i need to restart django server to make my app properly work

so i made a python script to grab images from a subreddit (from Imgur and imgur albums). i successfully done that (it returns img urls) and wanted to integrate it into django so i can deploy it online and let other people use it. when i started running the server at my machine, the images from subreddit loads flawlessly, but when i try another subreddit, it craps out on me (i'll post the exception at the end of the post). so i restart the django server, and same thing happen. the images loads without a hitch. but the second time i do it, it craps out on me. what gives?

Exception Type: siteError, which pretty much encompasses urllib2.HTTPError, urllib2.URLError, socket.error, socket.sslerror

since i'm a noob in all of this, i'm not sure what's going on. so anyone care to help me?

note: l also host the app on pythoneverywhere.com. same result.

Solution

Using a global in your get_subreddit function looks wrong to me.

reddit_url = 'http://reddit.com/r/'
def get_subreddit(name):
    global reddit_url
    reddit_url += name

Every time, you run that function, you append the value of name to a global reddit_url.

It starts as http://reddit.com/r/
run get_subreddit("python") and it changes to http://reddit.com/r/python
run get_subreddit("python") again, and it changes to http://reddit.com/r/pythonpython
at this point, the url is invalid, and you have to restart your server.

You probably want to change get_subreddit so that it returns a url, and fetch this url in your function.

def get_subreddit(name):
    return "http://reddit.com/r/" + name

# in your view
url = get_subreddit("python")
# now fetch url

There are probably other mistakes in your code as well. You can't really expect somebody on stack overflow to fix all the problems for you on a project of this size. The best thing you can do is learn some techniques for debugging your code yourself.

Look at the full traceback, not just the final SiteError. See what line of your code the problem is occurring in.
Add some logging or print statement, and try and work out why the SiteError is occurring.
Are you trying to download the url that you think you are (as I explained above, I don't think you are, because of problems with your get_subreddit method).

Finally, I recommend you make sure that the site works on your dev machine before you move on to deploying it on python anywhere. Deploying can cause lots of headaches all by itself, so it's good to start with an app that's working before you start.

Good luck :)