Running / Calling a Python Script in a LAMP based environment

Hi there,

You can call the Python script from PHP using shell_exec() or exec(), but you should be very careful. Running system commands from a web app has security implications.

But a basic example of this would be:

$output = shell_exec('python3 /var/www/app/scripts/export_pdf_to_docx.py 2>&1');

To let users download the DOCX, have the Python script save it to a secure, known directory, and then use PHP to serve the file using header():

$filepath = '/var/www/app/generated/output.docx';
if (file_exists($filepath)) {
    header('Content-Type: application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.wordprocessingml.document');
    header('Content-Disposition: attachment; filename="export.docx"');
    readfile($filepath);
    exit;
}

On the security side, make sure to always use absolute paths in both PHP and Python to avoid unexpected behavior.

Also, never, but really never, pass user input directly to the shell command.

You could also make sure the Python script can’t be modified by external users. For example, rRun the script under limited permissions, eg. avoid giving www-data full access to your system.

You can also store the generated files outside of your web root if possible.

Also double-check that your Droplet has Python, the required packages, and environment variables configured properly for the PDF SDK to work:

https://www.digitalocean.com/community/tutorials/how-to-install-python-3-and-set-up-a-programming-environment-on-an-ubuntu-20-04-server

- Bobby