Interactive Ipython Notebooks on Heroku

Question

I am currently trying to make python tutorials and host them using an ipython notebook on a Heroku site. The problem is that ipython notebooks are static when uploaded. I am trying to make it such that the user can use the notebook interactively. I also dont want the output from their notebooks to be saved permanently on the Heroku website.

Can anyone please help me with this?

Answer 1

From what I understand, you have 2 issues do deal with :

interactive notebooks
"read only" notebooks (do not save the modifications)
 

For issue 1, you need to use a jupyter server. Only showing the notebook is not enough because you need a server to "understand" and execute the modifications. See : http://jupyter-notebook.readthedocs.io/en/latest/public_server.html

According to me, issue 2 is more difficult to solve.

When the "learners" will change the notebook, the modifications will be applied to the notebook file (.ipnb) so the modifications will be persistent... This is not want you want.

You could try some tricks using file permissions to prevent the kernel to save the file, but I think it would only crash the kernel.