Tutorials to process spreadsheet via web page

Python Help
1

I’m trying to learn how to do a project as detailed at Can Python read/write XML and Excel XLSX files?. Basically I want to drag a spreadsheet to a web page and have a python read and process it. In another program the user will drag 5-10 XML files to the web page and the Python program will process those and write a spreadsheet.

My background:

  • I’m a total noob to web development but I’ve been programming in Perl for 20 years. Thus I know almost nothing about setting up anything related to networking setting up a web page and web app. It was never a part of my job.
  • I have a Windows 10 Pro laptop.
  • I do not have access to any security settings for network stuff.
  • I have access to an Azure account and a Sandbox subscription where I may be able to set up a web page.
  • On Azure I do not know if I need to use an Azure web app, an Azure function, or something else to do this.
  • I have found sites with Python tutorials, but which ones are better and are more clear for a noob?
  • I have an account on Udemy and a small budget. I have an account on Coursera also.
  • I have found the Microsoft tutorials and docs have no help if something goes wrong so those are generally not usable.
  • Linkedin tutorials have never been detailed enough based on the ones I’ve seen. The tutorials are just overviews, not technical training. I am looking for technical training.
  • I’d prefer the minimum tutorial to get my project working without tons of extra stuff I will never user.
  • I do not have access to change roles or permissions in our Active Directory on Azure. All tutorials I have found on Udemy require full access to the AD.

Thank you!

2

Okay. Here’s a quick summary of what you’ll need.

  1. To handle drag and drop, you need some client-side JavaScript. You could bypass that by using a standard <form><input type=file><input type=submit></form> construct, but drag and drop will (I believe) always require JS.
  2. A Python web application. Look into web frameworks like Flask and Django, and how they accept uploaded files.
  3. The processing work, which will be the XML/XSLX reading and writing from the other thread
  4. Some way of returning the results. Possibly part of the same web app, as a downloadable file.

That should be a starting point for your research. None of this is overly difficult, and with two decades of experience, you should be able to pick it up, but expect to spend a good while hacking away at “hello world” for each of those components for a while. I’d start with the web app and go on from there.

1 Like
3

Hello,

try the book Learning Python, 5th Edition by Mark Lutz. It is a pretty thorough introductory
book to Python.

for this, try the book Programming Python, 4th Edition, also by Mark Lutz. This deals
with Python applications including files and networking which is what you are interested in.

Chapter 12
This chapter introduces Internet concepts and options, presents Python low-level network tools such as sockets, and covers client and server basics.
Chapter 13
This chapter shows you how your scripts can use Python to access common clientside network protocols like FTP, email, HTTP, and more.
Chapter 14
This chapter uses the client-side email tools covered in the prior chapter, as well as the GUI techniques of the prior part, to implement a full-featured email client.
Chapter 15
This chapter introduces the basics of Python server-side Common Gateway Interface (CGI) scripts—a kind of program used to implement interactive websites.
Chapter 16
This chapter demonstrates Python website techniques by implementing a webbased email tool on a server, in part to compare and contrast with Chapter 14’s non-web approach.

I am also learning Python and using these books. In my experience, these books present the material in a nice coherent manner.

Hope this helps you.