Python Web

Frameworks

Carlos de la Guardia

Python Web Frameworks

Carlos de la Guardia

Beijing

Boston Farnham

Sebastopol

Tokyo

Python Web Frameworks

by Carlos de la Guardia
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978-1-491-93810-2
[LSI]

Table of Contents

Introduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . v
1. Python Web Framework Landscape. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Web Framework List

2. Some Frameworks to Keep an Eye On. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31

Django
Flask
Tornado
Bottle
Pyramid
CherryPy

31
35
40
45
48
53

3. Whats the Right Framework for You?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59

Dont Look for Absolute Bests
Start by Defining Your Goals
Desirable Features

59
61
61

4. Developing Your Own Framework. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63

Why Create a Framework?
Parts of a Basic WSGI Framework
Framework Building Blocks
Some Useful Resources

63
64
65
66

5. Summary. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
A. Python Web Development Fundamentals. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
iii

Introduction

At the time of this writing, the web development landscape is domi

nated by JavaScript tools. Frameworks like ReactJS and AngularJS
are very popular, and many things that were previously done on the
server are handled on the client side by these frameworks. This is
not limited to the client. Server-side JavaScript frameworks like
NodeJS are also prominent.
Does that mean that languages like Python should throw in the
towel and forget about web applications? On the contrary. Python is
a very powerful language that is easy to learn and provides a fast
development pace. It has many mature libraries for web-related
tasks, from object-relational mapping (ORM) to web scraping.
Python is also a fabulous glue language for making disparate tech
nologies work together. In this era where JSON APIs and communi
cation with multiple systems are so important, Python is a great
choice for server-side web development. And its great for full-scale
web applications, too!
There are many web frameworks for Python; some provide more
facilities than others, some offer a greater degree of flexibility or
more extensibility. Some try to provide everything you need for a
web application and require the use of very specific components,
whereas others focus on giving you the bare minimum so that you
can pick only the components your application needs.
Among these frameworks, there are dozens that have a significant
number of users. How do newcomers to the language choose the
right one for their needs? The easiest criterion would probably be
popularity, and there are two or three frameworks that will easily be
found doing web searches or asking around. This is far from ideal,
v

however, and leaves the possibility of overlooking a framework that

is better suited to a developers needs, tastes, or philosophy.
In this report, we will survey the Python web framework landscape,
giving aspiring web developers a place to start their selection pro
cess for a web framework. We will look in some detail at a few of the
available frameworks, as well as give pointers about how to pick one,
and even how to go about creating your own.
Hopefully, this will make it easier for new developers to find whats
available, and maybe give experienced Python developers an idea or
two about how other web frameworks do things.

What Do Web Frameworks Do?

A web application is not a standalone program but part of the web
pipeline that brings a website to a users browser. Theres much
more to it than your application code working under the hood to
make the web work, and having a good understanding of the other
pieces of the puzzle is key to being a good web developer. In case
you are new to web development or need a refresher, take a look at
Appendix A to get your bearings.
When writing a web application, in addition to writing the code that
does the business logic work, its necessary to figure out things like
which URL runs which code, plus take care of things like security,
sessions, and sending back attractive and functional HTML pages.
For a web service, perhaps we need a JSON rendering of the
response instead of an HTML page. Or we might require both.
No matter what our application does, these are parts of it that very
conceivably could be used in other, completely different applica
tions. This is what a web framework is: a set of features that are com
mon to a wide range of web applications.
Exactly which set of features a framework provides can vary a lot
among frameworks. Some frameworks offer a lot of functionality,
including URL routing, HTML templating systems, ORMs to inter
act with relational databases, security, sessions, form generation, and
more. These are sometimes referred to as full-stack frameworks.
Other frameworks, known by many as micro frameworks, offer a
much less varied set of features and focus on simplicity. They usually
offer URL routing, templating, and not much else.

vi

Introduction

This emphasis on size (micro and full-stack) can sometimes be con

fusing. Are we referring to the frameworks codebase? Are micro
frameworks for small applications and full-stack frameworks for
large applications? Also, not all frameworks easily fit into one of
these categories. If a framework has lots of features but makes most
of them optional, does that still count as full-stack?
From an experienced developer point of view, it could make sense to
examine frameworks in terms of decisions made. Many features
offered by frameworks, like which ORM it supports or which tem
plating system its bundled with, imply a decision to use that specific
tool instead of other similar components.
Obviously, the more decisions made by the framework, the less deci
sions the developer needs to make. That means more reliance on the
way the framework works, more knowledge of how its parts fit
together, and more integrated behaviorall within the confines of
what the web framework considers a web application. Conversely, if
a developer needs to make more decisions, theyll have more work
to do, but they will also have more control over their application,
and can concentrate on the parts of a framework they specifically
need.
Even if the framework makes these decisions, most of them are not
set in stone. A developer can change these decisions, maybe by
replacing certain components or libraries. The trade-off is losing
some framework functionality in return for that freedom.
There are many Python web frameworks. Besides size and decisions
made for the developer, many of them offer unique features or spe
cial twists on what a web appplication should do. Some developers
will immediately feel attracted to some frameworks, or conclude
after some analysis that one of them is better suited for the specific
project they have in mind. Regardless of the chosen framework, its
always a good idea to be aware of the variety of other available
frameworks so that a better choice can be made if necessary.

Introduction

vii

CHAPTER 1

Python Web Framework

Landscape

There are many options for building web applications with Python.
Pythons powerful yet flexible nature makes it perfect for this task.
Its a good idea to know whats available before going in that direc
tion, though. Perhaps one of the many existing options will suit your
needs and save you a ton of work.
To make it easier to know at a glance what frameworks are out there,
the following list shows 30 web frameworks that are active and have
more than 1,000 monthly downloads at the time of this writing. For
each framework, the list presents the following information:
Slogan
This is a short phrase that comes from the frameworks site or
documentation and attempts to convey the spirit of the frame
work according to its creators.
Description
In a nutshell, what this framework is and why you should use it.
Author
Main author, according to Python Package Index.
Website
Official website of the framework, or code repository if no site is
available.

Relative popularity
A very crude attempt at gauging a projects popularity, by nor
malizing the number of monthly downloads and generating a
score. Its purpose is only to give the reader a general idea about
how one framework compares to another in terms of number of
users. For example, Django, which is the Python framework
with the largest number of downloads, has 10 stars. At the other
end of the spectrum, BlueBream, which is barely above 1,000
downloads, has one star. This popularity scale should not be
taken too seriously.
Python versions
Shows the versions of Python that the framework runs on.
License
Shows the license under which the framework is distributed.
Documentation
This is a key part of any framework, because the more you know
about how to use it, the quicker you can get started and take
advantage of its features. Some people learn by example, so hav
ing tutorials and sample code can be very helpful too, both for
beginners and more advanced users. For each framework, docu
mentation is graded using a very simple scale: poor, adequate,
extensive, or comprehensive. Again, this is very subjective and
only meant as a simple guide to know what to expect.
Features
A short list of what the frameworks authors consider its best
features.
Other resources
This refers to resources other than web pages to get help and
information for a framework, like mailing lists and IRC chan
nels.
Persistence
Many web applications require a storage layer of some sort, usu
ally a database. Because of this, most web frameworks are
designed to use one or more specific data persistence options.

Chapter 1: Python Web Framework Landscape

Templating
This is another very common feature of web frameworks. The
HTML markup for an application page is usually written in a
templating language.

Web Framework List

Appier
Joyful Python Web App development.

Appier is an object-oriented Python web framework built for superfast app development. Its as lightweight as possible, but not too
lightweight. It gives you the power of bigger frameworks, without
the complexity.
Author

Hive Solutions Lda.

Website

http://appier.hive.pt
Relative popularity

*****
Python versions

2.6 to 3.5
License

Apache
Documentation

Adequate
Other resources

None
Persistence

MongoDB
Templating

Jinja2
Features

REST dispatching
JSON response encoding
Web Framework List

 Admin interface
i18n

Aspen
A Python web framework that makes the most of the filesystem.
Simplates are the main attraction.

Aspen maps your URLs directly to the filesystem. Its way simpler
than regular expression routing or object traversal.
Author

Gratipay, LLC
Website

http://aspen.io
Relative popularity

******
Python versions

2.6, 2.7
License

MIT
Documentation

Adequate
Other resources

IRC
Persistence

Any
Templating

Python, Jinja2, Pystache

Features

Simplates: code and template in same file, with structure

JSON helpers
Filesystem-based URL mapping

Chapter 1: Python Web Framework Landscape

BlueBream
The Zope Web Framework.

BlueBream is an open source web application server, framework,

and library created by the Zope community and formerly known as
Zope 3. It is best suited for medium to large projects split into many
interchangeable and reusable components.
Author

Zope Foundation and Contributors

Website

http://bluebream.zope.org
Relative popularity

*
Python versions

2.6, 2.7
License

ZPL
Documentation

Extensive
Other resources

Mailing list
Persistence

ZODB
Templating

ZPT
Features

Built on top of Zope 3

Full stack, but with distributed architecture
Mature, well-tested components
Object database

Web Framework List

Bobo
Web application framework for the impatient.

Bobo is a lightweight framework for creating WSGI web applica

tions. Its goal is to be easy to use and remember.
Author

Jim Fulton
Website

http://bobo.digicool.com
Relative popularity

*
Python versions

2.6 to 3.5
License

ZPL
Documentation

Extensive
Other resources

Mailing list
Persistence

Any
Templating

Any
Features

Subroutes for multiple-step URL matching

JSON request bodies
Automatic response generation, based on return value

Bottle
Fast and simple WSGI framework for small web applications.

