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Asked: 2026-05-12T22:23:03+00:00

First, a little background : I have written a little application in python with

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First, a little background: I have written a little application in python with SQLAlchemy, which is roughly an improved RSS reader: it selects links that should interest the user, and shows them to him. I already have a very simple command-line interface, and I envision a variety of interfaces: web, instant-messaging, desktop…

For now I’d like to create a simple web interface, but I have absolutely zero experience in the matter (appart from making a simple php forum 5 or 6 years ago…). So I’m comming here for advice on where to start:

  1. Is there a good tutorial on HTML/CSS/Javascript focused on making a website look good simply? I know about w3schools, but it’s a terrible tutorial IMHO, since it teaches you about HTML/CSS but doesn’t show you how to use them.
  2. Should I use a javascript library? Which one?
  3. Should I use a web framework? I’m guessing either not or a very lightweight one, since I already have an application core with a database and SQLAlchemy, and I don’t want to drop it.
  4. Any other advice?

Thanks!

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1 Answer

  1. Editorial Team

    Just like everyone else here, I’ll chime in with “Use my favorite framework, because it’s what I use….”

    I would start with small goals for a web interface. Get something simple up and running that to make sure you understand how things work.

    Write an app that responds to the following url and returns something.

    http://localhost:8000/my_links

    Once you understand the little bit of machinery it takes to make that possible, what is handed to you as far as information about the request, and what you need to produce to return to the caller, it should be come clear how to fill in the blanks to get from your existing application to data thrown at the web browser.

    Learn WSGI for no other reason than most of the libraries that will help you build a web application utilize this to some degree.

    One of the links from the above page that I found extremely beneficial in understanding how all this works. was Ian Bickings article “A Do-it Yourself Framework”

    Once you get a grasp of that stuff, you may find that dealing with WSGI at such a low level is maybe a little too cumbersome. That’s when you’ll probably want something like WebOb
    which is just one of several ways people have come up with for abstracting away the low level details of the request/response cycle into some convenient objects. In a sense encompassing the HTTP protocol without trying to make it make sense to someone who doesn’t want to know what HTTP is.

    Depending on the complexity of your application you may decide that handling a request, looking at the path and dispatching off to one of many functions is a drag you’d rather not deal with. This is where everyone’s favorite framework starts to be beneficial. And I would suspect that you would know enough by this point to better assess the frameworks that are out there and determine which fits your needs and goals.

    Lots prefer django, maybe you will too. Others prefer Turbogears, and or Pylons, maybe bfg, maybe grok, maybe zope, maybe plone. But no one here knows what you want your application to do.

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