput)
	
def processForm(form):

	output = ''
	
	subject = form['subject'].value
	author = form['author'].value
	body = form['body'].value
	
	output = subject + ' ' + author + ' ' + body
	
	displayContent(output)

form = cgi.FieldStorage()

try:
	key = forum['process'].value
except:
	key = None
	
if key == 'process':
parseForm(form)
	
else:
	displayForm()

February 13th, 2004, 06:06 PM

netytan

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Just a guess but could it have something to do with there not being a function called parseForm() anywhere i you're code... If you remove all the functions then you'll get an error because theres no Content-Type header i.e.

Code:

#!/usr/bin/env python

print 'Content-Type: text/plain\n'
print 'Hello World From Xx'

Thats about as basic as you're gonna get. If you want to redirect errors to the browser so you dont have to keep opening you're apache error log (which can be very anoying) just add these line to your CGI file

Code:

#!/usr/bin/env python

import sys

sys.stderr = sys.stdout

print 'Content-Type: text/plain\n'
print 'Hello World From Xx'

You should also check out the cgitb module although personally i puke every time i see that neon screen!

http://www.python.org/doc/2.3.3/lib/module-cgitb.html

You might also wana check that you're Python file is pointing at the Python interpreter. A very comon mistake by both new and old CGI users

Anyway give that a go

and let me know what happens.

Mark.

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February 13th, 2004, 06:10 PM

netytan

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Hi Scorp

, the Content-Type header is been sent as part of the displayContent() function... Not the most clear design

, especially since it came from a CGI tutorial!

Catch ya latter,

Mark

February 13th, 2004, 06:10 PM

Scorpions4ever

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Also might help if you have access to your error log. You should check to see if there are any helpful messages there.

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February 13th, 2004, 06:37 PM

XxChris

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I made some changes but it still doesn't work.

@netytan: I added the sys.stderr = sys.stdout but it doesn't show anything in the browser

Code:


#!/usr/bin/env python

import cgi
import re
import sys

def displayContent(content):

	try:
		template = open('template.html', 'r')
	except IOError:
		print 'IO Error'
		
	input = template.read()
	template.close()
	
	subResult = re.subn('<!-- Content Here -->', content, input)
	
	if subResult[1] = 0:
		raise 'Error'
	
	print "Content-Type: text/html\n\n"
	print subResult[0]
	
def parseForm(form):

	output = ''
	
	subject = form['subject']
	author = form['author']
	body = form['body']
	
	output = subject + ' ' + author + ' ' + body
	
	displayContent(output)
	
sys.stderr = sys.stdout

form = cgi.FieldStorage()

parseForm(form)	


#print "Content-Type: text/html\n\n"
#print 'Hi'

February 14th, 2004, 07:13 PM

netytan

Hello World :)

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Sorry for the slow responce Xx, busy, busy day! Anyway the reason you seem to be suffering here is because the page flow is all messed up i.e. the try-except block would cause an error is template doesn't exist since the program keeps on running regardless of an IOError or not. Oh and a minor syntax error/typo (= in stead of ==).

Code:

#!/usr/bin/env python

import cgi, re, sys

sys.stderr = sys.stdout

def displayContent(content):

	try:
		template = file('template.html', 'r')
		
		input = template.read()
		template.close()
		
		subResult = re.subn('<!-- Content Here -->', content, input)
		
		if subResult[1] == 0:
			raise 'Error'
	
		print subResult[0]
	except IOError:
		print 'IO Error'
	
def parseForm(form):
	
	subject = form['subject']
	author = form['author']
	body = form['body']
	
	output = subject, author, body
	
	displayContent(output)

if __name__ == '__main__':

	print "Content-Type: text/html\n"
	
	form = cgi.FieldStorage()
	
	parseForm(form)

Anyway i've tidied it up a little. Hopefully it'll behave for you now! This is untested btw since i dont know what this is surposed to do or what template.html is surposed to look for and etc.

Note: sys.stderr = sys.stdout should be writen as soon as it can be since it'll only redirect errors AFTER it's called.