Bottle is a fast, simple, and lightweight WSGI micro web framework

for Python. It is distributed as a single-file module and has no
dependencies other than the Python Standard Library.
6

Chapter 1: Python Web Framework Landscape

Author

Marcel Hellkamp
Website

http://bottlepy.org
Relative popularity

******
Python versions

2.6 to 3.5
License

MIT
Documentation

Extensive
Other resources

Mailing list, IRC, Twitter

Persistence

Any
Templating

Simple templates, Jinja2, Mako, Cheetah

Features

HTTP utilities
Single file distribution

CherryPy
A Minimalist Python Web Framework.

CherryPy allows developers to build web applications in much the

same way they would build any other object-oriented Python pro
gram.
Author

CherryPy Team
Website

http://www.cherrypy.org
Relative popularity

******
Web Framework List

Python versions

2.6 to 3.5
License

BSD
Documentation

Comprehensive
Other resources

Mailing list, IRC

Persistence

Any
Templating

Any
Features

Authorization, sessions, static content, and more

Configuration system
Plugin system
Profiling and coverage support

Clastic
A functional Python web framework that streamlines explicit
development practices while eliminating global state.

Clastic was created to fill the need for a minimalist web framework
that does exactly what you tell it to, while eliminating common pit
falls and delays in error discovery.
Author

Mahmoud Hashemi
Website

https://github.com/mahmoud/clastic
Relative popularity

*
Python versions

2.6, 2.7
License

BSD
8

Chapter 1: Python Web Framework Landscape

Documentation

Basic
Other resources

None
Persistence

Any
Templating

Any
Features

No global state
Proactive URL route checking
Improved middleware paradigm

Cyclone
Facebooks Tornado on top of Twisted.

Cyclone is a web server framework for Python that implements the

Tornado API as a Twisted protocol.
Author

Alexandre Fiori
Website

https://cyclone.io
Relative popularity

***
Python versions

2.6, 2.7
License

Apache
Documentation

Adequate
Other resources

None
Persistence

Twisted adbapi, redis, sqlite, mongodb

Web Framework List

Templating

Cyclone templates
Features

Asyncio stack
Command-line integration

Django
The web framework for perfectionists with deadlines.

Django is a high-level Python Web framework that encourages rapid

development and clean, pragmatic design.
Author

Django Software Foundation

Website

https://djangoproject.com
Relative popularity

**********
Python versions

2.6 to 3.5
License

BSD
Documentation

Comprehensive
Other resources

Mailing lists, IRC

Persistence

Django ORM
Templating

Django templates, Jinja2

Features

10

Fully loaded: authentication, site maps, feeds, etc.

Superbly documented
Extensible admin interface
Security-minded
|

Chapter 1: Python Web Framework Landscape

Falcon
An unladen web framework for building APIs and app backends.

Falcon is a minimalist, high-performance web framework for build

ing RESTful services and app backends with Python.
Author

Kurt Griffiths
Website

http://falconframework.org
Relative popularity

****
Python versions

2.6 to 3.5
License

Apache
Documentation

Extensive
Other resources

Mailing list, IRC

Persistence

Any
Templating

Any
Features

Web service oriented

Focused on performance

Fantastico
Pluggable, developer-friendly content publishing framework for
Python 3 developers.

Python 3 MVC web framework with built-in capabilities for devel

oping web services and modular web applications.

Web Framework List

11

Author

Radu Viorel Cosnita

Website

https://github.com/rcosnita/fantastico/
Relative popularity

*
Python versions

3.3, 3.4, 3.5

License

MIT
Documentation

Adequate
Other resources

None
Persistence

Fantastico ORM
Templating

Any
Features

Extensible routing engine

ORM
Dynamic content generation

Flask
Web development one drop at a time.

A micro framework based on Werkzeug, Jinja2, and good intentions.

Author

Armin Ronacher
Website

http://flask.pocoo.org
Relative popularity

*********

12

Chapter 1: Python Web Framework Landscape

Python versions

2.6, 2.7, 3.3, 3.4, 3.5

License

BSD
Documentation

Comprehensive
Other resources

Mailing list, IRC

Persistence

Any
Templating

Jinja2
Features

Built-in debugger
RESTful request dispatching
Allows modular applications with plugins
Extensible

Giotto
Web development simplified. An MVC framework supporting
Python 3.

Giotto is a Python web framework. It encourages a functional style

where model, view, and controller code is strongly decoupled.
Author

Chris Priest
Website

http://giotto.readthedocs.org
Relative popularity

**
Python versions

2.7, 3.3, 3.4, 3.5

License

Own

Web Framework List

13

Documentation

Adequate
Other resources

Google group
Persistence

SQLAlchemy
Templating

Jinja2
Features

Generic views and models

Functional CRUD patterns
Automatic RESTful interface
Automatic URL routing

Grok
A smashing web framework.

Grok uses the Zope Component Architecture and builds on Zope

concepts like content objects (models), views, and adapters. Its sim
plicity lies in using convention over configuration and sensible
defaults when wiring components together.
Author

Grok Team
Website

http://grok.zope.org
Relative popularity

***
Python versions

2.6, 2.7
License

ZPL
Documentation

Extensive
Other resources

Mailing list
14

Chapter 1: Python Web Framework Landscape

Persistence

ZODB
Templating

Zope page templates

Features

Convention over configuration

Takes advantage of full Zope toolkit
Object-oriented database

kiss.py
MVC web framework in Python with Gevent, Jinja2, and Werkzeug.
Author

Stanislav Feldman
Website

http://stanislavfeldman.github.io/kiss.py
Relative popularity

*
Python versions

2.6, 2.7
License

Own
Documentation

Poor
Other resources

None
Persistence

Pewee
Templating

Jinja2

Web Framework List

15

Features

Integration with Gevent

REST controllers
Minified templates

Klein
Werkzeug + twisted.web.

Klein is a micro framework for developing production-ready web

services with Python. Its built on widely used and well-tested com
ponents like Werkzeug and Twisted.
Author

Amber Brown
Website

http://klein.readthedocs.org
Relative popularity

*****
Python versions

2.6 to 3.5
License

MIT
Documentation

Adequate
Other resources

IRC
Persistence

Any
Templating

Twisted templates
Features

Focus on web services

Integrates Twisted concepts like deferreds

16

| Chapter 1: Python Web Framework Landscape

Morepath
A micro web framework with superpowers.

Morepath is a Python WSGI micro framework. It uses routing, but

the routing is to models. Morepath is model-driven and flexible,
which makes it expressive.
Author

Martijn Faassen
Website

http://morepath.readthedocs.org/
Relative popularity

**
Python versions

2.6 to 3.5
License

BSD
Documentation

Extensive
Other resources

Mailing list, IRC

Persistence

Any
Templating

Any
Features

Automatic hyperkinks that dont break

Generic UIs
Simple, flexible permissions
Easy to extend and override

Web Framework List

17

Muffin
Web framework based on Asyncio stack.

Muffin is a fast, simple, and asyncronous web framework for

Python 3.
Author

Kirill Klenov
Website

https://github.com/klen/muffin
Relative popularity

*****
Python versions

2.6 to 3.5
License

MIT
Documentation

Poor
Other resources

None
Persistence

Any
Templating

Any
Features

Asyncio stack
Command-line integration

Pylons
A framework to make writing web applications in Python easy.

Pylons 1.0 is a lightweight web framework emphasizing flexibility

and rapid development.

18

Chapter 1: Python Web Framework Landscape

Author

Ben Bangert, Philip Jenvey, James Gardner

Website

http://www.pylonsproject.org/projects/pylons-framework/
Relative popularity

****
Python versions

2.6, 2.7
License

BSD
Documentation

Extensive
Other resources

Mailing lists, IRC

Persistence

SQLAlchemy
Templating

Mako, Genshi, Jinja2

Features

Uses existing and well-tested Python packages

Extensible application design
Minimalist, component-based philosophy

Pyramid
The start small, finish big, stay finished framework.

Pyramid is a general, open source, Python web application develop

ment framework. Its primary goal is to make it easier for a Python
developer to create web applications.
Author

Chris McDonough, Agendaless Consulting

Website

https://trypyramid.com

Web Framework List

19

Relative popularity

******
Python versions

2.6 to 3.5
License

BSD derived
Documentation

Comprehensive
Other resources

Mailing lists, IRC

Persistence

Any
Templating

Any
Features

Powerful configuration system

Overridable asset specifications
Extensible templating
Flexible view and rendering systems

Tornado
A Python web framework and asynchronous networking library,
originally developed at FriendFeed.

A simple web framework with asynchronous features that allow it to

scale to large numbers of open connections, making it ideal for long
polling.
Author

Facebook
Website

http://www.tornadoweb.org
Relative popularity

*********
Python versions

2.6 to 3.5
20

| Chapter 1: Python Web Framework Landscape

License

Apache
Documentation

Adequate
Other resources

Mailing list, wiki

Persistence

Any
Templating

Tornado templates
Features

Ideal for long-polling and websockets

Can scale to tens of thousands of open connections

TurboGears
The web framework that scales with you.

