I have a temperature logger that measures the records temperature values at specified time intervals. Currently I push these to a google spreadsheet but would like to display the values automatically on a web-page. 
I have no experience with anything to do with web-pages, except setting up a few Wordpress sites but am reasonably comfortable with C++, Python, Matlab and Java.
A complicating factor is that the machine is in a VPN, so that access it via SSH I need to join the VPN. 
I suspect the best way is to have a Python script that periodically send a up-to-date file to the web-server via ftp and then some script on the server that plots this. 
My initial though was to use Python via something like CGI to read the data and create a plot on the server. However, I have no idea what the best approach on the server side would be. Is it worth to learn some PHP? Or should I write a Java Applet? Or CGI is the way to go? 
Thank you for your help
Have a program monitor the file, either locally or via SSH.  Have that program push updates into your web backend, via HTTP API or such.
Best way to display real-time data from an SSH accesible file on webpage