[mod_python] XMLHttpRequest + CGI + mod_python

On 8/10/06, Nando Drabik <nandogringo at gmail.com> wrote:
> I would like some help fixing the problem I am stuck in. To make this as
> short and simple as possible, it has mostly to do with the
> cgi.FieldStorage class. I have:
>
> 1) mod_python installed correctly on apache2
> 2) File test.py (resides under cgi-bin):
> 3) HTML file that sends out XMLHttpRequest from js
>
> test.py ===============================
> #!/usr/bin/env python
>
> import sys, re, cgi
> ...
> fields = cgi.FieldStorage()
> req = fields.getvalue("myVar") ##  THIS IS WHERE THE WHOLE THING CRAHSES

Do you realize that you are NOT using mod_python here?
What you have is a standard CGI script, not a mod_python
handler, and are using the standard Python "cgi" module.

On the surface realize when you type it on the Firefox URL bar,
it results in a GET request with the parameters URL-encoded
into the URL itself.

But your XMLHttpRequest is doing a POST.  However you
are just sending the data "myVar=10".  Normally posted
data should have the content type multipart/form-data.  Or
you need to set the content-type header appropriately.

The CGI FieldStorage can only handle multipart/form-data
and application/x-www-form-urlencoded.  If you're sending
raw JSON formatted text, then you can't expect to use the
FieldStorage classes.  You need to read and decode the
request body directly.
-- 
Deron Meranda