Using web2py Python framework for creating data-driven web applications in the academic library

Purpose – Many libraries have a need to develop their own data-driven web applications, but their technical staff often lacks the required specialized training – which includes knowledge of SQL, a web application language like PHP, JavaScript, CSS, and jQuery. The web2py framework greatly reduces the learning curve for creating data-driven websites by focussing on three main goals: ease of use; rapid development; and security. web2py follows a strict MVC framework where the controls and web templates are all written in pure Python. No additional templating language is required. The paper aims to discuss these issues. Design/methodology/approach – There are many frameworks available for creating database-driven web applications. The author had used ColdFusion for many years but wanted to move to a more complete web framework which was also open source. Findings – After evaluating a number of Python frameworks, web2py was found to provide the best combination of functionality and ease of use. This paper foc...