Which Python Framework for REST API and Facebook Wrapper?

Question

I will be designing a REST based API for a cross-platform back end that will serve both desktop Facebook users as well as mobile users. It will handle operations such as user creation, retrieval of user and other data, payment verification and in the case of the desktop side, handle the html/css template customization. The database back end is MySQL and I do need a cache system.

Currently we were using Codeigniter (PHP) for our codebase but as CI seems on the way out, I do not wish to start a new project based on it. I was looking at Laravel for PHP, but, Python is very attractive to me as a language and since the introduction of WSGI, I am confident it can make a difference in performance and code maintainability over PHP while being able to plug in to our dedicated server infrastructure.

Since I am not experienced with Python frameworks (though learning curve is not much of an issue for me) I look to the community to understand which Python framework can rival or surpass Codeigniter in terms of performance in heavy traffic backend solutions (over 1M requests per day, with up to 100 req/sec at peak). I really want to make the switch from PHP to Python as I believe that Python can solve more problems with less code and faster execution time, not to mention freedom from brackets and semicolons.

Answer 1

If you're looking for something simple, there are solutions like Flask (my favourite), CherryPy, Bottle, and web2py. (I only know the names of the last 3) I recommend taking a look into the likes of Flask, if only to familiarize yourself with some of the techniques of Python frameworks. Here's a basic Flask app:

from flask import Flask
app = Flask(__name__)

@app.route('/')
def main():
 return "Hey, I'm in a Flask!"

if __name__ == "__main__":
 app.run('0.0.0.0', port=5000, debug=True)

If you're looking for performance, Tornado (http://www.tornadoweb.org/en/stable/) I've heard is pretty awesome - though I've not put it through the paces myself.