Apache server + python for building an application

This section details information about the usage of Apache server + python for building an application.

CGI - Common Gateway Interface

• Normally, when you click a URL, your browser (which is a HTTP client) contacts HTTP web server and demands for the URL i.e. filename. Web server parses the URL and looks for the filename. If it finds the file then it sends to the browser else returns error.
• It is possible to setup the HTTP server so that whenever a file in a certain directory is requested, it is not returned - instead it is executed as a program and the programs output is returned to the browser to display. This function is called Common Gateway Interface (CGI) and the programs are called CGI scripts which can be a python, perl, shell, C or C++ program.