Unable to view files in a browser with python http server

Question

I am creating a python httpserver for a folder on remote machine using command :

python -m SimpleHTTPServer 9999

But I am unable to view a file in the browser using this. As soon as click on the link the file gets downloaded. Is there a way to create a server so that i can view the files in my browser only.

Answer 1

To make the browser open files inline instead of downloading them, you have to serve the files with the appropriate http Content headers.

What makes the content load inline in the browser tab, instead of as a download, is the header Content-Disposition: inline.

https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTTP/Headers/Content-Disposition

To add these headers, you you can subclass the default SimpleHTTPRequestHandler with a custom one.

This is how it can be done using python 3. You have to modify the imports and maybe some other parts if you have to use python 2.

Put it in a executable script file which you can call myserver.py and run it like so: ./myserver.py 9999

#!/usr/bin/env python3

from http.server import SimpleHTTPRequestHandler, test
import argparse


class InlineHandler(SimpleHTTPRequestHandler):

    def end_headers(self):
        mimetype = self.guess_type(self.path)
        is_file = not self.path.endswith('/')
        # This part adds extra headers for some file types.
        if is_file and mimetype in ['text/plain', 'application/octet-stream']:
            self.send_header('Content-Type', 'text/plain')
            self.send_header('Content-Disposition', 'inline')
        super().end_headers()

# The following is based on the standard library implementation 
# https://github.com/python/cpython/blob/3.6/Lib/http/server.py#L1195
if __name__ == '__main__':
    parser = argparse.ArgumentParser()
    parser.add_argument('--bind', '-b', default='', metavar='ADDRESS',
                        help='Specify alternate bind address '
                             '[default: all interfaces]')
    parser.add_argument('port', action='store',
                        default=8000, type=int,
                        nargs='?',
                        help='Specify alternate port [default: 8000]')
    args = parser.parse_args()
    test(InlineHandler, port=args.port, bind=args.bind)