Python Web App Development Handbook: The Ultimate Guide

Magicminds

Magicminds Team

Posted On: 28 Nov 2023

8 min reads

Why Should You Prefer Python for Web Application Development?

Before knowing Python implementation steps, let’s briefly understand the competitive edge Python includes in web development. So, what’s the benefit of using Python in web development?

Code Readability

The most significant advantage of this programming language is its readable and straightforward syntax, making it quicker and easier for Python developers to write and build code, enhancing code’s readability. The intuitive and concise syntax supports developers to establish any concept in fewer code lines, streamlining the web development phase more efficiently.

Besides, Python is suitable for beginners and experienced developers to develop applications and websites easily.

Library and Framework Support

Python is enriched with extensive libraries and frameworks that simplify the development process, making it easier for developers. Popular Python frameworks, such as Django, Flask, Pyramid, and Bottle, are suitable for creating complex web applications with compelling features and stimulating web development productivity.

Seamless Scalability and Performance

Python is widely accepted for its seamless scalability and faster performance, which is empowered to handle extensive traffic of web applications. Python’s frameworks, such as Django, effectively concurrent requests and increase server resources.

Integration

Python can effortlessly integrate with other technologies and languages suitable for web development. It supports SQL databases, such as MySQL, PostgreSQL, SQLite, and NoSQL databases, such as MongoDB.

Community Support

Python is backed up by an extensive and active developers’ community that continuously extends their hand for any support. This community ensures junior developers or beginners with frameworks, libraries, and resources personalized to web development requirements. This extended support and development-driven tools make Python a widely accepted programming language for web applications.

More Testing and Debugging Tools

Python empowers developers with robust testing and debugging tools, such as unittest, pytest, and pdb, that ensure supreme testing and debugging capabilities, allowing developers to analyze bugs early and helping the application to be faster and error-free.

Last but not least, Python stimulates the web development phase. With its simple yet effective steps, developers can build any web application rapidly and hassle-freely.

Step-by-Step Guide to Develop Web Applications Using Python

Web applications are everywhere. If you look around, you can see from social media to eCommerce, web applications influence every sphere.

Now, what are the steps to build web applications using Python? You must be wondering about that. However, brace your heart as we have listed the steps to implement while curating web applications using Python. So, let’s delve deep into it.

Install Python

The first thing is first. You must consider installing Python on your system first. For that, you can visit the official website of Python and install the newest version of Python that aligns with your operating system. To complete the setup, you should strictly follow the instructions mentioned on the official site.

Go for the Development Environment

Hold on! Before you start with web application development, it is crucial to build a development environment. You can have a separate folder for the project and create virtual environments for isolating the dependencies.

The virtual environment is essential for project-oriented package maintenance while preventing disputes with other Python installations. Tools like virtualenv or Python’s in-built venv module are suitable for curating and managing virtual environments.

Select a Web Framework

Python comes with extensive and superior-quality frameworks, maximizing web application development. The most popular Python frameworks are Django, Flask, Pyramid, Bottle, and Tornado, which offer powerful tools that ultimately stimulate the development phase. Practice researching these frameworks extensively and understand which suits your project requirements best.

Install Dependencies

If your virtual environment is on, you can install the selected web framework and other needed dependencies using the package manager pip. For instance, when you are using the Django framework, please run ‘pip install Django’ to install it.

Go for the Designing Part

How can we avoid mentioning the importance of compelling design while starting with Python? For a successful web application development, solid designing is critical. You must create a wireframe, define user stories, and map out the web application’s infrastructure for a well-structured and built web application using Python.

Seamless Configure Setting

The web application must include a configuration file section incorporating your project specification settings, like database connectors, static files, and security options. You should locate and edit the configuration files for the preferred frameworks per your demands.

Define the Models

Models refer to the structure and relationship of your web application’s data. Framework, such as Django, supports a declarative syntax that is a doorway to database tables. Define the models to represent the data in your web application.

Seamless Database Integration

Python web frameworks are empowered with built-in support functionality for communicating with databases. Arrange the database connection settings in the framework’s configuration file folder and use Object Relational Mapping (ORM) techniques to connect with the database using the Python code.

Create Templates

Templates are essential to convey the concept of the web pages. Alluring templates are always welcome to design and engage the web application’s structure and presentation. And you can create views that manage request processing logic and generate responses. Clarify and modify your views for handling specific URL routes and connect them to the relatable templates.

URL Routes

Map and arrange URL route mechanisms that your web application incorporates. This ensures that the incoming URLs with specific views or functions are mapped within the application. Have clarity over the URL patterns to manage multiple routes and identify the relatable view or function for invoking.

Manage Form Submission and User Input

If the web application demands form submission and user input, you can use the framework’s features for managing form processing, validation, and data resolution.

Secure the Application

Python ensures the security and privacy of application data—for Python, security is paramount. Introduce user authentication and authorization steps to protect vital user data and control user access through Python’s authentication libraries. This mitigates data risks and prevents cyber attacks.

