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I want to put my Python web app on the PythonAnywhere App Store -so a non technical user can find it, install it on their own PythonAnywhere account and just run it.

Just like they do on their iThing etc. No big deal.

Just to be clear, I am not talking about a quick way for a programmer, (or budding programmer), to get some code running on PythonAnywhere with git push or whatever. I am talking about people who have no desire at all to code or tinker (imagine!) using PythonAnywhere like they use any other computer. Click swipe click. Leave the programming to Morlocks like us.

Before you say, "the proper way to do that is to use PythonAnywhere to deliver Software as a Service". I don't want to do that. I don't want to be a service provider.

Today I find myself writing a script to sort out a membership list for a friend's club (Excel of course -have these people not heard of Resolver One? ;->) . I would like to put together a little web app and hand it to them. I don't want to put myself in a position of supporting it forever -and I certainly don't want to send them off to acmeclubapps.com so they can get locked in, and subject their members to unknown privacy violations.

The ideal solution for me would be something like this..

1. I write a little web app on PythonAnywhere, wrap it up in some metadata, and put it on the PythonAnywhere app store

2. I give my friend an URL like pythonanywhere.com/signup_with_app?appid=zep394763

3. End of story (for me)

4. User goes through a different signup process, intended for non-technical people -the endpoint being a working instance of my app (as opposed to a development and hosting solution). If they already have a PythonAnywhere account, all the better.

5. If they need support some time, then you (dear forum reader) can be their $Red Hat$ (or White Knight).

If I overlooked the "add to app store" button (duh!) please direct me to it. If this rather obvious idea has been talked to death somewhere, my apologies for disturbing the body.

Hi Zep,

Thanks for the suggestion -- that's actually never been discussed before, but it's a really neat idea! One thing that we'd need to work out is how to set up the app properly. Obviously source code we could just copy across, but (for example) DB config might be a bit more tricky -- we'd need to know what files to update with the DB connection strings and where in the files to put them, and how to get the database to its initial state. I guess there would need to be some kind of app-specific prompts for the user too -- eg. admin username and password.

So plenty to think about, but still, it could be useful. I've added it to the list.

All the best,

Giles

This is a good idea

It's an interesting one, isn't it? Unfortunately there are a bunch of things that people have been keener on, like task queue support, async websites, and better support for Selenium/web-scraping, so it's unlikely to hit the top of our to-do list any time soon.