TurboGears is a Python web framework based on the ObjectDis

patch paradigm. It is meant to make it possible to write both small
and concise applications in Minimal mode or complex applications
in Full Stack mode.
Author

TurboGears Release Team

Website

http://www.turbogears.org
Relative popularity

***
Python versions

2.6, 2.7
License

MIT
Documentation

Extensive

Web Framework List

21

Other resources

Mailing list, IRC, Google+

Persistence

SQLAlchemy
Templating

Genshi
Features

From micro framework to full-stack applications

Pluggable applications
Widget system
Horizontal data partitioning

Twisted
Building the engine of your Internet.

An extensible framework for Python programming, with special

focus on event-based network programming and multiprotocol
integration. Twisted includes twisted.web, a web application server
based on the concept of resources.
Author

Glyph Lefkowitz
Website

https://twistedmatrix.com
Relative popularity

*******
Python versions

2.6 to 3.5
License

MIT
Documentation

Adequate
Other resources

Mailing list, IRC

Persistence

Any
22

Chapter 1: Python Web Framework Landscape

Templating

twisted.web.template
Features

Takes advantage of Twisted networking power

Allows spreadable web servers (multiple servers answer
requests on same port)
Can use any WSGI application as a resource

Uliweb
Unlimited Python web framework.

Uliweb is a full-stacked Python-based web framework. It has three

main design goals: reusability, configurability, and replaceability. Its
functionality revolves around these goals.
Author

Limodou
Website

http://limodou.github.io/uliweb-doc/
Relative popularity

*
Python versions

2.6, 2.7
License

BSD
Documentation

Adequate
Other resources

Mailing list
Persistence

Uliorm
Templating

Uliweb

Web Framework List

23

Features

Based on SQLAlchemy and Werkzeug

Extensible
Command-line tools

Watson
Its elementary, my dear Watson.

A framework designed to get out of your way and let you code your
application rather than spend time wrangling with the framework. It
follows the convention over configuration ideal.
Author

Simon Coulton
Website

http://watson-framework.readthedocs.org
Relative popularity

*
Python versions

3.3, 3.4, 3.5

License

Own
Documentation

Adequate
Other resources

Mailing list
Persistence

Any
Templating

Jinja2
Features

Event-based
Dependency injection
Form library

24

Chapter 1: Python Web Framework Landscape

web.py
Think about the ideal way to write a web app. Write the code to
make it happen.

web.py is a web framework for Python that is as simple as it is pow

erful.
Author

Anand Chitipothu
Website

http://webpy.org
Relative popularity

*****
Python versions

2.6, 2.7
License

Public Domain
Documentation

Adequate
Other resources

Mailing list
Persistence

web.database
Templating

Templetor
Features

Simple to use
Own database and template libraries
Form library

Web Framework List

25

web2py
Everything in one package with no dependencies.

Free open source full-stack framework for rapid development of

fast, scalable, secure, and portable database-driven web-based appli
cations.
Author

Massimo Di Pierro
Website

http://web2py.com
Relative popularity

*
Python versions

2.6, 2.7
License

LGPL 3
Documentation

Extensive
Other resources

Mailing list
Persistence

DAL
Templating

web2py
Features

26

Requires no installation and no configuration

Web-based IDE
Everything included; no dependencies
Always backward-compatible

Chapter 1: Python Web Framework Landscape

webapp2
Taking Google App Engines webapp to the next level!

webapp2 is a lightweight Python web framework compatible with

Google App Engines webapp.
Author

Rodrigo Moraes
Website

http://webapp-improved.appspot.com/
Relative popularity

****
Python versions

2.6, 2.7
License

Apache
Documentation

Extensive
Other resources

Mailing list
Persistence

Google datastore
Templating

Jinja2, Mako
Features

Compatible with webapp

Better URI routing and exception handling
Extras package with optional utilities

WebPages
A Python web framework.

This project was designed for web developers who want to do more
in less time. To create a new project with Hello World and a database
connection, you only need a few minutes.
Web Framework List

27

Author

Anton Danilchenko
Website

https://github.com/webpages/webpages
Relative popularity

*
Python versions

3.3, 3.4, 3.5

License

MIT
Documentation

Poor
Other resources

Facebook
Persistence

WebPages ORM
Templating

WebPages templates
Features

Convention over configuration

Settings per component
User authentication out of the box
ORM with simplified syntax

wheezy.web
Pythons fastest web framework.

A lightweight, high-performance, high-concurrency WSGI web

framework with the key features to build modern, efficient web
applications.
Author

Andriy Kornatskyy
Website

http://wheezyweb.readthedocs.org

28

| Chapter 1: Python Web Framework Landscape

Relative popularity

***
Python versions

2.6 to 3.5
License

MIT
Documentation

Adequate
Other resources

None
Persistence

Any
Templating

Jinja2, Mako, Tenjin, Wheezy

Features

High performance
Authentication/authorization
Model update/validation

Web Framework List

29

CHAPTER 2

Some Frameworks to
Keep an Eye On

As we have seen, there are many Python web frameworks to choose

from. In fact, there are too many to be able to cover every one in
detail in this report. Instead, we will take a deeper look at six of the
most popular. There is enough diversity here to give the reader
some idea about how different frameworks work and what a web
applications code looks like when using them.
For each framework, we are going to give a general description, dis
cuss some key features, look at some sample code, and talk a bit
about when it should be used. When possible, code for a simple
single-file application will be shown. Quick start instructions
assume Python and pip or easy_install are present on the system.
It is also recommended that you use virtualenv (or pyvenv for
Python 3.3+) to create an isolated environment for your application.
For simplicity, the examples do not show the setup of pip and vir
tualenv. See Appendix A for help with any of these tools.

Django
Django is without a doubt the most popular web framework for
Python at the time of this writing. Django is a high-level framework,
designed to take care of most common web application needs.
Django makes a lot of decisions for you, from code layout to secu
rity. Its also very well documented, so its very easy to get a project

31

off the ground quickly. There are also many third-party applications
that can complement its many features nicely.
Django is very well-suited for database-driven web applications. Not
only does it include its own object-relational mapping (ORM), but it
can do automatic form generation based on the schemas and even
helps with migrations. Once your models are defined, a rich Python
API can be used to access your data.
Django also offers a dynamic administrative interface that lets
authenticated users add, change, and delete objects. This makes it
possible to get a nice-looking admin site up very early in the devel
opment cycle, and start populating the data and testing the models
while the user-facing parts of the application are taking shape.
In addition to all this, Django has a clean and simple way of map
ping URLs to code (views), and deals with things like caching, user
profiles, authentication, sessions, cookies, internationalization, and
more. Its templating language is simple, but its possible to create
custom tags for more advanced needs. Also, Django now supports
Jinja2, so theres that option if you require a bit more powerful tem
plating.

Quick Start
To install Django:
$ pip install Django

Unlike the other frameworks discussed in this chapter, Django is a

full-stack framework, so we wont show a code listing for a Hello
World application. While its possible to create a Django application
in a single file, this goes against the way Django is designed, and
would actually require more knowledge about the various frame
work pieces than a complete application.
Django organizes code inside a project. A project has a configura
tion, or settings, plus a set of URL declarations. Since Django is
intended for working with relational databases, the settings usually
include database configuration information. Inside the project, there
is a command-line utility, named manage.py, for interacting with it
in various ways. To create a project:
$ django-admin startproject mysite

32

| Chapter 2: Some Frameworks to Keep an Eye On

A project can contain one or more applications. An application is an

ordinary Python package where Django looks for some things. An
application can contain the database models, views, and admin site
registrations that will make your models be part of the automatic
admin interface. The basic idea in Django is that an application per
forms one defined task.

Representative Code
Djangos database integration is one of its strong suits, so lets take a
look at a few examples of that.

Defining models
from django.db import models
class Author(models.Model):
first_name = models.CharField(max_length=70)
last_name = models.CharField(max_length=70)
def __str__(self):
return self.full_name
@property
def full_name(self):
return '{} {}'.format(self.first_name, self.last_name)
class Book(models.Model):
author = models.ForeignKey(Author)
title = models.CharField(max_length=200)
description = models.TextField()
pub_date = models.DateField()
def __str__(self):
return self.title

A model contains data about one single part of your application. It

will usually map to a single database table. A model is defined in a
class that subclasses django.db.models.Model. There are several
types of fields, like CharField, TextField, DateField, etc. A model
can have as many fields as needed, which are added simply by
assigning them to attributes of the model. Relationships can be
expressed easily, like in the author field in the Book model above,
which uses a ForeignKey field to model a many-to-one relationship.

Django

33

In addition to fields, a model can have behaviors, or business logic.

This is done using instance methods, like full_name in our sample
code. All models also include automatic methods, which can be
overriden if desired, like the __str__ method in the example, which
gives a unicode representation for a model in Python 3.

Registering models with the admin interface

from django.contrib import admin
from mysite.myapp.models import Book
class BookAdmin(admin.ModelAdmin):
list_display = ['title', 'author', 'pub_date']
list_filter = ['pub_date']
search_fields = ['title', 'description']
admin.site.register(Book, BookAdmin)

To make your models appear in the Django admin site, you need to
register them. This is done by inheriting from django.con
trib.admin.ModelAdmin, customizing the display and behavior of
the admin, and registering the class, like we do in the last line of the
previous example. Thats all the code needed to get a polished inter
face for adding, changing, and removing books from your site.
Djangos admin is very flexible, and has many customization hooks.
For example, the list_display attribute takes a list of fields and
displays their values in columns for each row of books, rather than
just showing the result of the __str__() method. The hooks are not
just for display purposes. You can add custom validators, or define
actions that operate on one or more selected instances and perform
domain specific transformations on the data.

