Building a Simple Web Server in Python

As a complement to the network client tutorial, this tutorial shows how to implement a simple web server in Python. To be sure, this is no substitute for Apache or Zope. There are also more robust ways to implement web services in Python, using modules like BaseHTTPServer. This server uses the socket module exclusively.

You will recall that the socket module is the backbone of most Python web service modules. As with the simple network client, building a server with it illustrates the basics of web services in Python transparently. BaseHTTPServer itself imports the socket module to affect a server.

Index: Building a Simple Web Server in Python

1. Introduction to socket
2. Running Servers
3. Communicating Via Sockets
4. Hosts and Ports
5. Creating a Socket
6. Setting Socket Options
7. Binding the Port to the Socket
8. Handling a Server Request
9. Sending Data to the Client
10. Final Analysis and Shutting Down