Python Paste: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 07:06, 10 May 2009

Revision as of 04:24, 31 July 2009

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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. Python code is passed a python representation of an HTTP request by an application, and in return passes back content which will normally eventually be rendered by a web browser. This Python code is called a '''WSGI application'''. 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. This is analogous to the function of pipes on Unix systems. Functionality provided by WSGI middleware include authentication, logging, [[url redirection]], creation of [[sessions]], and compression.