Python: run SimpleHTTPServer and make request to it in a script

Question

I would like to write Python script that would:

1. Start SimpleHTTPServer on some port
2. Make a request to the server and send some data via POST
3. Run script via shell in interactive mode and interact with it

Right now the code looks like this:

import SimpleHTTPServer
import SocketServer
import urllib
import urllib2

# Variables
URL = 'localhost:8000'
PORT = 8000

# Setup simple sever
Handler = SimpleHTTPServer.SimpleHTTPRequestHandler
httpd = SocketServer.TCPServer(("", PORT), Handler)
print "serving at port", PORT
httpd.serve_forever()

# Getting HTML from the target page
values = {
    'name': 'Thomas Anderson',
    'location': 'unknown'
}
data = urlilib.urlencode(values)
req = urllib2.Request(url, data)
response = urllib2.urlopen(req)
html = response.read()

The problem is that once I run my script

python -i foo.py

It prints serving at port 8000 and then freezes. I bet this is something trivial for Python gurus here, but help would be appreciated.

Answer 1

Run the server as a different process, that will allow you to run the rest of your script.

I would also rather use requests than urllib.

import SocketServer
import SimpleHTTPServer

import requests
import multiprocessing

# Variables
PORT = 8000
URL = 'localhost:{port}'.format(port=PORT)

# Setup simple sever
Handler = SimpleHTTPServer.SimpleHTTPRequestHandler
httpd = SocketServer.TCPServer(("", PORT), Handler)
print "Serving at port", PORT

# start the server as a separate process
server_process = multiprocessing.Process(target=httpd.serve_forever)
server_process.daemon = True
server_process.start()

# Getting HTML from the target page
values = {
    'name': 'Thomas Anderson',
    'location': 'unknown'
}

r = requests.post(URL, data=values)
r.text

# stop the server
server_process.terminate()