[Chicago] Using WSGI as middleware for CGI

[Ian Bicking]

Andrew Wilson wrote:
> Hey, guys,
> 
> Okay, crazy thought. I need to implement a site-wide authentication 
> mechanism, which for usability reasons *must* be cookie based. But 
> *sigh* most 3rd-party software really, really prefers HTTP auth. For our 
> own applications, I intend to implement a WSGI middleware application 
> that transforms cookie information into information on what user is 
> logged in (if any). This works great for our own web apps, and also for 
> decently behaved Python ones ( e.g. Trac).
> 
> BUT. I am forced (by time limits) to use non-Python web applications 
> that run over CGI or FCGI.
> 
> Is there any way I can re-use my WSGI application as middleware in 
> between my webserver (ligghtpd) and a standard CGI script (again, 
> translating cookie information into the appropriate CGI information for 
> http auth login)?

Of course, WSGI can do everything!  There's paste.cgiapp, which wraps 
CGI applications in a WSGI interface.  There's also past.proxy, which 
has a few options for proxying to other apps (but there's no standard 
for how you send the auth data -- but you could set a header and make 
your non-Python app read that header).  There's also wphp.fcgiapp, which 
sends a request over FastCGI to an already-started server process.  And 
wphp, which wraps all that up for running PHP apps specifically.

-- 
Ian Bicking | ianb at colorstudy.com | http://blog.ianbicking.org
             | Write code, do good | http://topp.openplans.org/careers