<html lang="en"><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8">

<meta charset="utf-8">

<meta http-equiv="X-UA-Compatible" content="IE=edge">

<meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0">

<meta name="description" content="Full Stack Python shows how an entire Python web application is built and deployed. Each section of the guide explains a different key concept, from the server through the Python WSGI web framework to the front end JavaScript.">

<meta name="author" content="Matt Makai">

<link rel="shortcut icon" href="theme/img/full-stack-python-logo-bw.png">

<title>Web Frameworks</title>

<link href="theme/css/fsp.css" rel="stylesheet">

<!--[if lt IE 9]>

<style>

html,

body {

font-size: 18px;

color: #222;

background: #fefefe;

}

body {

padding-top: 30px;

}

.footer {

padding: 20px 0 30px 0;

}

a, a:hover {border-bottom: 1px dotted; color: #444;}

a:hover {text-decoration: none; color: #000;}

.logo-title {font-size: 56px; color: #403072; padding-top: 80px;

font-family: "News Cycle", "Arial Narrow Bold", sans-serif;

font-weight: bold; line-height: 30px; margin-left: 5px;}

.logo-title a, .logo-title a:hover {color: #000; text-decoration: none;

border-bottom: none;}

.logo-title a:hover {color: gray;}

.logo-image {vertical-align: top; border: none;}

a.list-group-item.active {background: #444; border: 1px solid #222;}

a.list-group-item.active:hover {background: #444; border: 1px solid #222;}

#sidebar {margin-top: 30px;}

@media (max-width: 600px) {

.logo-header-section {

margin: 20px 32px 0 0;

}

}

</style>

<script type="text/javascript">

var _gaq = _gaq || [];

_gaq.push(['_setAccount', 'UA-19910497-7']);

_gaq.push(['_trackPageview']);

(function() {

var ga = document.createElement('script'); ga.type = 'text/javascript'; ga.async = true;

ga.src = ('https:' == document.location.protocol ? 'https://ssl' : 'http://www') + '.google-analytics.com/ga.js';

var s = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(ga, s);

})();

</script>

</head>

<a href="https://github.com/makaimc/fullstackpython.github.com" class="github">

<img style="position: absolute; top: 0; right: 0; border: 0;" src="http://s3.amazonaws.com/github/ribbons/forkme_right_darkblue_121621.png" alt="Fork me on GitHub" />

</a>

<div class="container">

<div class="row">

<div class="col-md-12">

<div class="logo-header-section">

<a href="/" style="text-decoration: none; border: none;"><img src="theme/img/full-stack-python-logo-bw.png" height="42" width="42" class="logo-image" /></a>

<span class="logo-title"><a href="/">Full Stack Python</a></span>

</div>

</div>

<div class="row">

<div class="col-md-8">

<h1>Web frameworks</h1>

<p>A web application framework is a code library that make a developer's life

easier when building reliable, scalable and maintainable web applications.</p>

<h2>Why are web frameworks necessary?</h2>

<p>Web frameworks encapsulate what developers have learned over the past twenty

years while building dynamic web applications. Frameworks make it easier

to reuse code for common HTTP operations and to structure your code so that

it is maintainable.</p>

<h2>Common web framework functionality</h2>

<p>Frameworks provide functionality in their code or through extensions to

perform common operations required to run web applications. These common

operations include:</p>

<li>URL routing</li>

<li>HTML, XML, JSON, and other output format templating</li>

<li>Database manipulation</li>

<li>Security against Cross-site request forgery (CSRF) and other attacks</li>

<p>Not all web frameworks include code for all of the above

functionality. Frameworks fall somewhere between simply executing a

single use case and attempting to be everything to every developer with

increased complexity. Some frameworks take the "batteries-included" approach

where everything possible comes bundled with the framework while others

have a minimal code library that plays well with extensions.</p>

<p>For example, the Django web application framework includes an

Object-Relational Mapping (ORM) layer that abstracts relational database

read, write, query, and delete operations. However, Django's ORM

cannot work without significant modification on non-relational databases such

<a href="http://www.mongodb.org/">MongoDB</a>.

