xmlrpcserver is a small and lightweight XML-RPC server developed for the usage as a CGI script.
Normal webspace providers do not allow the implementation of socket servers or scripts running in an infinite loop. So the only possible solution to run a web service is to implement it as a CGI script which handles the requests when beeing called. more »

Python is a very powerful language and its features and syntax allow some tasks to be done in a more ellegant manner then with PHP (think about shell programms for example). So it might be a good thing to get a kind of integration or direct exchange with PHP (which also has its benefits, now doubt). The use of web services might be a good idea, but they would be an overkill in (smaller) applications. more »