third_party/Paste/docs/developer-features.txt

Features
========

Testing
-------

* A fixture for testing WSGI applications conveniently and in-process,
  in :class:`paste.fixture.TestApp`

* A fixture for testing command-line applications, also in
  :class:`paste.fixture.TestFileEnvironment`

* Check components for WSGI-compliance in :mod:`paste.lint`

* Check filesystem changes, with :mod:`paste.debug.fsdiff`

Server
------

* A threaded HTTP server in :mod:`paste.httpserver`

* A tool for seeing and killing errant threads in the HTTP server, in
  :mod:`paste.debug.watchthreads`

Dispatching
-----------

* Chain and cascade WSGI applications (returning the first non-error
  response) in :mod:`paste.cascade`

* Dispatch to several WSGI applications based on URL prefixes, in
  :mod:`paste.urlmap`

* Allow applications to make subrequests and forward requests
  internally, in :mod:`paste.recursive`

* Redirect error pages (e.g., 404 Not Found) to custom error pages, in
  :mod:`paste.errordocument`.

Web Application
---------------

* Easily deal with incoming requests and sending a response in
  :mod:`paste.wsgiwrappers`

* Work directly with the WSGI environment in :mod:`paste.request`

* Run CGI programs as WSGI applications in :mod:`paste.cgiapp`

* Traverse files and load WSGI applications from ``.py`` files (or
  static files), in :mod:`paste.urlparser`

* Serve static directories of files, also in :mod:`paste.urlparser`; also
  serve using the Setuptools ``pkg_resources`` resource API.

* Proxy to other servers, treating external HTTP servers as WSGI
  applications, in :mod:`paste.proxy`.

* Serve files (with support for ``If-Modified-Since``, etc) in
  :mod:`paste.fileapp`

Tools
-----

* Catch HTTP-related exceptions (e.g., ``HTTPNotFound``) and turn them
  into proper responses in :mod:`paste.httpexceptions`

* Manage HTTP header fields with :mod:`paste.httpheaders`

* Handle authentication/identification of requests in :mod:`paste.auth`

* Create sessions in :mod:`paste.session` and :mod:`paste.flup_session`

* Gzip responses in :mod:`paste.gzipper`

* A wide variety of routines for manipulating WSGI requests and
  producing responses, in :mod:`paste.request`, :mod:`paste.response` and
  :mod:`paste.wsgilib`.

* Create Apache-style logs in :mod:`paste.translogger`

* Handy request and response wrappers in :mod:`paste.wsgiwrappers`

* Handling of request-local module globals sanely in :mod:`paste.registry`

Authentication
--------------

* Authentication using cookies in :mod:`paste.auth.cookie` and
  :mod:`paste.auth.auth_tkt`; login form in :mod:`paste.auth.form`

* Authentication using `OpenID <http://openid.net/>`_ in
  :mod:`paste.auth.open_id`, using `CAS
  <http://www.ja-sig.org/products/cas/>`_ in :mod:`paste.auth.cas`

* HTTP authentication in :mod:`paste.auth.basic` and
  :mod:`paste.auth.digest`

* Dispatch to different authentication methods based on User-Agent, in
  :mod:`paste.auth.multi`

* Grant roles based on IP addresses, in :mod:`paste.auth.grantip`

Debugging Filters
-----------------

* Catch (optionally email) errors with extended tracebacks (using
  Zope/ZPT conventions) in :mod:`paste.exceptions`

* During debugging, show tracebacks with information about each stack
  frame, including an interactive prompt that runs in the individual
  stack frames, in :mod:`paste.evalexception`.

* Catch errors presenting a `cgitb
  <http://python.org/doc/current/lib/module-cgitb.html>`_-based
  output, in :mod:`paste.cgitb_catcher`.

* Profile each request and append profiling information to the HTML,
  in :mod:`paste.debug.profile`

* Capture ``print`` output and present it in the browser for
  debugging, in :mod:`paste.debug.prints`

* Validate all HTML output from applications using the `WDG Validator
  <http://www.htmlhelp.com/tools/validator/>`_, appending any errors
  or warnings to the page, in :mod:`paste.debug.wdg_validator`

Other Tools
-----------

* A file monitor to allow restarting the server when files have been
  updated (for automatic restarting when editing code) in
  :mod:`paste.reloader`

* A class for generating and traversing URLs, and creating associated
  HTML code, in :mod:`paste.url`

* A small templating language (for internal use) in
  :mod:`paste.util.template`

* A class to help with loops in templates, in :mod:`paste.util.looper`

* Import modules and objects given a string, in
  :mod:`paste.util.import_string`

* Ordered dictionary that can have multiple values with the same key,
  in :mod:`paste.util.multidict`