interactive web graphics

[Larry Bates]

Web application are different than local or client
server applications.  Web browser can connect to a
server and make a request, but the program that
satisfies the request runs to completion and disconnects
from the client.  You cannot easily do interactive-type
applications.  Things like progress bars can't really
even be done.  You can have your applications create
graphs, charts, etc. and deliver them back to the user
either as web pages or as PDF files.  There is a python
toolkit called ReportLab that provides a framework to
do this from python programs that run on the server.
The ReportLab graphics can do barcharts, line charts,
scatter plots, etc. and you can either save as .JPG
files that can be delivered on a web page or as a .PDF
file that the user can download.  Hard to say which
would work best for you.

Hope information helps a little.

-Larry Bates

Eckhoff, Michael A wrote:
> Hello,
> 
> I failed to locate a list for pygtk, so I thought I'd
> ask my question here. Is it possible to write CGI
> scripts that bring up a GUI (as in GTK+, QT, Tk, ...)
> or an openGL display that is windowed inside a web
> browser?
> 
> The answer would seem to me to be no, since the
> client could be Windows or Linux. I'd like to
> display some pretty graphics (scientific visualisation),
> but web applications are not my background.
> 
> I would like a form with progress bars, but I guess
> that would have to be implemented in some special way.
> Sorry if these questions are ill-posed; I am just
> getting my feet wet with python.
> 
> Thanks,
> Michael E
> 
> PS Congratulations for having such wonderful documentation
> on all things python.