Views
from django.shortcuts import render
from .models import Book
def publication_by_year(request, year):
books = Book.objects.filter(pub_date__year=year)
context = {'year': year, 'book_list': books}
return render(request, 'books/by_year.html', context)

34

Chapter 2: Some Frameworks to Keep an Eye On

A view in Django can be a simple method that takes a request and

zero or more URL parameters. The view is mapped to a URL using
Djangos URL patterns. For example, the view above might be asso
ciated with a pattern like this:
url(r'^books/([0-9]{4})/$, views.publication_by_year)

This is a simple regular expression pattern that will match any fourdigit number after books/ in the URL. Lets say its a year. This
number is passed to the view, where we use the model API to filter
all existing books with this year in the publication date. Finally, the
render method is used to generate an HTML page with the result,
using a context object that contains any results that need to be
passed to the template.

Automated Testing
Django recommends using the unittest module for writing tests,
though any testing framework can be used. Django provides some
tools to help write tests, like TestCase subclasses that add Djangospecific assertions and testing mechanisms. It has a test client that
simulates requests and lets you examine the responses.
Djangos documentation has several sections dedicated to testing
applications, giving detailed descriptions of the tools it provides and
examples of how to test your applications.

When to Use Django

Django is very good for getting a database-driven application done
really quickly. Its many parts are very well integrated and the admin
site is a huge time saver for getting site administrators up and run
ning right away.
If your data is not relational or you have fairly simple requirements,
Djangos features and parts can be left just sitting there, or even get
in the way. In that case, a lighter framework might be better.

Flask
Flask is a micro framework. Micro refers to the small core of the
framework, not the ability to create single-file applications. Flask
basically provides routing and templating, wrapped around a few

Flask

35

configuration conventions. Its objective is to be flexible and allow

the user to pick the tools that are best for their project. It provides
many hooks for customization and extensions.
Flask curiously started as an April Fools joke, but its in fact a very
serious framework, heavily tested and extensively documented. It
features integrated unit testing support and includes a development
server with a powerful debugger that lets you examine values and
step through the code using the browser.
Flask is unicode-based and supports the Jinja2 templating engine,
which is one of the most popular for Python web applications.
Though it can be used with other template systems, Flask takes
advantage of Jinja2s unique features, so its really not advisable to do
so.
Flasks routing system is very well-suited for RESTful request dis
patching, which is really a fancy name for allowing specific routes
for specific HTTP verbs (methods). This is very useful for building
APIs and web services.
Other Flask features include sessions with secure cookies, pluggable
views, and signals (for notifications and subscriptions to them).
Flask also uses the concept of blueprints for making application
components.

Quick Start
To install Flask:
$ pip install Flask

Flask Hello World

from flask import Flask
app = Flask(__name__)
@app.route("/")
def hello():
return "Hello World!"
if __name__ == "__main__":
app.run()

The Flask class is used to create an instance of a WSGI application,

passing in the name of the applications package or module. Once we
36

Chapter 2: Some Frameworks to Keep an Eye On

have a WSGI application object, we can use Flasks specific methods

and decorators.
The route decorator is used to connect a view function with a URL
(in this case, the root of the site). This is a very simple view that just
returns a string of text.
Finally, we use the common Python idiom for executing some code
when a script is called directly by the interpreter, where we call
app.run() to start the development server.

Representative Code
Lets look at a few examples of what Flask code looks like inside real
applications.

Per request connections

@app.before_request
def before_request():
g.db = connect_db()
@app.teardown_request
def teardown_request(exception):
db = getattr(g, 'db', None)
if db is not None:
db.close()

Its common to need some resources present on a per request basis

such as service connections to things like redis, Salesforce, or data
bases. Flask provides various decorators to set this up easily. In the
example above, we assume that the connect_db method is defined
somewhere else and takes care of connecting to an already initial
ized database. Any function decorated with before_request will be
called before a request, and we use that call to store the database
connection in the special g object provided by Flask.
To make sure that the connection is closed at the end of the request,
we can use the teardown_request decorator. Functions decorated
with this are guaranteed to be executed even if an exception occurs.
In fact, if this happens, the exception is passed in. In this example,
we dont care if theres an exception; we just try to get the connection
from g, and if there is one, we close it.

Flask

37

Theres also an after_request decorator, which gets called with the

response as a parameter and must return that or another response
object.

Sessions
from flask import Flask, session, redirect, url_for,
escape, request
app = Flask(__name__)
@app.route('/')
def index():
if 'username' in session:
return 'Logged in as %s' % escape(session['username'])
return 'You are not logged in'
@app.route('/login', methods=['GET', 'POST'])
def login():
if request.method == 'POST':
session['username'] = request.form['username']
return redirect(url_for('index'))
return render_template('login.html')
@app.route('/logout')
def logout():
session.pop('username', None)
return redirect(url_for('index'))
app.secret_key = 'A secret'

The session object allows you to store information specific to a user

from one request to the next. Sessions are implemented using secure
cookies, and thus need a key to be used.
The index view checks the session for the presence of a user name,
and shows the logged-in state accordingly. The login view is a bit
more interesting. It renders the login template if called with the GET
method, and sets the session username variable if called with POST.
The logout view simply removes the variable from the session, in
effect logging out the user.

Views
@app.route('/')
def show_entries():
cur = g.db.execute(
'select title, text from entries order by id desc')

38

Chapter 2: Some Frameworks to Keep an Eye On

entries = [dict(title=row[0], text=row[1])

for row in cur.fetchall()]
return render_template('show_entries.html', entries=entries)
@app.route('/add', methods=['POST'])
def add_entry():
if not session.get('username'):
abort(401)
g.db.execute(
'insert into entries (title, text) values (?, ?)',
[request.form['title'], request.form['text']])
g.db.commit()
flash('New entry was successfully posted')
return redirect(url_for('show_entries'))

Here we show how to define views. The route decorator that we saw
in the quickstart application is used to connect the add_entry
method with the /add URL. Note the use of the methods parameter
to restrict that view to POST requests.
We examine the session to see if the user is logged in, and if not,
abort the request. We assume that the request comes from a form
that includes the title and text parameters, which we extract from
the request to use in an insert statement. The request object refer
enced here has to be imported from flask, as in the sessions exam
ple.
Finally, a flash message is set up to display the change to the user,
and the browser is redirected to the main show_entries view. This
last view is simple, but it shows how to render a template, calling it
with the template name and the context data required for rendering.

Automated Testing
Flask exposes the Werkzeug test client to make testing applications
easier. It also provides test helpers to let tests access the request con
text as if they were views.
The documentation has a long section about testing applications.
The examples use unittest, but any other testing tool can be used.
Since Werkzeug is fully documented itself, there is very good infor
mation available about the test client too.

Flask

39

When to Use Flask

Flask can be used to write all kinds of applications, but by design its
better for small- to medium-sized systems. It is also not ideal for
composing multiple applications, because of its use of global vari
ables. Its especially good for web APIs and services. Its small core
allows it to be used as glue code for many data backends, and its a
very powerful companion for SQLAlchemy when dealing with
database-driven web applications.

Tornado
Tornado is a combination of an asynchronous networking library
and a web framework. It is intended for use in applications that
require long-lived connections to their users.
Tornado has its own HTTP server based on its asynchronous
library. While its possible to use the web framework part of Tornado
with WSGI, to take advantage of its asynchronous nature its neces
sary to use it together with the web server.
In addition to typical web framework features, Tornado has libraries
and utilities to make writing asynchronous code easier. Instead of
depending on callbacks, Tornados coroutines library allows a pro
gramming style more similar to synchronous code.
Tornado includes a simple templating language. Unlike other tem
plating languages discussed here, in Tornado templates there are no
restrictions on the kind of expressions that you can use. Tornado
also has the concept of UI modules, which are special function calls
to render UI widgets that can include their own CSS and JavaScript.
Tornado also offers support for authentication and security, includ
ing secure cookies and CSRF protection. Tornado authentication
includes support for third-party login systems, like Google, Face
book, and Twitter.

Quick Start
To install Tornado:
$ pip install tornado

40

Chapter 2: Some Frameworks to Keep an Eye On

Tornado Hello World

import tornado.ioloop
import tornado.web
class MainHandler(tornado.web.RequestHandler):
def get(self):
self.write("Hello, world")
application = tornado.web.Application([
(r"/", MainHandler),
])
if __name__ == "__main__":
application.listen(8888)
tornado.ioloop.IOLoop.current().start()

First, we define a request handler, which will simply write our Hello
World message in the response. A Tornado application usually con
sists of one or more handlers. The only prerequisite for defining a
handler is to subclass from the tornado.web.RequestHandler class.
To route requests to the appropriate handlers and take care of global
configuration options, Tornado uses an application object. In the
example above, we can see how the application is passed the routing
table, which in this case includes only one route. This route assigns
the root URL of the site to the MainHandler created above.
Once we have an application object, we configure it to listen to port
8888 and start the asynchronous loop to serve our application. Note
that theres no specific association of the application object we cre
ated and the ioloop, because the listen call actually creates an HTTP
server behind the scenes.

Representative Code
Since Tornados asynchronous nature is its main feature, lets see
some examples of that.

