Python Paste: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 20:04, 4 May 2010

Revision as of 08:36, 2 June 2010

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To understand the function of paste it is first necessary to understand WSGI middleware.

The [[Web Server Gateway Interface|WSGI]] standard is an interface that allows applications to use Python code to handle HTTP requests. A '''WSGI application''' is passed a Python representation of an HTTP request by an application, and is returnedreturns content which will normally eventually be rendered by a web browser. A common use for this is when a [[web server]] serves content created by Python code.

There are, however, other uses: '''WSGI middleware''' is Python code that receives a WSGI request and then performs logic based upon this request, before passing the request on to a WSGI application or more WSGI middleware. WSGI middleware appears to an application as a server, and to the server as an application. This is analogous to the function of [[Pipeline_(Unix)|pipes on Unix systems]]. Functionality provided by WSGI middleware may include authentication, logging, [[url redirection]], creation of [[sessions]], and compression.