Pylons Project is an
open-source
Open source is source code that is made freely available for possible modification and redistribution. Products include permission to use the source code, design documents, or content of the product. The open-source model is a decentralized so ...
organization that develops a set of web application technologies written in
Python. Initially the project was a single web framework called Pylons, but after the merger with the repoze.bfg framework under the new name Pyramid, the Pylons Project now consists of multiple related web application technologies.
Pyramid
Pyramid is an
open source
Open source is source code that is made freely available for possible modification and redistribution. Products include permission to use the source code, design documents, or content of the product. The open-source model is a decentralized so ...
web framework
A web framework (WF) or web application framework (WAF) is a software framework that is designed to support the development of web applications including web services, web resources, and web APIs. Web frameworks provide a standard way to build an ...
written in
Python and is based on
WSGI
The Web Server Gateway Interface (WSGI, pronounced ''whiskey'' or ) is a simple calling convention for web servers to forward requests to web applications or frameworks written in the Python programming language. The current version of WSGI, ...
. It is a
minimalistic Minimalism is a movement in visual arts, music, and other media that began in post–World War II Western art.
Minimalism may also refer to:
*Minimalism (computing), a philosophy of programming and configuring computers
*Minimalism (philosophy), ...
web framework inspired by
Zope
Zope is a family of free and open-source web application servers written in Python, and their associated online community. Zope stands for "Z Object Publishing Environment", and was the first system using the now common object publishing methodol ...
,
Pylons
Pylon may refer to:
Structures and boundaries
* Pylon (architecture), the gateway to the inner part of an Ancient Egyptian temple or Christian cathedral
* Pylon, a support tower structure for suspension bridges or highways
* Pylon, an orange mar ...
and
Django.
Originally called "repoze.bfg", Pyramid gathered attention mostly in the
Zope
Zope is a family of free and open-source web application servers written in Python, and their associated online community. Zope stands for "Z Object Publishing Environment", and was the first system using the now common object publishing methodol ...
and
Plone
Plone is a free and open source content management system (CMS) built on top of the Zope application server. Plone is positioned as an enterprise CMS and is commonly used for intranets and as part of the web presence of large organizations. Hi ...
community as the
Open Society Institute
Open Society Foundations (OSF), formerly the Open Society Institute, is a grantmaking network founded and chaired by business magnate George Soros. Open Society Foundations financially supports civil society groups around the world, with a st ...
's KARL project migrated from Plone to BFG.
In 2010 it was announced that the Pylons framework will move over to using BFG as a base in version 1.5.
As a result of the inclusion of BFG into the Pylons project, BFG was renamed Pyramid.
Features
Pyramid is a minimalistic,
platform-independent
In computing, cross-platform software (also called multi-platform software, platform-agnostic software, or platform-independent software) is computer software that is designed to work in several computing platforms. Some cross-platform software r ...
web framework. It is persistence agnostic and is integrated both with SQL databases via
SQLAlchemy and with the
Zope Object Database
The Zope Object Database (ZODB) is an object-oriented database for transparently and persistently storing Python objects. It is included as part of the Zope web application server, but can also be used independently of Zope.
Features of the ZOD ...
, as well as other
NoSQL
A NoSQL (originally referring to "non- SQL" or "non-relational") database provides a mechanism for storage and retrieval of data that is modeled in means other than the tabular relations used in relational databases. Such databases have existed ...
databases, such as
CouchDB
Apache CouchDB is an open-source document-oriented NoSQL database, implemented in Erlang.
CouchDB uses multiple formats and protocols to store, transfer, and process its data. It uses JSON to store data, JavaScript as its query language using ...
.
Pyramid allows developers to define routes using
regular expressions
A regular expression (shortened as regex or regexp; sometimes referred to as rational expression) is a sequence of characters that specifies a search pattern in text. Usually such patterns are used by string-searching algorithms for "find" o ...
that map to objects. Like its fellow framework Zope, Pyramid also allows hierarchical object traversal, where each part of a
URL is an object containing other objects, in a way that is similar to folders in a filesystem.
Pylons Web Framework
Pylons Framework is an
open-source
Open source is source code that is made freely available for possible modification and redistribution. Products include permission to use the source code, design documents, or content of the product. The open-source model is a decentralized so ...
Web application framework
A web framework (WF) or web application framework (WAF) is a software framework that is designed to support the development of web applications including web services, web resources, and web APIs. Web frameworks provide a standard way to build an ...
written in
Python. It makes extensive use of the Web Server Gateway Interface standard to promote reusability and to separate functionality into distinct modules.
[The ]mod_wsgi
mod_wsgi is an Apache HTTP Server module by Graham Dumpleton that provides a WSGI compliant interface for hosting Python based web applications under Apache. As of version 4.5.3, mod_wsgi supports Python 2 and 3 (starting from 2.6 and 3.2).
It ...
br>project
includes both Pylons and Pyramid in its list of supported major Python web frameworks. It is strongly influenced by
Ruby on Rails
Ruby on Rails (simplified as Rails) is a server-side web application framework written in Ruby under the MIT License. Rails is a model–view–controller (MVC) framework, providing default structures for a database, a web service, and we ...
: two of its main components, Routes and WebHelpers, are Python reimplementations of Rails features.
Structure
Pylons is well known for having a near-complete stack of third-party tools, eschewing the
"not-invented-here" phenomenon.