Synchronous and asynchronous code

from tornado.httpclient import HTTPClient
def synchronous_fetch(url):
http_client = HTTPClient()
response = http_client.fetch(url)
return response.body

Tornado

41

from tornado.httpclient import AsyncHTTPClient

def asynchronous_fetch(url, callback):
http_client = AsyncHTTPClient()
def handle_response(response):
callback(response.body)
http_client.fetch(url, callback=handle_response)

from tornado import gen

@gen.coroutine
def fetch_coroutine(url):
http_client = AsyncHTTPClient()
response = yield http_client.fetch(url)
raise gen.Return(response.body)

In these three short examples, we can see how Tornado uses asyn
chronous calls and how that compares with the normal, synchro
nous calls that we would use in a WSGI application.
In the first example, we use tornado.HTTPClient to fetch a URL
from somewhere in the cloud. This is the regular case, and the syn
chronous_fetch call will not return until the client gets the response
back.
The second example uses the AsyncHTTPClient. The call will return
immediately after the fetch call, which is why Tornado can scale
more. The fetch method is passed a callback, which is a function
that will be executed when the client gets a response back. This
works, but it can lead to situations where you have to chain call
backs together, which can quickly become confusing.
For this reason, coroutines are the recommended way to write asyn
chronous code in Tornado. Coroutines take advantage of Python
generators to be able to return immediately with no callbacks. In the
fetch_coroutine method above, the gen.coroutine decorator
takes care of waiting without blocking for the client to finish fetch
ing the URL, and then passes the result to the yield.

Request handlers
class BaseHandler(tornado.web.RequestHandler):
def get_current_user(self):
return self.get_secure_cookie("user")

42

Chapter 2: Some Frameworks to Keep an Eye On

class MainHandler(BaseHandler):
def get(self):
if not self.current_user:
self.redirect("/login")
return
name = tornado.escape.xhtml_escape(self.current_user)
self.render("hello.html", title="Welcome", name)
class LoginHandler(BaseHandler):
def get(self):
self.render("login.html", title="Login Form")
def post(self):
self.set_secure_cookie("user",
self.get_argument("name"))
self.redirect("/")
application = tornado.web.Application([
(r"/", MainHandler),
(r"/login", LoginHandler)],
cookie_secret="__TODO:_GENERATE_A_RANDOM_VALUE_HERE__")

Since request handlers are classes, you can use inheritance to define
a base request handler that can have all the basic behavior needed
for your application. In BaseHandler in the previous example, the
get_current_user call will be available for both handlers defined in
the next example.
A handler should have a method for every HTTP method that it can
handle. In MainHandler, the GET method gets a look at the current
user and redirects to the login handler if it is not set (remember that
get_current_user is inherited from the base handler). If theres a
user, its name is escaped before being passed to the template. The
render method of a handler gets a template by name, optionally
passes it some arguments, and renders it.
LoginHandler has both GET and POST methods. The first renders the

login form, and the second sets a secure cookie with the name and
redirects to the MainHandler. The Tornado handlers have several
utility methods to help with requests. For example, the
self.get_argument method gets a parameter from the request. The
request itself can be accessed with self.request.

Tornado

43

UI modules
class Entry(tornado.web.UIModule):
def embedded_css(self):
return ".entry { margin-bottom: 1em; }"
def render(self, entry, show_comments=False):
return self.render_string(
"module-entry.html", entry=entry,
show_comments=show_comments)

UI modules are reusable UI widgets that you can use across your
application. They make it easy to design your page layouts using
independent components. UI modules subclass from tor
nado.web.UIModule and must include a render method. In the
example above, we define a UI module that represents a blog entry.
The render method can include arbitrary parameters, which usually
will be passed on to the module template, like in the example above.
A UI module can also include its own CSS and JavaScript. In our
example, we use the embedded_css method to return some CSS to
use for the entry class. There are also methods for embedding Java
Script and for pointing to CSS and JavaScript files.
Once the UI module is defined, we can call it within a template
with:
{ % module Entry(entry, show_comments=True) % }

Automated Testing
Tornado offers support classes for automated testing that allow
developers to test asynchronous code. It has a simple test runner,
which wraps unittest.main. It also has a couple of test helper func
tions.
Tornados test module is documented, but there is no specific tuto
rial or narrative section devoted to testing.

When to Use Tornado

Tornado is a bit different to the other web frameworks discussed
here, in that it goes hand in hand with asynchronous networking.
Its ideal to use when you need websockets, long polling, or any
other kind of long-lived connections. It can also help you scale your
44

| Chapter 2: Some Frameworks to Keep an Eye On

application to tens of thousands of open connections, provided your

code is written to be asynchronous and nonblocking.
For more regular applications, like database-driven sites, using a
WSGI framework is probably a better choice. Some of those frame
works also include a lot of features that the Tornado web framework
does not have.

Bottle
Bottle is a true Python micro framework, in that its actually dis
tributed as a single file and has no dependencies outside of the
Python standard library. Its lightweight and fast.
Bottle focuses on providing clean and simple URL routing and tem
plating. It includes utilities for many web development needs, like
access to form data, cookies, headers, and file uploads. It also
includes its own HTTP server, so you dont need to set up anything
else to get your application running.
Even though its core is very small and its designed for small applica
tions, Bottle has a plugin architecture that allows it to be expanded
to fit more complex needs.

Quick Start
To install Bottle:
$ pip install bottle

Bottle Hello World

from bottle import route, run, template
@route('/hello/<name>')
def index(name):
return template('Hello {{name}}!', name=name)
run(host='localhost', port=8080)

The Bottle quick start is very simple. The route decorator connects
the index method to the /hello/<name> URL. Here, name is part of
a dynamic route. Its value is added to the hello message using a sim
ple string template.

Bottle

45

Note that there is some magic going on in this example, because

Bottle creates an application object the first time route is used. This
default application object is the one that is served when the web
server is run in the last line. Its also possible to create a different
application object explicitly, by instantiating Bottle and assigning
the result to the new application. In that case, the run method is
passed to the application as the first argument.

Representative Code
Even though Bottle is minimalistic, it does have a few nifty features,
as the following examples show.

Simple template engine

% name = "Bob" # a line of python code
<p>Some plain text in between</p>
<%
# A block of python code
name = name.title().strip()
%>
<p>More plain text</p>
<ul>
% for item in basket:
<li>{{item}}</li>
% end
</ul>

Bottle uses a fast, simple template language that accepts both lines
and blocks of Python code. Indentation is ignored so that code can
be properly aligned, but in exchange for that its necessary to add an
end keyword after a normally indented block, like the for loop
above.

Using hooks
from bottle import hook, response, route
@hook('after_request')
def enable_cors():
response.headers['Access-Control-Allow-Origin'] = '*'
@route('/foo')
def say_foo():
return 'foo!'

46

Chapter 2: Some Frameworks to Keep an Eye On

@route('/bar')
def say_bar():
return {'type': 'friendly', 'content': 'Hi!'}

Bottle supports after_request and before_request hooks, which

can be used to modify the response or request. In the example
above, we add a hook that will add a cross-origin resource sharing
(CORS) header to the response.
Once we define the hook, it will be used in all routes. This example
also shows how Bottle automatically converts a response to JSON
when the callback returns a dictionary, like say_bar above.

Wildcard filters
def list_filter(config):
''' Matches a comma separated list of numbers. '''
delimiter = config or ','
regexp = r'\d+(%s\d)*' % re.escape(delimiter)
def to_python(match):
return map(int, match.split(delimiter))
def to_url(numbers):
return delimiter.join(map(str, numbers))
return regexp, to_python, to_url
app = Bottle()
app.router.add_filter('list', list_filter)
@app.route('/follow/<ids:list>')
def follow_users(ids):
for id in ids:
follow(id)

Bottles router supports filters to modify the value of a URL parame

ter before its passed to the corresponding callback. Default filters
include :int, :float, :path, and :re. You can add your own filters
to the router, like in the example above.
A filter can do anything, but has to return three things: a regular
expression string, a callable to convert the URL fragment to a
Python object, and a callable to turn a Python object into a URL
fragment. In the list_filter example, we will match a list of num
bers in the URL and pass the converted list to the callback.
Bottle

47

The regexp matches a series of one or more numbers separated by a

delimiter. The to_python function turns them into integers, and the
to_url function uses str() to turn the numbers back to strings.
Next, we explicitly create an application, and use the add_filter
method of its router to include our filter. We can now use it in a
route expression, like we do in follow_users at the bottom of the
code.

Automated Testing
Bottle has no specific tools for testing applications. Its documenta
tion does not have a specific section devoted to testing, though it
does offer a couple of short recipes on how to do unit and functional
testing.

When to Use Bottle

If you are working on a small application or a prototype, Bottle can
be a good way to get started quickly and painlessly. However, Bottle
does not have many advanced features that other frameworks do
offer. While its possible to add these features and build a large appli
cation with Bottle, it is designed for small applications and services,
so you should definitely at least take a look at the larger frameworks
if you have a complex application in mind.

Pyramid
Pyramid is a general web application development framework. Its
designed for simplicity and speed. One of its main objectives is to
make it possible to start small without having to have a lot of knowl
edge about the framework, but allow an application to grow organi
cally as you learn more about Pyramid without sacrificing
performance and organization to do so.
Pyramid focuses on the most basic web application needs: mapping
URLs to code, supporting the best Python templating systems, serv
ing static assets, and providing security features. In addition to that,
it offers powerful and extensible configuration, extension, and addon systems. With Pyramid, its possible to override and customize
core code and add-ons from the outside, making it ideal for reusable
subsystems and even specialized frameworks.

48

Chapter 2: Some Frameworks to Keep an Eye On

Pyramid is the fruit of the merger between the Pylons and repoze.bfg
web frameworks. It is developed under the Pylons Project brand,
which sometimes causes some confusion with the old framework
name.

