Run a Simple Web Server on Your Android Device

Productivity Sauce

A simple web server running on your Android device is a perfect solution for ad-hoc sharing and publishing files and documents, which can come in handy in many situations. You might be thinking that you need a dedicated app for that, but you can actually roll out a simple web server using a Python script containing only four lines of code. This nifty trick is possible thanks to the Scripting Layer for Android software which enables support for several scripting languages, including Lua, Perl, and Python. So before you can actually write a Python script that turns your Android device into a simple web server, you have to install the latest versions of the SL4A and PythonForAndroid APK packages. Use then a text editor to create a new text file and enter the following code in it:

import SimpleHTTPServer
from os import chdir
chdir('/sdcard/')
SimpleHTTPServer.test()

Save the file as simplehttpserver.py in the /sdcard/sl4a/scripts directory of your Android device. That's all there is to it. Run the script from within the SL4A app and point the browser on any machine on the same network as your Android device to http://127.0.0.1:8000 (replace 127.0.0.1 with the actual IP address of the Android device). You should see a page listing the contents of the SD card. So next time you need to quickly grab a file from your Android device, or you want to share documents with your colleagues, fire up the Python script, and Bob's your uncle.

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