CherryPy essentials : rapid Python web application development : design, develop, test, and deploy your Python web applications easily

This book covers the CherryPy library for Python web development from its history and installation through its main features and core concepts to its integration with Python and other products to construct, test, and deploy a sample photoblog application. The author Sylvain Hellegouarch is dedicated to the development of free software projects and has been coordinating and administrating the community efforts around the CherryPy project since 2004. The approach based on an example application introduces many other common Python libraries, providing transferable skills also relevant for non-web Python projects. CherryPy is a Python library for web development that allows developers to build web applications in the same way as any other object-oriented Python program. Enriched by several years of active development, it has become one of the most established toolkits for building solid and high-performance web applications in Python. CherryPy abstracts the complex low-level HTTP protocol into an easy-to-use interface that respects Python idioms. The library aims at being simple to learn for a beginner while offering the most advanced features to fluent Python developers. For these reasons CherryPy was chosen to be at the heart of the popular and feature-rich TurboGears web framework. CherryPy-powered web applications are stand-alone Python applications with their own embedded multi-threaded web server, but can also run behind Apache or IIS for scalability..CherryPy installation using tarball, egg, and subversion. The CherryPy library in depth: its design and how to use it. Using CherryPy with common Python and non-Python products . Object RelationalMapping with SQLObject, SQLAlchemy, and Dejavu. Web Services via REST and the Atom Publishing Protocol. AJAX and client-side scripting via MochiKit. Unit, functional, and load testing. CherryPy, Apache, and lighttpd deployment solurionsThe book starts with two chapters dedicated to CherryPy itself, its history and installation. Then it moves through a gentle introduction to the main features and concepts of CherryPy to a thorough review of its core capabilities. After laying this foundation the book dives into a real-world example, detailing important steps in the creation of a photoblog application. These chapters cover database manipulation via Object Relational Mapping (ORM), using web services to enhance the application, and client-side scripting through AJAX. Finally, the book covers the need for unit, functional, and performance testing before closing with deployment solutions for a CherryPy-based application.Who this book is written for This book is principally geared towards Python web developers, who are looking to add the power of the CherryPy library to their existing Python skillset. It assumes a good working knowledge of Python . Although the CherryPy toolkit is at the core of the book, many other common libraries are introduced. CherryPy Essentials......Page 1 Table of Contents......Page 8 Preface......Page 14 Overview......Page 20 History of CherryPy......Page 21 The Community......Page 22 CherryPy Project Strengths......Page 23 Through the Book......Page 24 Summary......Page 25 Requirements......Page 26 Overview......Page 27 Installation from a Tarball......Page 29 Installation through Easy Install......Page 31 Installation from Subversion......Page 33 Keeping CherryPy Up to Date......Page 36 Summary......Page 37 Vocabulary......Page 38 Basic Example......Page 39 Internal Engine......Page 45 Configuration......Page 46 Object Publisher Engine......Page 49 Library......Page 51 The Coverage Module......Page 52 The Profiler Module......Page 53 The Sessions Module......Page 54 The XML-RPC Module......Page 55 Tools......Page 56 Error and Exception Handling......Page 57 Summary......Page 62 HTTP Compliance......Page 64 Multiple HTTP Servers......Page 65 Multi-Threaded Application Server......Page 67 HTTP Method Dispatcher......Page 68 Routes Dispatcher......Page 70 Virtual Host Dispatcher......Page 71 Hook into CherryPy's Core Engine......Page 72 CherryPy Toolbox......Page 74 Basic Authentication Tool......Page 75 Caching Tool......Page 76 Decoding Tool......Page 77 Digest Authentication Tool......Page 78 Encode Tool......Page 79 Etag Tool......Page 80 Ignore Headers Tool......Page 82 Log Headers Tool......Page 83 Log Tracebacks Tool......Page 84 Proxy Tool......Page 85 Referer Tool......Page 86 Response Headers Tool......Page 87 Trailing Slash Tool......Page 88 XML-RPC Tool......Page 89 Creating a Tool......Page 90 Using the Staticfile Tool to Serve a Single File......Page 94 Using the Staticdir Tool to Serve a Complete Directory......Page 96 Bypassing Static Tools to Serve Static Content......Page 98 WSGI Support......Page 99 Hosting a WSGI Application within the CherryPy WSGI Server......Page 100 Hosting a CherryPy WSGI Application within a Third-Party WSGI Server......Page 102 Summary......Page 103 A Photoblog Application......Page 104 Photoblog Entities......Page 105 Vocabulary......Page 107 Relational Database Management System (RDBMS)......Page 108 Object-Oriented Database Management System (OODBMS)......Page 109 Object-Relational Mapping......Page 110 Python Object-Relational Mappers......Page 111 Photoblog Application Entity Modeling......Page 121 Mapping Entities......Page 122 Units and UnitProperties......Page 124 The Sandbox Interface......Page 125 Querying Units......Page 126 Extending the Data Access Layer......Page 127 Summary......Page 130 Traditional Web Development......Page 132 Separation of Concerns......Page 134 REST......Page 135 Uniform Resource Identifier......Page 136 HTTP Methods......Page 137 Putting it Together......Page 141 REST Interface through CherryPy......Page 143 Atom Publishing Protocol......Page 144 Atom XML-Document Format......Page 145 APP Implementation......Page 147 Summary......Page 149 HTML......Page 150 XHTML......Page 151 CSS......Page 152 DHTML......Page 154 Overview......Page 155 Conditional Statement......Page 157 Looping Mechanism......Page 158 Extensibility......Page 159 Targetting the User Agent......Page 160 Global Design Goals......Page 161 CherryPy—Encapsulating the Template Rendering Process......Page 162 Basic Structure......Page 164 Mochikit......Page 169 HTML Code......Page 170 Handling the End-User Actions......Page 171 Amending the CSS......Page 172 Let's be More Flexible.........Page 173 Summary......Page 174 Rise of the Rich-Client Applications......Page 176 Ajax......Page 177 Ajax—Advantages and Drawbacks......Page 178 Behind the Scene: XMLHttpRequest......Page 179 Performing a GET Request......Page 180 Performing a Content-Negotiated GET Request ......Page 181 Performing a POST Request......Page 182 Authentication using Digest or Basic Schemes......Page 183 JSON......Page 189 Defining the Required Namespaces......Page 191 Adding Methods to the Classes......Page 192 Method to Create a New Album......Page 196 Method to Delete an Existing Album......Page 203 Summary......Page 204 Why Testing......Page 206 Planning a Test......Page 207 Unit Testing......Page 208 unittest......Page 209 doctest......Page 214 Unit Testing Web Applications......Page 218 Performance and Load Testing......Page 226 Functional Testing......Page 231 Application under Test......Page 232 Selenium Core......Page 235 Selenium IDE......Page 240 Selenium Remote Control......Page 244 Summary......Page 246 CherryPy—Web and Engine Configuration System......Page 248 Photoblog Application Configuration System......Page 251 Deployment......Page 253 Apache with mod_rewrite Module......Page 254 Lighttpd with mod_proxy Module......Page 256 Apache with mod_python Module......Page 257 SSL......Page 259 Creating a Certificate and a Private Key......Page 260 Using the CherryPy SSL Support......Page 261 Using the lighttpd SSL Support......Page 263 Summary......Page 264 Index......Page 266