Some other web frameworks such as Flask and Pyramid are easier to

use with non-relational databases by incorporating external Python libraries.

There is a spectrum between minimal functionality with easy extensibility and

including everything in the framework with tight integration.</p>

<h2>Django</h2>

<p><a href="http://www.djangoproject.com/">Django</a> is a widely used Python web

application framework with a "batteries-included" philosophy. The principle

behind batteries-included is that the common functionality for building

web applications should come with the framework instead of as a separate

library. For example,

<a href="https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/dev/topics/http/urls/">URL routing</a>, a

<a href="https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/dev/topics/templates/">templating system</a>,

<a href="https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/dev/topics/db/">object-relational mapper</a>,

and <a href="https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/dev/topics/migrations/">database schema migrations</a>

(as of version 1.7) are all included with the <a href="https://pypi.python.org/pypi/Django/1.6.2">Django framework</a>.</p>

<h3>Django resources</h3>

<p><a href="http://twoscoopspress.com/products/two-scoops-of-django-1-6">2 Scoops of Django</a>

by Daniel Greenfield and Audrey Roy is well worth the price of admission if

you're serious about learning how to correctly develop Django websites.</p>

<p><a href="http://effectivedjango.com/">Effective Django</a> and

<a href="http://www.tangowithdjango.com/book/">Tango with Django</a> are a extensive

free introductions to using the most popular Python web framework.</p>

<p>DjangoCon US videos from

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/user/TheOpenBastion/videos">2013</a>,

<a href="http://pyvideo.org/category/23/djangocon-2012">2012</a>,

<a href="http://pyvideo.org/category/3/djangocon-2011">2011</a>, as well as<br />

<a href="http://pyvideo.org/category">earlier US and DjangoCon EU conferences</a> are

all available free of charge.</p>

<p>The <a href="http://www.reddit.com/r/django">Django subreddit</a> often has links to

the latest resources for learning Django.</p>

<p>Lincoln Loop wrote a

<a href="http://lincolnloop.com/django-best-practices/">Django Best Practices guide</a>

for the community.</p>

<p>Steve Losh wrote an incredibly detailed <a href="http://stevelosh.com/blog/2011/06/django-advice/">Django Advice guide</a>.</p>

<h2>Flask</h2>

<p><a href="http://flask.pocoo.org/">Flask</a> is a Python microframework deliberately

built with a

<a href="http://flask.pocoo.org/docs/design/">small core and easy-to-extend philosophy</a>.

Flask is generally considered more

<a href="http://stackoverflow.com/questions/58968/what-defines-pythonian-or-pythonic">Pythonic</a>

than Django because Flask web application code is often more

explicit. Flask was also written several years after Django and therefore

learned from the Python community's reactions as the framework evolved.

Jökull Sólberg wrote a great piece articulating to this effect in his

<a href="http://jokull.calepin.co/my-flask-to-django-experience.html">experience switching between Flask and Django</a>.</p>

<h3>Flask resources</h3>

<p>The 18-part Flask mega tutorial is an absolutely amazing starting

resource for using the Flask framework. Yes, there are a lot of posts in

the series. However, each post is focused on a single topic to contain

the complexity while the reader is learning the framework. The whole

series is well worth an in-depth read-through. The

<a href="https://twitter.com/miguelgrinberg">author</a> is also writing the

<a href="http://shop.oreilly.com/product/0636920031116.do">O'Reilly Flask Web Development</a>

book so consider picking that up as well.</p>

<li><a href="http://blog.miguelgrinberg.com/post/the-flask-mega-tutorial-part-i-hello-world">Part 1: Hello World</a></li>

<li><a href="http://blog.miguelgrinberg.com/post/the-flask-mega-tutorial-part-ii-templates">Part 2: Templates</a></li>

