PyWX is a plug-in for the open source Web server AOLserver that embeds a Python interpreter within the AOLserver process. This allows AOLserver to execute Python scripts in response to HTTP requests in a variety of ways.

AOLserver is a high-performance, single-process/multiple-threads Web server that is used at several high-throughput sites including AOL.com and digitalcity.com. PyWX enables full access to the AOLserver API from Python, as well as tying PyWX into AOLserver as an almost complete peer to Tcl.

Features of AOLserver/PyWX include threaded execution within a single process, emulation of a CGI environment, persistent database connections through the AOLserver database API, and full access to Tcl from Python as well as access to Python from Tcl.

Status:

PyWX 1.0b2 is available as of December 23rd, 2002. This version has been in use for over two years in several production environments and is extremely stable: any releases before 1.0 final will focus on performance enhancements, code cleanup, and documentation; no major changes are planned.

PyWX 1.0b2 works with Python 1.5.2 and up, and AOLserver 3.5.1 and up.

Documentation

Dave Kuhlman has written an installation HOWTO, and a full manual is slowly being written.

Links:

• PyWX project page on SourceForge.
• AOLserver home page.
• Python home page.

• Old documentation.

Mailing lists:

• pywx-discuss -- discussion list.
• pywx-announce -- announcements list.
• pywx-cvs-notify -- CVS notification list.

Credits:

Brent Fulgham initiated the project and created the initial embedding; Titus Brown and Mike Haggerty have done most of the coding since then. Dave Kuhlman has contributed extensively to the documentation effort.

Web page design shamelessly taken from PyChecker.