Python HTTP Server Serves Two Paths Using Different Kinds of Handlers

Question

From other SO posts, it's clear how to serve content from a specific directory , and how to map an incoming path to different do_GET handlers .

To expand on the second question in a way relating to the first, how do you map paths to different kinds of handlers? Specifically, I'd like to map one path to do_GET handler, and another to just serving the content from a specific directory.

If it is not possible, what's the easier way to serve the two different kinds of contents? I know the two could be run on the server in two threads each serving a different port, that's not very neat.

Answer 1

I've got an answer by tracking the code from the first reference question answered by Jaymon , and incorporating the code from the second reference question .

The sample follows. It serves content on the local machine from the directory web/ to the URL base path /file/ , and handles requests with URL base path /api in the user-supplied method do_GET() itself. Initially the code was derived from a sample on the web by Dr. Axel Rauschmayer .

#!/usr/bin/env python
# https://2ality.com/2014/06/simple-http-server.html
# https://stackoverflow.com/questions/39801718/how-to-run-a-http-server-which-serves-a-specific-path

from SimpleHTTPServer import SimpleHTTPRequestHandler
from BaseHTTPServer import HTTPServer as BaseHTTPServer
import os

PORT = 8000

class HTTPHandler(SimpleHTTPRequestHandler):
    """This handler uses server.base_path instead of always using os.getcwd()"""
    def translate_path(self, path):
        if path.startswith(self.server.base_url_path):
            path = path[len(self.server.base_url_path):]
            if path == '':
                path = '/'
        else:
            #path = '/'
            return None
        path = SimpleHTTPRequestHandler.translate_path(self, path)
        relpath = os.path.relpath(path, os.getcwd())
        fullpath = os.path.join(self.server.base_local_path, relpath)
        return fullpath
    def do_GET(self):
        path = self.path
        if (type(path) is str or type(path) is unicode) and path.startswith('/api'):
            # call local handler
            self.send_response(200)
            self.send_header('Content-type', 'text/html')
            self.end_headers()
            # Send the html message
            self.wfile.write("<b> Hello World !</b>")
            self.wfile.close()
            return
        elif (type(path) is str or type(path) is unicode) and path.startswith(self.server.base_url_path):
            return SimpleHTTPRequestHandler.do_GET(self)
        elif (type(path) is str or type(path) is unicode) and path.startswith('/'):
            self.send_response(441)
            self.end_headers()
            self.wfile.close()
            return
        else:
            self.send_response(442)
            self.end_headers()
            self.wfile.close()
            return

Handler = HTTPHandler
Handler.extensions_map.update({
    '.webapp': 'application/x-web-app-manifest+json',
});

class HTTPServer(BaseHTTPServer):
    """The main server, you pass in base_path which is the path you want to serve requests from"""
    def __init__(self, base_local_path, base_url_path, server_address, RequestHandlerClass=HTTPHandler):
        self.base_local_path = base_local_path
        self.base_url_path = base_url_path
        BaseHTTPServer.__init__(self, server_address, RequestHandlerClass)

web_dir = os.path.join(os.path.dirname(__file__), 'web')
httpd = HTTPServer(web_dir, '/file', ("", PORT))

print "Serving at port", PORT
httpd.serve_forever()