<li><a href="http://blog.miguelgrinberg.com/post/the-flask-mega-tutorial-part-iii-web-forms">Part 3: Web Forms</a></li>

<li><a href="http://blog.miguelgrinberg.com/post/the-flask-mega-tutorial-part-iv-database">Part 4: Database</a></li>

<li><a href="http://blog.miguelgrinberg.com/post/the-flask-mega-tutorial-part-v-user-logins">Part 5: User Logins</a></li>

<li><a href="http://blog.miguelgrinberg.com/post/the-flask-mega-tutorial-part-vi-profile-page-and-avatars">Part 6: Profile Page and Avatars</a></li>

<li><a href="http://blog.miguelgrinberg.com/post/the-flask-mega-tutorial-part-vii-unit-testing">Part 7: Unit Testing</a></li>

<li><a href="http://blog.miguelgrinberg.com/post/the-flask-mega-tutorial-part-viii-followers-contacts-and-friends">Part 8: Followers, Contacts, and Friends</a></li>

<li><a href="http://blog.miguelgrinberg.com/post/the-flask-mega-tutorial-part-ix-pagination">Part 9: Pagination</a></li>

<li><a href="http://blog.miguelgrinberg.com/post/the-flask-mega-tutorial-part-x-full-text-search">Part 10: Full Text Search</a></li>

<li><a href="http://blog.miguelgrinberg.com/post/the-flask-mega-tutorial-part-xi-email-support">Part 11: Email Support</a></li>

<li><a href="http://blog.miguelgrinberg.com/post/the-flask-mega-tutorial-part-xii-facelift">Part 12: Facelift</a></li>

<li><a href="http://blog.miguelgrinberg.com/post/the-flask-mega-tutorial-part-xiii-dates-and-times">Part 13: Dates and Times</a></li>

<li><a href="http://blog.miguelgrinberg.com/post/the-flask-mega-tutorial-part-xiv-i18n-and-l10n">Part 14: I18n and L10n</a></li>

<li><a href="http://blog.miguelgrinberg.com/post/the-flask-mega-tutorial-part-xv-ajax">Part 15: Ajax</a></li>

<li><a href="http://blog.miguelgrinberg.com/post/the-flask-mega-tutorial-part-xvi-debugging-testing-and-profiling">Part 16: Debugging, Testing and Profiling</a></li>

<li><a href="http://blog.miguelgrinberg.com/post/the-flask-mega-tutorial-part-xvii-deployment-on-linux-even-on-the-raspberry-pi">Part 17: Deployment on Linux</a></li>

<p><a href="http://blog.miguelgrinberg.com/post/the-flask-mega-tutorial-part-xviii-deployment-on-the-heroku-cloud">Part 18: Deployment on the Heroku Cloud</a></p>

<p>The <a href="http://flask.pocoo.org/extensions/">Flask Extensions Registry</a> is a

curated list of the best packages that extend Flask. It's the first location

to look through when you're wondering how to do something that's not in the

core framework.</p>

<p>Great post by Jeff Knupp on <a href="http://www.jeffknupp.com/blog/2014/01/29/productionizing-a-flask-application/">Productionizing a Flask App</a></p>

<p>The Plank &amp; Whittle blog has two posts, one on

<a href="http://www.plankandwhittle.com/packaging-a-flask-web-app/">Packaging a Flask web app</a>

and another on

<a href="http://www.plankandwhittle.com/packaging-a-flask-app-in-a-debian-package/">Packaging a Flask app in a Debian package</a>

once you've built an app and want to deploy it.</p>

<p>The tuts+ <a href="http://code.tutsplus.com/tutorials/an-introduction-to-pythons-flask-framework--net-28822">Flask tutorial</a>

is another great walkthrough for getting started with the framework.</p>

<h2>Bottle</h2>

<p><a href="http://bottlepy.org/docs/dev/index.html">Bottle</a> is a WSGI-compliant

