How to Embed a Python Interpreter in Your Website? – Be on the Right Side of Change (original) (raw)

Want to make your website more interactive? Embed a Python interpreter into your website!

Why?

Because an embedded Python interpreter not only increases the interactivity and usability of your website — and creates happy users for your web business. It also increases the average time spent on your website because people will try out things.

So it’s actually a good idea in terms of “search engine optimization” because Google and other search engines track the time spent on your site and use it as a ranking criterion.

How to Embed a Python Interpreter on Your Website?

• Go to https://trinket.io. Wait until the page is fully loaded (it may take a few seconds).
• Scroll down a bit until you reach the embedded Python interpreter.
• Type in the Python code you would like to embed on your website.
• Click the menu item </> Embed.
• Copy and paste the code <iframe> ... </iframe> into your website.

Here’s a small visual guide on how to do this:

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Next, we’ll dive into more tools and more details to help you figure it out.

As you’re a Python coder, I’m sure you want to know about the technical details of embedding a Python interpreter on your website — how does it work? And where’s the code running? Can it crash your server? The answers to these questions are given below.

How Does an Embedded Python Interpreter Look Like?

Here’s an example of an embedded Python interpreter:

Try it yourself. You can modify the code in the embedded interpreter. Then, you can run and play around with the code. (Can you find the bug?)

How to Embed a Python Interpreter Like This in HTML?

The previous embedded Python interpreter was created with the awesome web service Trinket.io.

Simply follow the step-by-step guide to embed your own Trinket interpreter in WordPress or any other web framework that allows you to modify the HTML code.

• Visit Trinket.io and wait until the website is fully loaded (it may take a few seconds before the interpreter appears).
• Scroll down until you see the interpreter, and modify the code as you please.
• Now click on the arrow down and click the “Embed” button as shown in the following graphic:

• The code to be embedded into your HTML website looks something like this:

• Just copy and paste this code snippet into your own website.

How Does Embedding a Python Interpreter Work Technically?

The code execution actually happens on your user’s machine in JavaScript.

This may confuse you: it executes Python code in JavaScript? Exactly! The reason is that any browser can natively execute JavaScript (but not Python).

Also, this prevents users from running malicious code on your web server like the following:

import os os.system("rm -rf .")

If you would allow the user to run code on your web server, they can easily hack your server and remove all the data (or even send it to their own server).

Therefore, it is much more secure to run the Python code on your user’s machine using the powerful browser capabilities of running JavaScript code.

This way, malicious user Alice can neither hack your server through an attacking technique called cross-site scripting that allows her to execute code on your server nor can she perform a DDoS attack executing hundreds of thousands of dummy programs from hundreds of thousands of virtual machines she controls.

What Tools Exist to Embed Code Into Your HTML Website?

These are all the tools that allow you to embed code into your HTML website: 👇

• Trinket.io – An online platform for coding in various languages, with a focus on education and collaboration.
• Repl.it – An online coding environment that allows you to write, run, and collaborate on code in various languages, including Python, JavaScript, and HTML/CSS.
• Brython – A Python implementation that runs in the browser and allows you to write and execute Python code directly on a web page.
• Skulpt – Another Python implementation that runs in the browser and allows you to execute Python code directly on a web page, with a focus on supporting Python 3 syntax.
• PyPy Sandbox – A secure and isolated environment for running untrusted Python code, often used in testing and code analysis.
• CreateWithCode – An educational program that teaches game development and coding using the Unity game engine and C#.

You can also use other tools. One great tool which I just discovered is repl.it. Here’s what it looks like:

You can share the code snippet or embed it using an HTML iframe. Just copy&paste the embed code into your own website. It works just like Trinket.io.

Here’s one such embedded Python interpreter:

Another powerful tool to embed your own interpreter with pre-initialized code is Brython. Like the other tools, it’s entirely based on JavaScript so there’s no code being executed on your own server.

The best tool I found is createwithcode:

Where to Go From Here?

If you have a Python website, you better know how to write Pythonic code. Many trolls hate reading non-Pythonic code. They will come after you. 😉

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