Quick Start
To install Pyramid:
$ pip install pyramid

Pyramid Hello World

from wsgiref.simple_server import make_server
from pyramid.config import Configurator
from pyramid.response import Response
def hello(request):
return Response('Hello World!')
if __name__ == '__main__':
config = Configurator()
config.add_route('hello_world', '/')
config.add_view(hello, route_name='hello_world')
app = config.make_wsgi_app()
server = make_server('0.0.0.0', 8080, app)
server.serve_forever()

First, we define a view, using a function named hello. In Pyramid,

views can be any kind of callable, including functions, classes, and
even class instances. The view has to return a response (in this case,
just the text Hello World!).
To configure the application, Pyramid uses a configurator, to allow
structured and extensible configuration. The configurator knows
about several statements that can be performed at startup time, such
as adding a route and a view that will be called when the route
matches, as in the example above. Using a configurator might seem
like an extra step in this example, but the configuration system is
one of the things that make Pyramid a good fit for applications of
any size, and particularly good for evolving applications.
The last step is to create an app and serve it. The configurator allows
us to create the app using the make_wsgi_app statement. We then

Pyramid

49

pass it on to a WSGI server. Pyramid doesnt have its own server, so

in the example we use the simple server included with Python.

Representative Code
Pyramid has a few unique features, like view predicates, renderers,
and asset specifications. Take a look at the following examples.

View predicates
from pyramid.view import view_config
@view_config(route_name='blog_action',
match_param='action=create', request_method='GET')
def show_create_page(request):
return Response('Creating...')
@view_config(route_name='blog_action',
match_param='action=create', request_method='POST')
def create_blog(request):
return Response('Created.')
@view_config(route_name='blog_action',
match_param='action=edit', request_method='GET')
def show_edit_page(request):
return Response('Editing...')
@view_config(route_name='blog_action',
match_param='action=edit', request_method='POST')
def edit_blog(request):
return Response('Edited.')

The first thing to note in the example above is the use of the
view_config decorator to configure views. In the Pyramid quick
start example we used config.add_view for the same purpose, but
using the decorator is a way to get the view declarations near the
actual code they call.
Next, look at the different parameters passed in to the view decora
tor. What sets Pyramids view configuration system apart is that
unlike most frameworks, Pyramid lets developers use several pieces
of information from the request to determine which views will be
called by the view lookup mechanism. This is done by adding predi
cates to the view configuration. Think of a predicate as a True or
False statement about the current request.
A view configuration declaration can have zero or more predicates,
and all things being equal, the view that has more predicates that all
50

Chapter 2: Some Frameworks to Keep an Eye On

evaluate to True will be called by the view lookup mechanism over

other views with fewer predicates. In other words, more specific
view configuration declarations have preference over less specific
ones.
For our example, this means that all four defined views will match
the same blog_action route (another useful Pyramid feature), but
the view lookup will look at the request method and at the request
parameters to find the correct view to call. For example, if the
request is using the POST method and there is a request parameter
named action and that parameter has the value edit, then the
edit_blog view will be called.

Renderers
from pyramid.view import view_config
@view_config(renderer='json')
def hello_world(request):
return {'content':'Hello!'}

Instead of always returning some kind of response object or assum

ing that a view will return a template, Pyramid uses the concept of a
renderer for converting the result of the view to a response. When
using a renderer, the view can return a dictionary and Pyramid will
pass it to the renderer for generating the response.
In the example above, the view is configured with a json renderer,
which will turn the dictionary into a response with the correct
application/json content type header and a JSON body with the
dictionary value.
Out of the box, Pyramid supports string, json, and jsonp renderers.
All the supported templating add-ons for Pyramid also include a
renderer. Its also very easy to create custom renderers. One benefit
of this approach is simplicity, because the view code can focus on
getting the correct result without worrying about generating the
response and adding headers. Views that use renderers are also
more easily tested, since simple unit tests will be enough to assert
that the correct values are returned. Also, because rendering a
response to HTML doesnt assume a specific templating engine, its
possible to easily use several engines in the same application, just by
choosing the corresponding renderer (for example, mako or
jinja2).

Pyramid

51

Asset specifications
from pyramid.view import view_config
@view_config(route_name='hello_world',
renderer='myapp:templates/hello.jinja2')
def hello(request):
return {'message': "Hello World!"}

Python web applications use many types of files in addition to

Python code, like images, stylesheets, HTML templates, and Java
Script code. These files are known as assets in Pyramid. An asset
specification is a mechanism for referring to these files in Python
code in order to get an absolute path for a resource.
In the example above, the renderer mentioned in the configuration
is in fact an asset specification that refers to a Jinja2 template that
can be found inside the myapp package. Asset specifications have
two parts: a package name, and an asset name, which is a file path
relative to the package directory. This tells Pyramid that the tem
plate to be used for rendering the view is the hello.jinja2 file inside
the templates directory in the myapp package. Pyramid resolves that
into an absolute file path, and passes it to the Jinja2 renderer for
generating the HTML.
Pyramid supports serving static assets, which use the same specifica
tions for pointing at the assets to be served. This mechanism allows
Pyramid to easily find and serve assets without having to depend on
configuration globals or template hierarchies, like other frameworks
do.
Asset specifications also make it possible to override any asset. This
includes template files, template directories, static files, and static
directories. For example, suppose the view declaration in the exam
ple is part of a reusable application that is meant to be mostly used
as is, but with a different look. Pyramid allows you to reuse the
entire application from another package and simply override the
template, without requiring that the application be forked. All that
would be needed is to add the following code to the customized
applications configuration:
config.override_asset(
to_override='myapp:templates/hello.jinja2',
override_with=
'another.package:othertemplates/anothertemplate.jinja2')

52

| Chapter 2: Some Frameworks to Keep an Eye On

Automated Testing
Pyramid has its own testing module for supporting tests. Like
other frameworks, it uses unittest in the documentation. Key Pyra
mid components, like the configurator, offer test helpers to simulate
some of their functionality.
Pyramids documentation includes a chapter about unit, integration,
and functional testing. The pyramid.testing module is also docu
mented, as are the various testing helpers. All official tutorials
include a testing section.

When to Use Pyramid

Pyramid is designed to be used for small to large applications, so
unlike some of the frameworks discussed here, size is not a criterion
for deciding on its use. Pyramid has a few features that work differ
ently from other frameworks, so being comfortable with those fea
tures is important if you want to use it.
Pyramid is very well-suited for writing extensible applications, and
is a very good candidate for writing domain-specific frameworks
due to its many extension points and override mechanisms.

CherryPy
CherryPy is the oldest framework discussed here. It is perhaps the
original Python micro framework, as it focuses on matching a URL
to some view, and leaves everything else to the developer. It does
include its own web server, so it can serve static content as well. In
addition, CherryPy has built-in tools for caching, encoding, ses
sions, authorization, and more.
CherryPy has a fine-grained configuration system, which allows sev
eral configuration settings to be modified. Global configuration is
separate from application configuration, so its possible to run sev
eral applications in one process, each with its own configuration.
CherryPy is designed to be extensible, and offers several mecha
nisms for extensions and hook points. Since it has its own server,
these extension points include server-wide functions outside of the
regular request/response cycle. This gives CherryPy an added level
of extensibility.

CherryPy

53

Quick Start
To install CherryPy:
$ pip install cherrypy

CherryPy Hello World

import cherrypy
class HelloWorld(object):
def index(self):
return "Hello World!"
index.exposed = True
cherrypy.quickstart(HelloWorld())

CherryPy applications are usually written as classes. The views of the

application are the methods of its class, but by default only explicitly
selected methods will be turned into views, or exposed, as CherryPy
calls it. In the example, we have a single class named HelloWorld,
with a single method in it that simply returns the text Hello
World!. The index method is explicitly exposed by setting that
attribute to True.
Then, we use the cherrypy.quickstart call to direct CherryPy to
host our application. By default, it will be accessible on http://
127.0.0.1:8080/.
Note that unlike other frameworks, CherryPy does not associate a
URL to a view using mappings or routes. By default, the index
method goes to /. Other exposed methods of a class are located by
using the method name as a URL segment. For example, a goodbye
method in the example above would be called by a request to http://
127.0.0.1:8080/goodbye (if exposed, of course). CherryPy does pro
vide other ways to handle parameters in routes.

Representative Code
Here are a couple of examples that showcase some of CherryPys
features.

REST API
import random
import string

54

Chapter 2: Some Frameworks to Keep an Eye On

import cherrypy
class StringGeneratorWebService(object):
exposed = True
def GET(self):
return cherrypy.session['mystring']
def POST(self, length=8):
some_string = ''.join(random.sample(string.hexdigits,
int(length)))
cherrypy.session['mystring'] = some_string
return some_string
if __name__ == '__main__':
conf = {
'/': {
'request.dispatch':
cherrypy.dispatch.MethodDispatcher(),
'tools.sessions.on': True,
}
}
cherrypy.quickstart(StringGeneratorWebService(), '/', conf)

First, we define a class. Instead of exposing every method individu

ally, we set exposed to True for the whole class, which exposes all its
methods. We define separate methods for each HTTP verb. They
are very simple. GET will get the latest generated string, and POST
will generate a new one. Note the use of cherrypy.session to store
information for the current user from request to request.
A REST API uses the request methods to decide which views to call
in an application. The default CherryPy dispatcher does not know
how to do that, so we need to use a different dispatcher. This is done
in the configuration dictionary that will be passed to cher
rypy.quickstart. As you can see, CherryPy already has a dis
patcher for this, so we just set it and everything will work.