Mark.

February 15th, 2004, 07:10 PM

XxChris

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Thanks netytan! I'm busy too (with school). Thanks for the new code, I'll test it when I can and hopefuly I can get it working.

February 15th, 2004, 07:17 PM

netytan

Hello World :)

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No problem Xx. If it doesn't work/you can get it working just let me know and i'll see what i can do to help!

Mark.

February 16th, 2004, 03:40 PM

XxChris

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I just tryed the new code and I get this error:

Code:

Traceback (most recent call last):  File "/Library/WebServer/CGI-Executables/formParse.py", line 76, in ?  parseForm(form)  File "/Library/WebServer/CGI-Executables/formParse.py", line 60, in parseForm  displayContent(output)  File "/Library/WebServer/CGI-Executables/formParse.py", line 27, in displayContent  subResult = re.subn('', content, input)  File "/System/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.3/lib/python2.3/sre.py", line 151, in subn  return _compile(pattern, 0).subn(repl, string, count)  File "/System/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.3/lib/python2.3/sre.py", line 257, in _subx  template = _compile_repl(template, pattern)  File "/System/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.3/lib/python2.3/sre.py", line 242, in _compile_repl  p = sre_parse.parse_template(repl, pattern)  File "/System/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.3/lib/python2.3/sre_parse.py", line 645, in parse_template  s = Tokenizer(source)  File "/System/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.3/lib/python2.3/sre_parse.py", line 186, in __init__  self.__next()  File "/System/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.3/lib/python2.3/sre_parse.py", line 192, in __next  if char[0] == "\\": AttributeError: MiniFieldStorage instance has no attribute '__getitem__'

...and I'm really not sure what it means

btw here is form.html and template.html if anyone wants it

form.html:

Code:

<html>

<head>
	<title>bleh</title>
</head>

<body>

<font size=3><b>Test Form</b>

<font face=verdana size=2>

<form action="cgi-bin/formParse.py" method="post">
	
	<p>
	
	Subject: <br />
		<input type="text" size="50" name="subject"><br>
		
	Author: <br />
		<input type="text" size="50" name="author"><br>
	
	<br />
	
	Body:<br />
		<textarea name="body" rows="12" cols="46"></textarea>
		
	</p>

	<input type="Submit" value="Submit">
	
</form>

</body>
</html>

template.html:

Code:

<html>
	<head>
		<title>Template</title>
	</head>
	
<body>

	<!-- Content Here -->

</body>
</html>

#10

February 16th, 2004, 06:02 PM

netytan

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Ok, the problem was being cause by the content variable; basically, re.sub() was barfing because it was being passed instances instead of a string (in content).

Anyway it wasn't hard to fix when i got down to it, all i've really done here is assign the form[key].value string to content instead of the form[key] instance!

Code:

import cgi, re, sys

sys.stderr = sys.stdout

def displayContent(content):

	try:
		template = file('template.html', 'r').read()
		result = re.sub('<!-- Content Here -->', content, template)
		print result
	except IOError:
		print 'IO Error'
	
def parseForm(form):
	
	subject = form['subject'].value
	author = form['author'].value
	body = form['body'].value
	
	output = subject, author, body
	
	displayContent(output)

if __name__ == '__main__':

	print "Content-Type: text/html\n"
	
	form = cgi.FieldStorage()
	
	parseForm(form)

Seems like a pretty useless example though

Mark.

Last edited by netytan : February 16th, 2004 at 06:05 PM.

#11

February 16th, 2004, 07:09 PM

XxChris

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Ahhhh it works

, thanks Mark! This is all for a news management system I want to write to use on my websites, although, I'm not sure if using this method is the best way to do it.

#12

February 17th, 2004, 05:06 AM

netytan

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Location: Hull, UK

Posts: 2,537

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Ah i see

. personally i dout i'd use this myself, just too many holes i.e. if say, the subject wasn't given you'll have a lovly error message. Also there isn't much point in using regex for somthing this simple, i'd consider using the replace() method instead and removing regex all together.

Mark.

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