<a href="https://github.com/defnull/bottle/blob/master/bottle.py">single source file</a>

web framework with no external dependencies except for the standard library

included with Python.</p>

<h3>Bottle resources</h3>

<p>Digital Ocean provides an extensive <a href="https://www.digitalocean.com/community/articles/how-to-use-the-bottle-micro-framework-to-develop-python-web-apps">introductory post on Bottle</a>.</p>

<p>This tutorial provides a walkthrough for

<a href="http://www.giantflyingsaucer.com/blog/?p=3598">getting started with Bottle</a>.</p>

<p>Here's a short code snippet for

<a href="http://myadventuresincoding.wordpress.com/2011/01/02/creating-a-rest-api-in-python-using-bottle-and-mongodb/">creating a REST API with Bottle and MongoDB</a>.</p>

<h2>Web Framework Resources</h2>

<p>"<a href="http://www.jeffknupp.com/blog/2014/03/03/what-is-a-web-framework/">What is a web framework?</a>"

by <a href="https://twitter.com/jeffknupp">Jeff Knupp</a>

is a in-depth explanation of what a web framework is and their relation

to web servers.</p>

<p><a href="http://www.pylonsproject.org/">Pyramid</a>,

<a href="http://falconframework.org/">Falcon</a>,

<a href="http://webpy.org/">web.py</a> are the most common Python web frameworks other

than Django, Flask and Bottle.</p>

<p>This <a href="http://codecondo.com/14-minimal-web-frameworks-for-python/">roundup of 14 minimal Python frameworks</a>

contains both familiar and less known Python libraries.</p>

<br/>

Next read the

<a href="/application-dependencies.html">application dependencies</a> section.

</div>

<div class="col-md-offset-1 col-md-3" id="sidebar">

<div class="list-group">

<a href="/introduction.html" class="list-group-item ">Introduction</a>

<a href="/servers.html" class="list-group-item ">Servers</a>

<a href="/operating-systems.html" class="list-group-item ">Operating Systems</a>

<a href="/web-servers.html" class="list-group-item ">Web Servers</a>

<a href="/platform-as-a-service.html" class="list-group-item ">Platform-as-a-service</a>

<a href="/databases.html" class="list-group-item ">Databases</a>

<a href="/wsgi-servers.html" class="list-group-item ">WSGI Servers</a>

<a href="/web-frameworks.html" class="list-group-item active">Web Frameworks</a>

<a href="/application-dependencies.html" class="list-group-item ">Application Dependencies</a>

<a href="/static-content.html" class="list-group-item ">Static Content</a>

<a href="/source-control.html" class="list-group-item ">Source Control</a>

<a href="/caching.html" class="list-group-item ">Caching</a>

<a href="/task-queues.html" class="list-group-item ">Task Queues</a>

<a href="/api-integration.html" class="list-group-item ">API Integration</a>

<a href="/no-sql-datastore.html" class="list-group-item ">NoSQL Data Stores</a>

<a href="/web-application-security.html" class="list-group-item ">Web Security</a>

<a href="/logging.html" class="list-group-item ">Logging</a>

<a href="/monitoring.html" class="list-group-item ">Monitoring</a>

<a href="/configuration-management.html" class="list-group-item ">Configuration Management</a>

<a href="/web-analytics.html" class="list-group-item ">Web Analytics</a>

<a href="/best-python-resources.html" class="list-group-item ">Best Python Resources</a>

<a href="/about-author.html" class="list-group-item ">About the Author</a>

<a href="/change-log.html" class="list-group-item ">Change Log</a>

</div>

<hr/>

<div class="footer pull-right">

<a href="http://www.mattmakai.com/" class="underline">Matt Makai</a> 2014

</div>

</div>

<script src="http://code.jquery.com/jquery-2.1.0.min.js"></script>

<script src="theme/js/bootstrap.min.js"></script>

</body>