Deploying matlab app on the web using python

Question

Hi I want to deploy a matlab application on the web using python. Is there a way to do it.I have converted my application into jar files (java classes) as per the documentation on math works site. Can someone point me in the right direction to go ahead

Answer 1

The fact that your Matlab code is packaged up as Jars may not help that much here, at least not with pure Python.

There are a few ways you can take code written in Java and expose it to Python.

Jython

If you are willing to give Jython a shot this may be a really easy way to provide a Django interface to your jars.

Basically you'll get to write a normal Django App and also use Jython to work natively with your Jars. This could be the best of both worlds assuming you aren't tied to CPython.

Django-Jython

Java Compatibility Interfaces

On CPYTHON either of the following projects will help you work with the code in your Jar files:

• JCC: Create a Python extension module that wraps your Jar file
• JPype: Provides an API for running the JVM and calling into code running in that JVM from Python.

Separate Process:

If you have a standalone program written in Matlab (really any language) you could execute it as a child process of your Django application. You'd look into a simple web form in Django that allowed you to submit values to be inputs to this process and then in your view (after validating the form) you'd do something like:

command = "mymatlabprogram.exe %s"%(arg1,)
process = subprocess.Popen(command.split())
stdout, stderr = process.communicate()

Assuming that worked you could pull answers out of stdout or error messages out of stderr. You could serve an image created by that process, etc. Once something like this is working you could look into celeryd to extract the subprocess stuff from your web app.

The advantage of working with a separate process is that you isolate bugs in your Matlab code from breaking your web application and vice versus. The disadvantage is you have to serialize everything and work with multiple times between the client's browser and your web app, between the web app and the executable, and back to the client.