Get python list in PHP

Question

I am looking for a way to obtain a Python list and display it on my website using PHP.

I've checked out and tried many online help-requests so I was hoping someone would be able to explain to me what it is I am doing wrong.

My Python script scrapes a website and puts the result in a Python list.

What I am trying to achieve is the following:

I want to display (a part) of the list on my website.

I've tried to accomplish this with the following code:

PHP

<?php

  $outputArray = [];
  $returnStatus;

  exec('python ./scrapeWebsite.py', $outputArray, $returnStatus);
  var_dump($outputArray);
  echo $returnStatus;

?>

Python:

print(newsHeadlines) -> returning a list like this: ['item 1','item 2','item 3','item 4']

However, the array comes back as array(0) { } and the $returnStatus value is 1.

Easiest thing to do would probably be to just dump JSON to disk from your Python script, and read that file from PHP — Brian
– Brian, Commented Mar 14, 2018 at 19:27
The output of your exec call is a string, not an array. So store the result in a string, then use PHP to cut it and make it an array, if you must (hint, PHP explode). — Nic3500
– Nic3500, Commented Mar 14, 2018 at 19:33
How about going directly to python instead of trying to cobble PHP into the middle? — Sammitch
– Sammitch, Commented Mar 14, 2018 at 22:57
A better, no-file reply using JSON: stackoverflow.com/questions/46226655/… — Alexei Rayu
– Alexei Rayu, Commented Jun 30, 2019 at 8:29

Lukas · Accepted Answer · 2018-03-15 11:45:39Z

Encoding the list with JSON and writing it to a file on the disk, and then reading the file in PHP and decoding JSON did the trick. To ensure the web-data is up-to-date I'm using exec(); to execute the python file.

If going full Python this is an option you could use.

To help others with a similar problem, this is the code I used:

Python:

myListJson = json.dumps(myList) #Encode our Python list into a JSON string

f = open("./fileName.txt", "w") #Open the file that we want to write to for write access

f.write(myListJson) #Write the JSON String to the file that we have currently open

f.close() #Close the file

PHP:

exec(python3 /path/to/file/script.py); //Will execute the python script, ensure the needed packages are installed on the **SERVER**.

$fileContents = file_get_contents("fileName.txt");

$decodedJson = json_decode($fileContents); //This will now contain your Array like any other PHP Array.

Thanks for the help!

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