In Detail

CherryPy is a Python library for web development that allows developers to build web applications in the same way as any other object-oriented Python program. Enriched by several years of active development, it has become one of the most established toolkits for building solid and high-performance web applications in Python. CherryPy abstracts the complex low-level HTTP protocol into an easy-to-use interface that respects Python idioms. The library aims at being simple to learn for a beginner while offering the most advanced features to fluent Python developers. For these reasons CherryPy was chosen to be at the heart of the popular and feature-rich TurboGears web framework. CherryPy-powered web applications are stand-alone Python applications with their own embedded multi-threaded web server, but can also run behind Apache or IIS for scalability.

This book covers the CherryPy library for Python web development from its history and installation through its main features and core concepts to its integration with Python and other products to construct, test, and deploy a sample photoblog application. The author Sylvain Hellegouarch is dedicated to the development of free software projects and has been coordinating and administrating the community efforts around the CherryPy project since 2004. The approach based on an example application introduces many other common Python libraries, providing transferable skills also relevant for non-web Python projects.

Approach

The book starts with two chapters dedicated to CherryPy, its history and installation. It then moves through a gentle introduction to the main features and concepts of CherryPy to a thorough review of its core capabilities. After laying this foundation the book dives into a real-world example, detailing important steps in the creation of a photoblog application. These chapters cover database manipulation via Object Relational Mapping (ORM), using web services to enhance the application, and client-side scripting through AJAX. Finally, the book covers the need for unit, functional, and performance testing before closing with deployment solutions for a CherryPy-based application.

Who this book is for

This book is principally geared towards Python web developers, who are looking to add the power of the CherryPy library to their existing Python skillset. It assumes a good working knowledge of Python. Although the CherryPy toolkit is at the core of the book, many other common libraries are introduced

CherryPy Essentials guides you through learning CherryPy from beginning to end. The first three chapters of the book offer the basics of working with CherryPy (from inception, to install, to basic usage). A nice plus, which I think more books should do, occurs at the beginning of Chapter 3 where a functional web application is presented. Although short and to the point, the application does give a since of what is possible with CherryPy in a "Rapid" development perspective. Another good point about the book is that it does give a wide overview of what is "possible" with CherryPy from Templating, to Web Services, and even Testing. The book is well organized and can serve as a an excellent resource for anyone looking to give CherryPy a look for their web development projects. PROS * Well laid out and easy to follow * Explains an assortment of useful tools for CherryPy * Helps to get started quickly with the framework * Includes excellent online resource CONS * Would like to have seen either a Web 2.0 application to be built or an enterprise level application built (even though a Photo album was presented for much of the second half of the book) * Doesnt focus on a lot of the internals of CherryPy OVERALL Overall, this is one of the best books I have ever read. Very easy to get through. If you are new to CherryPy or web application development, this book is an excellent choice.