CherryPy Static Server

readme.md

Readymade CherryPy static server, for development purposes.

Use this when your Django development server just doesn't cut, and you're too lazy to install XAMPP/Apache.

I wrote this server when I started working with HTML5

So, I wrote this server, and added a URL redirect inside my Django app to serve all video content through CherryPy (instead of Django) ... and VOILA! Everything worked!

Baking instructions:

1. Install CherryPy: pip install cherrypy or easy_install cherrypy

2. Make sure it's installed: python -c 'import cherrypy'

3. You can edit the listening URL/port inside the source file.

4. The root directory is the directory where you executed the script.

Eating instructions:

Just execute the file on your shell/terminal: python cherrypy_static_server.py

cherrypy_static_server.py

#!/usr/bin/env python
"""Static file server, using Python's CherryPy. Should be used when Django's static development server just doesn't cut."""
import cherrypy
from cherrypy.lib.static import serve_file

import os.path

class Root:
    @cherrypy.expose
    def index(self, name):
        return serve_file(os.path.join(static_dir, name))

if __name__=='__main__':
    static_dir = os.path.dirname(os.path.abspath(__file__))  # Root static dir is this file's directory.
    print "\nstatic_dir: %s\n" % static_dir

    cherrypy.config.update( {  # I prefer configuring the server here, instead of in an external file.
            'server.socket_host': '0.0.0.0',
            'server.socket_port': 8001,
        } )
    conf = {
        '/': {  # Root folder.
            'tools.staticdir.on':   True,  # Enable or disable this rule.
            'tools.staticdir.root': static_dir,
            'tools.staticdir.dir':  '',
        }
    }

    cherrypy.quickstart(Root(), '/', config=conf)  # ..and LAUNCH ! :)

What's 'name' in the serve_file method?

"4. The root directory is the directory where you executed the script."

Isn't it actually the directory where the script is located? If it was the directory where you executed the script, I think the code would have to be os.path.abspath(os.getcwd())

Also, the code can be made slightly simpler:

import os
import cherrypy

class Root(object):
    pass       

if __name__ == '__main__':
    root = os.path.dirname(os.path.abspath(__file__))  # this file's directory
    # root = os.path.dirname(os.path.abspath(os.getcwd()))  # directory script was run from

    cherrypy.config.update( {  # I prefer configuring the server here, instead of in an external file.
        'server.socket_host': '0.0.0.0',
        'server.socket_port': 8001,
    } )
    conf = {
        '/': {
            'tools.staticdir.on': True,
            'tools.staticdir.dir': root,
            'tools.staticdir.index': 'index.html'
        }
    }
    cherrypy.quickstart(Root(), '/', conf)

Very nice.
Inspired me to make my own: https://gist.github.com/LukeMS/82d10289faaf223030644d02d576346e