====Python (Method)====

The **python** method is a [[style|function method]] that launches a Python script in response to an API request and returns any information that the script writes to the console.

===Additional Info.json Parameters===

This method requires a **path** parameter - this is the path to the Python script. This path can include [[substitutions|substitutions]].

===Captured Output===

To allow for diagnostic and debugging messages, the output returned to the user is split by separators. By default, this is a set of four minus-signs ('----').

If these separators are present in the output of your program, only the text after the **last separator** will be sent.

So in the following output...

<code>
Hello World
Sending Query....
Running Analytics...
----
Time, Value
10:00:00,10
10:00:10,11
10:00:20,12
</code>

...only the lower half (from 'Time,Value') would actually be sent to the user.

If there are no separators found, the system returns the full output of your script.

===How It Works===

For this method, the user-provided parameters are converted into a JSON file. The full path of this file is then sent as the first parameter of your script.

For example, the following info.json file...

<code>
{
    "name": "Testing",
    "method": "python",
    "path": "[ROOT]/myscript.py",
    "parameters": [{ 
             "name": "Message",
             "type": "string", 
             "tag": "msg",
             "default": "Hello World"
    }].
   "folder": "Testing"
}
</code>

...would result in the following steps if it was called with the default parameter values.

===Building the Input File===

The following file would be created and saved to a temporary file at **mytempfile.json** (this is a simplified file name for ease-of-reading).

<code>
{
   "msg": "Hello World"
}
</code>

===Calling the Function===

The python code would then be run with the following command...

<code>
python c:\ARDI\web\sites\default\functions\testing.py mytempfile.json
</code>

===Capturing Output===

The output of the function would then be captured and sent to the user. 

In more advanced scenarios, some [[style scripts]] might also be run to help translate the output between formats such as JSON to XML.