Best practice for integrating UI and dynamic user-specific content using a Flask app

I am building a website that uses a recommendation system. Users submit a form which is sent to the backend for the recommendation logic calculation; the recommendation response is sent back to the server and the recommendations are shown to the user. I’m doing this for a personal project and I have the main workflow mapped and complete, except for the UI part. Since the recommendations differ per user, I am struggling with choosing an approach for the UI as there seems to be many ways of going about it. For example, these two options came to my mind – and I’m sure there’s more: • Return HTML from my backend which would be directly displayed on the website. • Trigger a function on the server side from the Python app. For example, have a function in PHP on the server that would create the desired output and which would be called from the app. Both options have their advantages and disadvantages regarding criteria such as, ease of implementation, speed, and security. However, as a novice in the field, I would like to know what do the professionals suggest. Hence my question is: how should I integrate the backend and the UI; and how do professional websites tackle this issue of dynamically creating content based on user parameters; is there a clear “go-to” approach? Just for completeness, I’m using Wordpress and Elementor for hosting and for the UI; PHP on the server side, and a Python Flask app on the backend. Also, to reiterate, I am able to successfully communicate between my webpage, the server, and the Flask app.

Feb 24, 2025 - 15:08

I am building a website that uses a recommendation system. Users submit a form which is sent to the backend for the recommendation logic calculation; the recommendation response is sent back to the server and the recommendations are shown to the user.

I’m doing this for a personal project and I have the main workflow mapped and complete, except for the UI part. Since the recommendations differ per user, I am struggling with choosing an approach for the UI as there seems to be many ways of going about it. For example, these two options came to my mind – and I’m sure there’s more:

• Return HTML from my backend which would be directly displayed on the website.

• Trigger a function on the server side from the Python app. For example, have a function in PHP on the server that would create the desired output and which would be called from the app.

Both options have their advantages and disadvantages regarding criteria such as, ease of implementation, speed, and security. However, as a novice in the field, I would like to know what do the professionals suggest.

Hence my question is: how should I integrate the backend and the UI; and how do professional websites tackle this issue of dynamically creating content based on user parameters; is there a clear “go-to” approach?

Just for completeness, I’m using Wordpress and Elementor for hosting and for the UI; PHP on the server side, and a Python Flask app on the backend. Also, to reiterate, I am able to successfully communicate between my webpage, the server, and the Flask app.