Chapter 16. The PyMailCGI Server
“Things to Do When Visiting Chicago”
This chapter is the fifth in our survey of Python Internet programming, and it continues Chapter 15’s discussion. There, we explored the fundamentals of server-side Common Gateway Interface (CGI) scripting in Python. Armed with that knowledge, this chapter moves on to a larger case study that underscores advanced CGI and server-side web scripting topics.
This chapter presents PyMailCGI—a “webmail” website for reading and sending email that illustrates security concepts, hidden form fields, URL generation, and more. Because this system is similar in spirit to the PyMailGUI program we studied in Chapter 14, this example also serves as a comparison of the web and nonweb application models. This case study is founded on basic CGI scripting, but it implements a complete website that does something more useful than Chapter 15’s examples.
As usual in this book, this chapter splits its focus between application-level details and Python programming concepts. For instance, because this is a fairly large case study, it illustrates system design concepts that are important in actual projects. It also says more about CGI scripts in general: PyMailCGI expands on the notions of state retention and security concerns and encryption.
The system presented here is neither particularly flashy nor feature rich as websites go (in fact, the initial cut of PyMailCGI was thrown together during a layover at Chicago’s O’Hare airport). Alas, ...
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