JSON encoding and decoding

class Root(object):
@cherrypy.expose
@cherrypy.tools.json_in()
def decode_json(self):
data = cherrypy.request.json
@cherrypy.expose

CherryPy

55

@cherrypy.tools.json_out()
def encode_json(self):
return {'key': 'value'}

These days, JavaScript is used extensively in web applications, and

JSON is the standard way to get information to and from JavaScript
applications. CherryPy has a simple way of encoding and decoding
JSON.
In the first example, we can treat a request as JSON using the cher
rypy.tools.json_in decorator. It attaches a json attribute to the
request, which contains the decoded JSON.

In the second example, we use the corresponding cher

rypy.tools.json_out decorator, which encodes the JSON and gen
erates the correct application/json header.

Tools
import time
import cherrypy
class TimingTool(cherrypy.Tool):
def __init__(self):
cherrypy.Tool.__init__(self, 'before_handler',
self.start_timer)
def _setup(self):
cherrypy.Tool._setup(self)
cherrypy.request.hooks.attach('before_finalize',
self.end_timer)
def start_timer(self):
cherrypy.request._time = time.time()
def end_timer(self):
duration = time.time() - cherrypy.request._time
cherrypy.log("Page handler took %.4f" % duration)
cherrypy.tools.timeit = TimingTool()
class Root(object):
@cherrypy.expose
@cherrypy.tools.timeit()
def index(self):
return "hello world"

Its very common in a web application to need some code to be exe

cuted at some point for every request. CherryPy uses tools for that
56

Chapter 2: Some Frameworks to Keep an Eye On

purpose. A tool is a callable piece of code that is attached into some

specific point of the request, or hook. CherryPy offers several hooks,
from the very beginning of the request until it is completed.
In the example, we define a tool for computing the time taken by a
request from start to finish. A tool needs an __init__ method to
initialize itself, which includes attaching to a hook point. In this
case, the tool is attached to the before_handler hook, which is pro
cessed right before the view is called. This starts the timer, saving the
start time as an attribute of the request.
After a hook is initialized and attached to the request, its _setup
method is called. Here, we use it to attach the tool to yet another
hook, before_finalize. This is called before CherryPy formats the
response to be sent to the client. Our tool will then stop the timer by
calculating the difference between the start and end times, and log
ging the result.
To initialize the tool, we instance it and add it as an attribute of cher
rypy.tools. We can now use it in our code by adding it as a decora
tor to any class method, like this: @cherrypy.tools.timeit().

Automated Testing
CherryPy provides a helper class for functional tests. It is a test case
class with some helpers. The documentation for this class is brief,
but includes an example.

When to Use CherryPy

CherryPy is a very flexible framework, which can be used in applica
tions of all kinds. The fact that it includes its own web server and
doesnt have many dependencies makes it a good choice for shared
web hosting sites.
Though its very easy to get started with, CherryPy does leave in the
developers hands many of the tasks that some frameworks handle
for them. This is flexible but might require more work. Also, some
of its configuration and extensibility features need a more thorough
understanding, so beginners trying to use it right away for a big
undertaking might find its learning curve a bit steep.

CherryPy

57

CHAPTER 3

Whats the Right Framework for

You?

By this point, you know a little bit about which Python web frame
works are out there, and even have a little in-depth knowledge about
some of them. Still, you might be wondering which one is best for
you. This is not a question that can be answered here to your satis
faction, because every reader of this guide will have different needs.
However, I can offer some general guidelines and answer a couple of
frequently asked questions by people new to Python web develop
ment.

Dont Look for Absolute Bests

Recommending one framework over all of the others is not the pur
pose of this guide, but its possible to tell you which frameworks not
to look for. New web developers in community forums like reddit
usually start looking for one of these, and even if they could find it,
it would be the wrong approach to solving their specific problem.

The Best Framework

If you search the archives of Python web forums, youll find that this
question appears every couple of weeks. The thinking goes like this:
Hey, if Im going to get into web development, I should use the best
framework out there. The problem is that theres no one right
answer to this question.

59

Thats why this book contains a list of 30 frameworks and reviews

for half a dozen of them. The reality is that many frameworks could
be considered the best, depending on your specific objectives and
your preferred way of working. Picking one or two of the frame
works discussed here and trying them out to see if they are a fit for
the way you like to code is a much better use of your time than try
ing to find an undisputed champion.

The Fastest Framework

Its not bad to look for speed in a framework, but making that your
main concern can get you off track easily. For example, it can make
you worry about deployment before you actually write a line of
code. Talk about putting the cart in front of the horse!
The truth is that for many applications, the web framework will sel
dom be the bottleneck, and even if you really need speed, its point
less to have that if the rest of the framework does not conform to
your requirements and objectives.

The Smallest Framework

When you have lots of programs that do more or less the same
thing, like web frameworks, its natural to try to classify them in
some way. In the Python web world, the terms full-stack framework
and micro framework are the most used categories these days. The
former refers to a framework with many integrated features, like ses
sions, authorization, authentication, templating, and database
access; the latter usually means a smaller but very focused frame
work that concentrates on the main things a web application must
do, like URL routing.
My advice would be, dont get too caught up in taxonomies. Its not
necessarily logical that small applications require small frame
works and big applications require large frameworks. For exam
ple, even if you know that youll just need a small application, you
might need several services that micro frameworks do not usually
offer, like integrated sessions and form handling. Conversely, you
could be writing a large application, but more in terms of business
logic than web requirements. Instead of worrying about size, focus
on the features you need.

60

Chapter 3: Whats the Right Framework for You?

Start by Defining Your Goals

If theres a lesson from the previous section, its that to find the right
framework for you, its better if you have a clear idea of what you are
trying to accomplish. Define your problem first, and then look for a
framework that seems well-suited for solving that problem and fits
the way you think.
Also, once you pick a framework for a project, its not as if you are
somehow bound by contract to always use that framework. You may
very well find that your next project requires a completely different
approach, where another framework might bring more to the table.

Desirable Features
While theres no general checklist for finding the best framework for
your use case, there are indeed a few things that you can look for
that could simplify your work a lot. It would be wise to at least con
sider these points while you decide which framework to use.

Documentation
This is probably the single most important thing to look for in a
framework. Good documentation lets you get up to speed quickly
and start worrying about your application right away rather than
trying to find out how to use the frameworks features.
Bonus points if the documentation is well-written, easy to follow,
and offers a variety of resources, like tutorials, cookbooks, and vid
eos. People learn in different ways, and some resources, like tutori
als, are usually much better for beginners. A discussion of advanced
topics can be very useful once you start familiarizing yourself with
the framework and trying more ambitious things.
Good documentation also evolves with the framework, so new relea
ses should always cover new features; there are few things as frus
trating as having to deal with outdated documentation when trying
to pinpoint if a problem is in your code or in the way you are trying
to use the framework.

Start by Defining Your Goals

61

Active Community
Its a good idea to try to connect with the community of users and
developers of your framework of choice. Theres no better way to
gauge existing interest in the framework and get a feel for how much
development work is under way to make it better. Usually, frame
works will have some mix of mailing lists, IRC channels, and web
forums. For most frameworks, these communication channels will
also be the official support mechanism, so it pays to find out about
them.
An active community is not only a good way of finding out if a
framework is alive and current, but it can also be a very nice com
plement to the documentation. Finding out how people have used a
feature in real life can be as helpful as the description of the feature
itself.

Reliability
The Python language evolves, new ways of working with the Web
come around frequently, and the open nature of the Web means
constant attention needs to be paid to security considerations. A
reliable framework is one that tries to stay current with all of these
events. Look for versions that mention compatibility with newer
Python releases, take advantage of new libraries and ways of doing
things, and offer occasional security fixes or notices.

Extensibility
Once you become proficient in the use of a framework, there usually
comes a time when you need to add some functionality or feature
that is not already part of it, and in a way that can be easily main
tained and understood. If a framework offers well-designed and
documented extension points, it will be easier to adapt to your spe
cial requirements in a way that doesnt break with version updates.
Also, it will be easier to take advantage of general extensions or plu
gins that other framework users have created.

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Chapter 3: Whats the Right Framework for You?

CHAPTER 4

Developing Your Own Framework

As the final step in our tour of Python web frameworks, well look
briefly at how to develop your very own framework. Even if you
dont plan to build one, knowing a bit about how the internals work
might be a good exercise.

Why Create a Framework?

The framework list in this report has 30 frameworks, and thats just
the ones that have a significant(ish) number of downloads. There
are many more. Still, people keep creating frameworks, so you might
some day want to do that too. In fact, one of the reasons that there
are so many Python web frameworks is that its not very hard to cre
ate one. Python has very good building blocks for this, starting with
the WSGI standard and libraries like Werkzeug and WebOb that
already implement all of the plumbing, which can be used as a start
ing point.
Sometimes, instead of a general framework, you might need one
that is more tailored to your problem domain. Its much easier to
start from a solid foundation, so you could consider basing your
special domain framework on an existing one. Frameworks that
have flexible configuration and extension mechanisms, like Pyramid
or CherryPy, lend themselves very well to this approach.

63

Parts of a Basic WSGI Framework

If you decide to build a framework, using Werkzeug or WebOb is a
good recommendation. You want to focus on the user-configurable
parts, not the internals.