Installation, dependencies, and setup
The official installation method of Pylons is through
EasyInstall
setuptools is a package development process library designed to facilitate packaging Python projects by enhancing the Python standard library (distribution utilities). It includes:
*Python package and module definitions
*Distribution package m ...
via the
Python Package Index
The Python Package Index, abbreviated as PyPI () and also known as the Cheese Shop (a reference to the ''Monty Python's Flying Circus'' sketch " Cheese Shop"), is the official third-party software repository for Python. It is analogous to the C ...
(PyPI), and most of the additional tools are typically installed the same way. EasyInstall also handles package dependencies when relevant. Some distributions could also package Pylons and
Paste, but it is likely that any distribution's packages would lag the official distribution. Pylons may also be installed by hand by renaming its .egg file to .zip and extracting the contents.
Paste is used for project setup, testing, and deployment. Using the common
INI configuration format, Paste allows for multiple "profiles", so that developers can run development and deployment setups from the same codebase without revealing sensitive parts of Pylons, such as the interactive debugger, to production users.
URL dispatch
Currently the only widely used URL dispatcher for Pylons is Routes, a Python reimplementation of Ruby on Rails' URL dispatching, although any WSGI-compatible URL dispatcher can be used. While Routes is a separate library, it was developed for use in Pylons and its development remains closely in sync with Pylons.
HTML generation
Another piece of Rails adapted for Pylons is WebHelpers, which provides URL mapping based on the Routes configuration. WebHelpers also provides some utility functions for generating
JavaScript
JavaScript (), often abbreviated as JS, is a programming language that is one of the core technologies of the World Wide Web, alongside HTML and CSS. As of 2022, 98% of websites use JavaScript on the client side for webpage behavior, of ...
code making use of the
script.aculo.us
The Prototype JavaScript Framework is a JavaScript framework created by Sam Stephenson in February 2005 as part of Ajax support in Ruby on Rails. It is implemented as a single file of JavaScript code, usually named prototype.js. Prototype is dist ...
and
Prototype
A prototype is an early sample, model, or release of a product built to test a concept or process. It is a term used in a variety of contexts, including semantics, design, electronics, and software programming. A prototype is generally used to ...
libraries.
FormEncode and FormBuild are used for HTML form validation and generation; there has been some use of
Mako for form generation using Mako's inheritance model.
Templating
Myghty was the default Pylons templating language, but as of version 0.9.6 it has been replaced by
Mako. Both templating languages are text-based (as opposed to
XML
Extensible Markup Language (XML) is a markup language and file format for storing, transmitting, and reconstructing arbitrary data. It defines a set of rules for encoding documents in a format that is both human-readable and machine-readable. T ...
-based), and support includes, inheritance and embedding arbitrary Python code.
Because of Pylons' loosely coupled layers, other templating languages can be used as well.
Genshi, an XML-based templating language, can be used in lieu of either Mako or Myghty.
[Genshi Wik]
Pylons with Genshi
Retrieved July 5, 2007
Database abstraction and object-relational mapping
Pylons has no default database library. Both
SQLObject and SQLAlchemy are known to be used.
Merger with repoze.bfg and birth of Pyramid Web Framework
Pylons has developed into the Pylons Project, and the old code from Pylons 1.0 is now in maintenance-only mode. However, pursuant to the project's merger with repoze.bfg since November 2010, newer versions of Pylons are actually different from the original Pylons 1.0. Pylons developers initially planned to rewrite certain portions of the code, but they observed that the new code was approximating repoze.bfg, which led to the merger of Pylons and repoze.bfg.
[Pylons Project FAQ. URL: https://pylonsproject.org/about-pylons-project.html][Notes on the Pylons and repoze.bfg merger. URL: ] This led to repoze.bfg (a part of the Repoze Python-based web framework) to become rebranded and relaunched as the Pyramid web framework.
[About Pyramid. URL: https://trypyramid.com/]
See also
*
Django (web framework)
Django ( ; sometimes stylized as django) is a free and open-source, Python-based web framework that follows the model–template–views (MTV) architectural pattern. It is maintained by the Django Software Foundation (DSF), an independent o ...
*
FastAPI
*
Flask (web framework)
*
Web2py
Web2py is an open-source web application framework written in the Python programming language. Web2py allows web developers to program dynamic web content using Python. Web2py is designed to help reduce tedious web development tasks, such a ...
*
TurboGears
TurboGears is a Python web application framework consisting of several WSGI components such as WebOb, SQLAlchemyKajikitemplate language and Repoze.
TurboGears is designed around the model–view–controller (MVC) architecture, much like Stru ...
: a derivative project, built on top of Pylons
*
Tornado
A tornado is a violently rotating column of air that is in contact with both the surface of the Earth and a cumulonimbus cloud or, in rare cases, the base of a cumulus cloud. It is often referred to as a twister, whirlwind or cyclone, alt ...
*
Comparison of web frameworks Two comparisons of web frameworks are available:
* Comparison of JavaScript-based web frameworks (front-end)
* Comparison of server-side web frameworks
This is a comparison of notable web frameworks, software used to build and deploy web applic ...
References
Further reading
*
External links
*
{{Web frameworks
Cross-platform free software
Free software programmed in Python
Python (programming language) software
Python (programming language) web frameworks
fr:Pyramid (framework)
ru:Pyramid (программный каркас)