diango app, mod_python, and httpd

How Django application could work with mod_python in a httpd server.

we need leverage on mod_python's AuthenHandler to implement a authentication provider for HTTPD server.  It will be used to providing authentication service on Proxy for the backend Plone site.

mod_python PythonAuthenHandler Implementation Based-on Session

The basic ideas, on session management on Database.

• set SESSION_COOKIE_AGE=1800, which is 30 minutes session time out!
• method authenhandler will get cookie value for SESSION_COOKIE_NAME (default is sessionid) from request!
• check the Sessions database to make sure the session is exist and valid:
• django.contrib.sessions.models.Session
• expire_date should not be the future from now.
• update the expire_date based on current date time, so user will keep get 30 minutes time out if they are keep working on this site.
• set up corn job to run the session clean up script at daily base!
  $ python manage.py cleanup
• introduced 2 Django settings attributes to set up the Plone authentication URL and the cookie name used by Plone session:
  - PLONEPROXY_AUTHEN_URL = 'http://local.host.name/Plone/login_form'
  - PLONEPROXY_COOKIE_NAME = '__ac'

How to debug mod_python program?

The directive PythonEnablePdb is designed for debuging mod_python program.  It has to use with HTTPD's -DONE_PROCESS option together.  Check the following link for more details:

http://www.modpython.org/live/current/doc-html/dir-other-epd.html

Using the default Django AuthenHandler

The following example is try to show how to use the default PythonAuthenHandler form Django to implement basic authentication for a proxy location.

ProxyRequests Off
ProxyPreserveHost On

<Proxy *>
 Order deny,allow
 Allow from all
</Proxy>

<Location /external/site>
    ProxyPass http://internal.host.name/external/site

    AuthType Basic
    AuthName "External Proxy"
    AuthUserFile /dev/null
    AuthBasicAuthoritative Off
    Require valid-user

    PythonAuthenHandler django.contrib.auth.handlers.modpython
    PythonOption DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE leocornus.django.ploneproxy.settings
    PythonDebug On
</Location>

References

• How to use Django with Apache and mod_python: http://docs.djangoproject.com/en/dev/howto/deployment/modpython/
• Authenticating against Django's user dtabase from Apache: http://docs.djangoproject.com/en/dev/howto/apache-auth/