Routing
You will need some way to match a URL to a view. The most com
mon way of doing this is using regular expression routes, like
Django or Flask. If you want to go for this approach, you should
consider using Werkzeug, which includes a routing system right out
of the box. There are also some routing libraries available on PyPI
that can be used with WebOb, or by themselves.
There are other ways to map URLs to views. Pyramid offers traver
sal, which treats your sites content as a tree and maps views to
resources or types of resources. CherryPy uses exposed methods
from regular Python classes. Maybe you can think about other
approaches. Just use something that feels natural to you.

Templates
There are a couple of very popular template systems for Python, and
its highly recommended to use one of them. Jinja2 and Mako are
two very good options.
Some frameworks are highly tailored to work with a chosen tem
plate system, while others leave that decision completely in the
hands of the developer. Whatever your choice, you cant go wrong,
as most of these template systems are proven and very stable.

Other Features
Most frameworks offer other features as part of the package.
Authentication is a common need and thus is usually provided for
in some way. There are many authentication systems and libraries
out there. The best advice here is to try to be flexible. You never
know how a user will need to authenticate their users.
Many frameworks make the assumption (perhaps less of a certainty
these days) that a relational database backend will be part of a web
application, and offer at least some degree of database support. If

64

Chapter 4: Developing Your Own Framework

thats your decision, simply go for SQLAlchemy integration. Its the

most complete (and popular) solution for Python.
Consider offering some support for form handling and input valida
tion, but be aware that there are many libraries that do this very
well. Research your alternatives a bit before deciding to do it your
self.
If you intend for your framework to be used by other people, or at
least plan to use it more than once, you need to offer a configuration
system that allows your users to easily set up and deploy their appli
cations.

Documentation
Even if your framework is only for internal use at your company, do
your best to document it. In fact, if you cant document it, it is better
to use one of the existing frameworks. Future maintainers of your
applications will thank you.
Good documentation consists of much more than class names and
methods. Some narrative documentation is very useful, and many
people find that code examples speak volumes. Beginners like tuto
rials and less technical explanations. Use a documentation tool, like
sphinx, to make documentation generation easier.

Framework Building Blocks

You dont have to start your framework from scratch. There are a
couple of WSGI toolkits that take care of the basics, allowing you to
concentrate on the unique features provided by your framework.
The two most popular WSGI toolkits are WebOb and Werkzeug.
Many web frameworks use one of these libraries. They are timetested and fully featured, so they provide an excellent base for devel
oping web applications without worrying about the details of HTTP
and WSGI.

WebOb (http://webob.org)
WebOb provides objects that map much of the specified behavior of
HTTP, including header parsing, content negotiation, and correct
handling of conditional and range requests. Pyramid is one wellknown framework that uses WebOb.
Framework Building Blocks

65

Werkzeug (http://werkzeug.pocoo.org)
Werkzeug is one of the most advanced WSGI utility modules. It
includes a powerful debugger, fully featured request and response
objects, HTTP utilities to handle entity tags, cache control headers,
HTTP dates, cookie handling, file uploads, and a powerful URL
routing system. Flask, one of the most popular Python web frame
works, uses Werkzeug.

Some Useful Resources

If you do decide to write your own framework, or just want to know
a bit more about how to do it, there are some excellent web resour
ces that can show you how. Here are three of the best.
You can start with A Do-It-Yourself Framework, in which Ian Bicking
explains what WSGI is by building a simple framework. This is a
very good tutorial and a great way to find out whats inside a real
framework.
Ian Bicking has a second tutorial, this time using the WebOb library.
Another Do-It-Yourself Framework has more details about a frame
works parts, and even goes line by line to explain the code.
Some people learn better using screencasts instead of written docu
mentation. If thats your case, youll find Chris McDonoughs series
of screencasts about using repoze.bfg to build a micro framework
useful. Remember, repoze.bfg is the framework that became Pyra
mid. Even if you dont use either of these frameworks, you should
still find this series very instructive. The videos are at http://
bfg.repoze.org/videos.

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Chapter 4: Developing Your Own Framework

CHAPTER 5

Summary

We have completed a very quick tour of the Python web framework

world. There are many Python web frameworks and we offered a
glimpse into a good number of them. We also covered six popular
frameworks in detail, which hopefully will tempt you to try one or
more of them on for size. Some general advice about how to pick a
framework and even build your own was given, but as always, the
best way to really know something is to try it yourself.

67

APPENDIX A

Python Web Development

Fundamentals

Its All HTTP Underneath

When you are working with web applications, every operation is
ultimately reduced to a series of requests and responses between the
users browser and the server hosting the application, using the
HTTP protocol. While an introductory discussion of HTTP is out
side the scope of this book, its important for web developers to
know how it works.
From a web application standpoint, HTTP means getting requests
from a web browser for some URL that the application knows how
to handle, then processing this request and sending a response back.
This sounds easy, but theres lots of stuff to do.
Imagine that we are writing an application that will do all this work
without depending on other libraries or frameworks. Our applica
tion needs to know how to interpret a request, decode any parame
ters that it contains, pass that information to the specific code in the
application that is supposed to be run for that URL, get a result
(preferably a nice HTML page with a beautiful design), encode that
into a response, and send it back to the server. All of this would
require writing code to handle each task.
Additionally, HTTP is a stateless protocol, which means no session
information is kept from request to request. Our application will
need some way to know if a user logs in or out, and make sure that
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the correct information for each user is used where required. The
browser provides some tools to keep track of that on the client side,
but the application needs to do some work, and the available mecha
nisms are often not enough for many applications.
Our application also has to have a way to get requests from a web
server, as well as sending back a response. That means more code
will be needed to communicate with the web server. The actual logic
in our application begins to feel rather small compared to the work
required to make it work on the Web.

Web Servers and WSGI

When the Web started, a server only had to do one thing: get a file
from the path from the server root specified by the URL path.
HTML was just text, nothing more. Later, it became possible to add
images. Twenty years later, a single web page can pull in 50 or
more resources.
Along the way, servers began getting more complex and the Web
turned from a static content medium into a dynamic content gener
ation platform. First, there was the capability to perform simple
queries, then to run scripts via a mechanism known as CGI. Finally,
specialized protocols to run applications began to emerge.
In the Python world, things started moving very early on. Zope, the
first Python application server, was open sourced in 1998, when
opening up the code from a commercial project was still big news.
Zope was ahead of its time in many ways and, though it has become
less popular, it still survives and is in heavy use after all these years.
Zope was what we call a full-stack framework, which means it pro
vides the whole range of services discussed in the previous section,
and lots more. At the same time, other Python frameworks started
coming out, but they all interoperated with web servers in different
ways or used generic web server gateways that required some code
to interface. That meant that the choice of framework would limit
the choice of web servers and vice versa.
In 2003, a protocol named WSGI (Web Server Gateway Interface)
was proposed to provide a standard interface between web servers
and Python web applications. Inspired by the Java Servlet specifica
tion, the WSGI protocol took off after some time and is now the de
facto way to connect Python applications with web servers.
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A server implementing the WSGI specification can receive a request,

pass it to the web application, and send the applications response
back to the client. Applications can be stacked, so its possible to
have middleware that transforms the application response before its
returned.
Today, most Python web frameworks implement or support WSGI,
and there are some libraries and toolkits that make it easier to create
WSGI-compatible frameworks.

Installing Python Packages

When discussing some of the most notable frameworks back in
Chapter 2, there was a Quick Start section for each. For people who
dont have previous experience with Python packaging, we include
some information about installing packages in this appendix.
For more information, consult the official Python packaging user
guide, located at http://bit.ly/1O2NiWu.

Requirements for Installing Packages

To be able to install Python packages, you need to install a few
requirements: pip, setuptools, and wheel.
Most likely, pip will already be installed on your system, but you will
need to upgrade it before use. On Linux or OSX, upgrade with:
pip install -U pip setuptools

For Windows, the command should be:

python -m pip install -U pip setuptools

After that, add wheel using:

pip install wheel

If possible, use a clean Python installation, rather than one managed

by your operating systems package manager. Updates in that case
can become harder due to different OS development cycles.

Using pip
The recommended installer for Python is pip, and it is most fre
quently used to install packages from the Python Package Index. To
install a package:

Python Web Development Fundamentals

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pip install 'package'

Its possible to install a specific version of a package, using:

pip install 'package==1.0'

Its also possible to install several packages using a requirements file,

which is a text file where the required packages are listed, one pack
age specifier per line (that is, a package name or a name and version
expression):
pip install -r requirements.txt

Virtual Environments
A virtual environment for Python allows packages to be installed
in an isolated location, thus preventing version conflicts and unwan
ted upgrades. For example, an already working application could
require an earlier version of a popular library, but a new application
requires the newer version. With a single Python installation, you
risk affecting the application that is known to work fine when doing
the upgrade.
Virtual environments avoid this kind of conflict, allowing you to
have multiple virtual installations of the same Python version,
each with its own libraries and installation directories.
The most popular tool for creating virtual environments is virtua
lenv, which supports all active Python versions and includes pip and
setuptools by default on each virtual environment. Python 3.3 and
newer includes pyvenv, which performs a similar function.
Either of those tools makes it easy to create a virtual environment.
For virtualenv, virtualenv <directory> will set up a virtual environ
ment, including Python binaries, inside the chosen directory. For
pyvenv, pyvenv <directory> will do the same.

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About the Author

Carlos de la Guardia has been doing web development with Python
since 2000. He loves the language and the communities around it.
He has contributed to Pyramid, SubstanceD, and other open source
projects.