Question

Below, I print out the html for a form defined externally. Is there a difference in the way each string is retrieved and used in foo.py, other than the syntax? If so, in what circumstances would one method be preferred over the other? For example, would I be better off defining a number of html files in a module as strings and access them that way, as opposed keeping them in separate .html files and using open over and over?

mod.py

form = """\
<form type="POST" action="test.py">
   Enter something:<input type="text" name="somethign">
</form>
"""

form.html

<form type="POST" action="test.py">
   Enter something:<input type="text" name="something">
</form>

foo.py

import mod

print mod.form

with open('form.html', 'r') as form:
   print form.read()

Answer 1

Having .html files is better. Sure, you will have some overhead opening a file, reading its content and then closing it, but you’ll have many advantages:

• .html file can be edited by any person who knows HTML syntax.
• .html files can be edited without restarting your program, it is very useful for services.
• You can eliminate open/read/close overhead by introducing some caching technique.