How do i output a dynamically generated web page to a .html page instead of .py cgi page?

Question

So ive just started learning python on WAMP, ive got the results of a html form using cgi, and successfully performed a database search with mysqldb. I can return the results to a page that ends with .py by using print statements in the python cgi code, but i want to create a webpage that's .html and have that returned to the user, and/or keep them on the same webaddress when the database search results return.

thanks paul

edit: to clarify on my local machine, i see /localhost/search.html in the address bar i submit the html form, and receive a results page at /localhost/cgi-bin/searchresults.py. i want to see the results on /localhost/results.html or /localhost/search.html. if this was on a public server im ASSUMING it would return .../cgi-bin/searchresults.py, the last time i saw /cgi-bin/ directories was in the 90s in a url. ive glanced at addhandler, as david suggested, im not sure if thats what i want.

edit: thanks all of you for your input, yep without using frameworks, mod_rewrite seems the way to go, but having looked at that, I decided to save myself the trouble and go with django with mod_wsgi, mainly because of the size of its userbase and amount of docs. i might switch to a lighter/more customisable framework, once ive got the basics

Answer 1

First, I'd suggest that you remember that URLs are URLs and that file extensions don't matter, and that you should just leave it.

If that isn't enough, then remember that URLs are URLs and that file extensions don't matter — and configure Apache to use a different rule to determine that is a CGI program rather than a static file to be served up as is. You can use AddHandler to add a handler for files on the hard disk with a .html extension.

Alternatively, you could use mod_rewrite to tell Apache that …/foo.html means …/foo.py

Finally, I'd suggest that if you do muck around with what URLs look like, that you remove any sign of something that looks like a file extension (so that …/foo is requested rather then …/foo.anything).

As for keeping the user on the same address for results as for the request … that is just a matter of having the program output the basic page without results if it doesn't get the query string parameters that indicate a search term had been passed.