I'm trying (unsuccessfully) to pass command line paramters to a python program called by javascript XMLHTTPRequest. In my python program I have used each of sys.argv, getopt and argparse, all of which work when run from the command line but not when called from the Javascript script. In my Javascript program I have tried:

xhr.open('GET', '.py?solcast&full&graph', true);
xhr.open('GET', '.py?s=solcast&f=full&g=graph', true);

and

xhr.open('GET', '.py?solcast', true);

none of which work. In every case the parameters are not being found by the py program.

How can I get the python program to retrieve parameters when called within XMLHTTPRequest?

For what it is worth, this is my python program:

#!/usr/bin/python3

import sys

solcast = False
full = False
graph = True

print("len = ",len(sys.argv))
for x in range(1,len(sys.argv)):
    param = sys.argv[x]
    print(param)
    if param == 'solcast':
        solcast = not solcast
    elif param == 'full':
        full = not full
    elif param == 'graph':
        graph = not graph

print(solcast,full,graph)

I'm trying (unsuccessfully) to pass command line paramters to a python program called by javascript XMLHTTPRequest. In my python program I have used each of sys.argv, getopt and argparse, all of which work when run from the command line but not when called from the Javascript script. In my Javascript program I have tried:

xhr.open('GET', 'https://solarpredictor.co.uk/test.py?solcast&full&graph', true);
xhr.open('GET', 'https://solarpredictor.co.uk/test.py?s=solcast&f=full&g=graph', true);

and

xhr.open('GET', 'https://solarpredictor.co.uk/test.py?solcast', true);

none of which work. In every case the parameters are not being found by the py program.

How can I get the python program to retrieve parameters when called within XMLHTTPRequest?

For what it is worth, this is my python program:

#!/usr/bin/python3

import sys

solcast = False
full = False
graph = True

print("len = ",len(sys.argv))
for x in range(1,len(sys.argv)):
    param = sys.argv[x]
    print(param)
    if param == 'solcast':
        solcast = not solcast
    elif param == 'full':
        full = not full
    elif param == 'graph':
        graph = not graph

print(solcast,full,graph)

• javascript
• python-3.x
• xmlhttprequest

Share Improve this question Follow edited Nov 19, 2024 at 18:32 Doug Conran asked Nov 19, 2024 at 17:34 Doug ConranDoug Conran 47711 gold badge55 silver badges2020 bronze badges 4

• How are you hosting the test.py script? – Chris Commented Nov 19, 2024 at 17:40
• It's on my own server, solarpredictor.co.uk, and, in fact, in the same directory as the html file. – Doug Conran Commented Nov 19, 2024 at 18:28
• What software are you using on the server? Apache? Nginx? – Chris Commented Nov 19, 2024 at 18:53
• Lighttpd. The point I'd make is that the python program works fine when called through XMLHTTPRequest with no parameters - and also works fine when called with parameters. It is just that it does not receive those parameters. – Doug Conran Commented Nov 19, 2024 at 18:57

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1 Answer 1

Sorted by: Reset to default 1

You don’t pass command line parameters. You aren’t running the script on the command line.

You have some way of interfacing your HTTP server with your Python code. Last time I looked at Python the way commonly regarded as best was WSGI but other approaches such as mod_python and CGI are available. (Your comments suggest you are using CGI).

The common Python libraries for those interfaces have functions for reading query strings from the request URL.

• https://redmine.lighttpd/projects/lighttpd/wiki/HowToPythonWSGI