basic python http server

python simple http server

import BaseHTTPServer

class Handler(BaseHTTPServer.BaseHTTPRequestHandler):

    mappings = {'/' : {'GET' : 'test'}}

    def main_handler(self, method='GET'):
        # get request url (without url params) and remove trailing /
        request_url = self.path.split('?')[0].rstrip('/')

        try:
            method_name = self.mappings[request_url]['GET']
        except KeyError, e:
            # no mapping found for the request
            self.send_response(404)
            self.end_headers()
            return

        try:
            method = getattr(self, method_name)
            # set headers
            self.send_response(200)
            self.send_header('Content-type', 'application/xml')
            self.end_headers()
            # write response from called method
            self.wfile.write(method())
        except AttributeError, e:
            # method not found
            self.send_response(501)
            self.end_headers()
            return

    def do_GET(self):
        self.main_handler('GET')
        return

    def do_POST(self):
        self.main_handler('POST')
        return

    def test(self):
        return 'hello'


def run(context_path='', port=8000):

    server = BaseHTTPServer.HTTPServer((context_path, port), Handler)
    server.serve_forever()

if __name__ == '__main__':
    run()

Please note that in Python3 BaseHTTPServer 3 has been renamed to http.server.
A short update for Python3 could be:

import http.server as BaseHTTPServer

class Handler(BaseHTTPServer.BaseHTTPRequestHandler):
...

   BaseHTTPServer.HTTPServer((context_path, port), Handler)