CherryPy - Introduction

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CherryPy is a web framework of Python which provides a friendly interface to the HTTP protocol for Python developers. It is also called a web application library.

CherryPy uses Python’s strengths as a dynamic language to model and bind HTTP protocol into an API. It is one of the oldest web frameworks for Python, which provides clean interface and reliable platform.

History of CherryPy

Remi Delon released the first version of CherryPy in late June 2002. This was the starting point of a successful Python web library. Remi is a French hacker who has trusted Python for being one of the greatest alternatives for web application development.

The project developed by Remi attracted a number of developers who were interested in the approach. The approach included the following features −

  • CherryPy was close to the model-view-controller pattern.

  • A CherryPy class has to be processed and compiled by the CherryPy engine to produce a self-contained Python module embedding the complete application and also its own built-in web server.

  • CherryPy can map a URL and its query string into a Python method call, for example −

http://somehost.net/echo?message=hello would map to echo(message='hello')

During the two years of development in CherryPy project, it was supported by the community and Remi released several improved versions.

In June 2004, a discussion started about the future of the project and whether it should continue with the same architecture. Brainstorming and discussion by several project regulars then led to the concept of object-publishing engine and filters, which soon became a core part of CherryPy2.Later, in October 2004, the first version of CherryPy 2 alpha was released as a proof of concept of these core ideas. CherryPy 2.0 was a real success; however, it was recognized that its design could still be improved, and needed refactoring.

After discussions based on feedbacks, CherryPy's API was further modified to improve its elegance, leading to the release of CherryPy 2.1.0 in October 2005. After various changes, the team released CherryPy 2.2.0 in April 2006.

Strengths of CherryPy

The following features of CherryPy are considered as its strengths −

Simplicity

Developing a project in CherryPy is a simple task with few lines of code developed as per the conventions and indentations of Python.

CherryPy is also very modular. The primary components are well managed with correct logic concept and parent classes are expandable to child classes.

Power

CherryPy leverages all the power of Python. It also provides tools and plugins, which are powerful extension points needed to develop world-class applications.

Open-source

CherryPy is an open-source Python Web Framework (licensed under the open-source BSD license), which means this framework can be used commercially at ZERO cost.

Community Help

It has a devoted community which provides complete support with various types of questions and answers. The community tries to give complete assistance to the developers starting from the beginner level to the advanced level.

Deployment

There are cost effective ways to deploy the application. CherryPy includes its own production-ready HTTP server to host your application. CherryPy can also be deployed on any WSGI-compliant gateway.

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