Simple Web Application for Embedded Device

I have an embedded device running a full version of Debian. I need to create a web accessible application that resides on the device which manages the entries in my application's conf开发者_StackOverflowiguration file on the device. Think of it as a UI for my console application.

Since the device runs Debian I can use the Apache server along with Python, Perl, PHP, etc. However, I am fairly new to the Apache/Linux world and was wondering what the best way to design this application would be.

For instance, if I am hosting a website on the device should the web app just call a CGI running on the device that goes off onto the Linux OS and updates my settings. I know there's probably not one right way to do it. I just don't want to do it the wrong way.

It's an uncommon problem (in web development circles) so there's no real 'wrong way'. I've done it in the past with thttpd and a custom CGI script (written in C); this was a great solution as it took very little flash space.

It sounds like you've got a lot of resources (memory and disk) to play with, so something like Webmin may save you some dev time.

Take a look at Morfik.

There is no "correct" way and you will get a thousand responses from different people.

If you have lot of resources just use Apache and a CGI in Python. This is the quick, easy but not very secure solution.

If performance is a problem and resources are limited use WT as Duck suggested.

Also you should perform a search on embedded/Debian/linux sites/forums because somebody might have already created exactly what you need ( = 0 effort for you)