Import with multiple arguments: running python script in flask

Question

I have a python script main.py that takes in two arguments (2 text files)

I'm using MAC OS X
Python 2.7

This runs easily on terminal with:

python main.py train.txt sample.txt

I have now developed a small front-end using Flask with very minor HTML as follows:

  #front.py FLASK

  from flask import Flask, render_template, request, redirect

  app = Flask(__name__)



  @app.route('/')

  def hello_world():

  return render_template('index.html')



  @app.route('/signup', methods = ['POST'])

   def signup():

    email = request.form['email']

    email1 = request.form['email1']

    # command below is just for testing, I wish to implement the same as this would if this would be typed in terminal.

    print("main.py " + email + " " + email1) 

   return redirect('/')



 if __name__ == "__main__":

  app.run()

and the HTML

 <!DOCTYPE html>

   <html>

     <head>

       <title>T</title>

     </head>



     <body>

       <form action="/signup" method="post">

       <input type="text" name="email"></input>

       <input type="text" name="email1"></input>

       <input type="submit" value="Signup"></input>

       </form>

    </body>

  </html>

This HTML code is simply using a form to take in the 2 arguments ( I find this easier than JS as I have no experience with that).

I have just written the

    print("main.py " + email + " " + email1)

command above to test, it's not of any utility for now.

Usage of the parameters:

  #main.py



  from filter import Filter

  import sys



  # Get arguments from user

  train = sys.argv[1]

  messages = sys.argv[2]



  # Open files for reading and writing

  train_file = open(train, "rb")

  messages_file = open(messages, "rb")

  predictions_file = open("predictions.txt", "w")



 # Create new filter and train it using the train-file

 f = Filter()

f.train(train_file)



 #filter the messages in messages_file, write results to predictions_file

 f.filter(messages_file, predictions_file)



# Close all the files

 train_file.close()

 messages_file.close()

 predictions_file.close()

I wish to now run my script which is main.py via this flask application itself, and want to know how this is possible.

I was using import main with another app decorator say /exec and manually changing the URL to go from 127.0.0.2000 to 127.0.0.2000/exec but this was giving errors as main requires the arguments to be passed.

Sorry if I'm unclear in explaining the problem, please let me know if I can explain anything in a better way to help understand the problem.

Thank you

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Answer 1

You need to rework this script slightly. You should put all the code that deals with input inside a name == '__main__' block as you do in the Flask app, and the rest inside a function that you call from that block:

def do_stuff(train, messages):
    # Open files for reading and writing
    train_file = open(train, "rb")
    ...
    predictions_file.close()

if __name__ == '__main__':
    # Get arguments from user
    train = sys.argv[1]
    messages = sys.argv[2]
    do_stuff(train, messages)

Now your Flask app can call main.do_stuff(email, email1).

Import with multiple arguments: running python script in flask

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