Example of regex-based tornado handler. (Doesn't actually work, but you get the idea.) NB: the database here is mongo, not SQL

gistfile1.txt

class OpenTemplateHandler(tornado.web.RequestHandler):
    def get_current_user(self):
        return json.loads(self.get_secure_cookie("myapp-user"))

    def get(self, path):
        self.render(path+'.html')

class ApiHandler(BaseHandler):
    @tornado.gen.coroutine
    def get(self, path):
        db = self.settings["db"]

        if path == 'users':
            users = yield motor.Op(db.users.find().to_list)
            for u in users:
                self.write(MyEncoder().encode(u))
        
        elif path == 'objects':
            objects = yield motor.Op(db.objects.find().to_list)
            for a in objects:
                self.write(MyEncoder().encode(a))

application = tornado.web.Application(
    handlers = [
        (r"/", RedirectHandler, {'url':'/home'}),
        (r"/api/(.*?)/?", ApiHandler),
        (r"/(.*?)/?", OpenTemplateHandler),
    ],

    template_path=os.path.join(os.path.dirname(__file__), "html"),
    static_path=os.path.join(os.path.dirname(__file__), "html"),
    debug=True,
    autoescape=None,
    db=mongo_db,
    cookie_secret=auth.cookie_secret,

    login_url="/",
)