Apply Business Logic

Maintain proper documentation to write the essential code for incorporating the web application’s business logic. This process includes maintaining user authentication, applying business rules, data processing, and combining with external services or APIs.

Test, Test, and Test to Find Bug

Write test scenarios to ensure the functionalities and accuracy of the web application. This enhances and streamlines the application’s performance more than before. Python frameworks offer tools and testing frameworks, maximizing the testing procedure.

Besides, include debugging tools for detecting bugs and errors early while nipping them from the bud during development. So that it does not hamper the application’s functionality, providing an error-free and bug-free smooth application.

Seamless Deployment and Maintenance

So, we’ve come to the end, which is the deployment stage. Once your web application is built, go for a suitable application hosting environment and deploy the web application. Check if the server environment matches the required aspects, such as security, performance, scalability, reliability, etc.

Last but not least, be active on the web application and regularly update the application according to the needs, ensuring optimized application performance.

Different Web Application Development Frameworks—A Quick Look

Python has a wide range of web frameworks that support scalability and faster performance of web applications. Let’s check what are the popular frameworks of Python.

Django

Django is considered a high-quality framework well known for its ‘batteries included’ formula. Django offers ORM for database, URL route, form management, authentication, etc. Following the Model View Controller (MVC) architectural approach, it aids in developing complex web applications quickly using the functionality of the comprehensive tool.

Flask

Being a lightweight and flexible framework, Flask is often considered a micro-framework. Flask offers URL routes, rendering templates, request management, etc, making Python more suitable for developers to build an application’s structure swiftly. Flask prefers a minimalist idea and is suitable for curating small to medium-sized projects.

Pyramid

Powered by scalability, reliability, and flexibility, Pyramid is paramount in balancing simplicity in the application. It supports a minimalist approach, enabling developers to build applications with their required components effortlessly. Offering rendered templates, URL dispatch, cache, authentication tools, and internationalization, Pyramid is ideal for handling small to enterprise projects.

Bottle

Bottle supports easy learning and use, which makes this minimalist web framework preferable for managing small projects. Although it offers simplicity, Bottle can be used to get rendered templates, URL mapping, and manage HTTP requests and responses.

Tornado

Scalable yet robust, this web framework is the best choice for application performance and high-traffic management. Tornado is efficient in handling multiple connections and provides real-time functionality hassle-freely.

CherryPy

This framework offers a faster, scalable web application that is preferable for HTTP requests, URL mapping, and any session handling. Use CherryPy for a standalone server or collaborate with others to handle small to medium-sized projects and APIs.

Top Examples of Web Applications Built with Python

You would be surprised if we revealed the top web application example built with Python. Hold tight, and let’s explore the list.

Dropbox

dropbox content hosting

Dropbox is considered one of the most popular content hosting services worldwide. IOS, Android, Windows, Linux, and Mac adopt it.

Dropbox prefers Python for the client and server side, and it helps to evaluate the code lines smoothly, increasing the application’s productivity.

Instagram

instagram social media app

Instagram has used Python’s popular framework, named Django, for its high-quality image and video streaming features.

With Python, Instagram can check its servers swiftly, providing compelling and smooth user satisfaction, which helped this platform gain over 1.28 billion users worldwide.

Netflix

netflix ott platform

Adopting Python’s intuitiveness, flexibility, and scalable features, Netflix has acquired more than 220 million paid subscribers globally. If you analyze, Python is closely related to Netflix as Netflix developers make the most of Python using its machine-learning algorithms for providing tailored recommendations to users, security tools, and content distribution networks (CDN).

Besides, Netflix developers use Python libraries, like Pandas, NumPy, and SciPy, for streaming quality video content without interruption.

Uber

uber transport app

Uber is a famous global transport service provider and uses Python for its backend and front-end functionalities. For instance, using Python, this app can predict demand and supply, transport arrival and drop time, and road traffic and is good at handling extensive data.

Spotify

spotify music app

With 433 million active global users per month, Spotify is considered a giant in the music and podcast streaming realm. Those days are long gone when we used to depend on low-quality YouTube songs and downloading MP3s, and all thanks to Spotify for ensuring high-quality songs of the entire world with endless albums and brands. Spotify-dedicated developers have been using Python since June 2022 to develop infrastructure to run user forecasts.

Reddit is a popular platform for dank memes, cat videos, and tight-knit community connections and is considered the ‘front page’ of the internet. Reddit loves Python because of its readable and writable code format and ready-to-use libraries. Steve Huffman, Reddit’s co-founder, has admitted that they prefer Python for its extensive libraries, code reading, and writable features.

Bottom Line

Python is a robust programming language for building web applications and websites. With its flexible, readable, scalable, simple, and vast ecosystem, Python is a popular choice of dedicated developers worldwide. Being a solid foundation for web development, Python enables developers to curate enriched featured web applications efficiently.

Besides, if you need to hire a dedicated Python developer, you can reach us without any hesitation. So, do hire our extensive service and transform your web application today.