4.2 Overview of a Request Handler

A handler is a function that processes a particular phase of a request. Apache processes requests in phases - read the request, process headers, provide content, etc. For every phase, it will call handlers, provided by either the Apache core or one of its modules, such as mod_python which passes control to functions provided by the user and written in Python. A handler written in Python is not any different from a handler written in C, and follows these rules:

A handler function will always be passed a reference to a request object. (Throughout this manual, the request object is often referred to by the req variable.)

Every handler can return:

apache.OK, meaning this phase of the request was handled by this handler and no errors occurred.

apache.DECLINED, meaning this handler has not handled this phase of the request to completion and Apache needs to look for another handler in subsequent modules.

apache.HTTP_ERROR, meaning an HTTP error occurred. HTTP_ERROR can be any of the following:

    HTTP_CONTINUE                     = 100
    HTTP_SWITCHING_PROTOCOLS          = 101
    HTTP_PROCESSING                   = 102
    HTTP_OK                           = 200
    HTTP_CREATED                      = 201
    HTTP_ACCEPTED                     = 202
    HTTP_NON_AUTHORITATIVE            = 203
    HTTP_NO_CONTENT                   = 204
    HTTP_RESET_CONTENT                = 205
    HTTP_PARTIAL_CONTENT              = 206
    HTTP_MULTI_STATUS                 = 207
    HTTP_MULTIPLE_CHOICES             = 300
    HTTP_MOVED_PERMANENTLY            = 301
    HTTP_MOVED_TEMPORARILY            = 302
    HTTP_SEE_OTHER                    = 303
    HTTP_NOT_MODIFIED                 = 304
    HTTP_USE_PROXY                    = 305
    HTTP_TEMPORARY_REDIRECT           = 307
    HTTP_BAD_REQUEST                  = 400
    HTTP_UNAUTHORIZED                 = 401
    HTTP_PAYMENT_REQUIRED             = 402
    HTTP_FORBIDDEN                    = 403
    HTTP_NOT_FOUND                    = 404
    HTTP_METHOD_NOT_ALLOWED           = 405
    HTTP_NOT_ACCEPTABLE               = 406
    HTTP_PROXY_AUTHENTICATION_REQUIRED= 407
    HTTP_REQUEST_TIME_OUT             = 408
    HTTP_CONFLICT                     = 409
    HTTP_GONE                         = 410
    HTTP_LENGTH_REQUIRED              = 411
    HTTP_PRECONDITION_FAILED          = 412
    HTTP_REQUEST_ENTITY_TOO_LARGE     = 413
    HTTP_REQUEST_URI_TOO_LARGE        = 414
    HTTP_UNSUPPORTED_MEDIA_TYPE       = 415
    HTTP_RANGE_NOT_SATISFIABLE        = 416
    HTTP_EXPECTATION_FAILED           = 417
    HTTP_UNPROCESSABLE_ENTITY         = 422
    HTTP_LOCKED                       = 423
    HTTP_FAILED_DEPENDENCY            = 424
    HTTP_INTERNAL_SERVER_ERROR        = 500
    HTTP_NOT_IMPLEMENTED              = 501
    HTTP_BAD_GATEWAY                  = 502
    HTTP_SERVICE_UNAVAILABLE          = 503
    HTTP_GATEWAY_TIME_OUT             = 504
    HTTP_VERSION_NOT_SUPPORTED        = 505
    HTTP_VARIANT_ALSO_VARIES          = 506
    HTTP_INSUFFICIENT_STORAGE         = 507
    HTTP_NOT_EXTENDED                 = 510

As an alternative to returning an HTTP error code, handlers can signal an error by raising the apache.SERVER_RETURN exception, and providing an HTTP error code as the exception value, e.g.

raise apache.SERVER_RETURN, apache.HTTP_FORBIDDEN

Handlers can send content to the client using the req.write() method.

Client data, such as POST requests, can be read by using the req.read() function.

Note: The directory of the Apache Python*Handler directive in effect is prepended to the sys.path. If the directive was specified in a server config file outside any <Directory>, then the directory is unknown and not prepended.

An example of a minimalistic handler might be:

from mod_python import apache

def requesthandler(req):
    req.content_type = "text/plain"
    req.write("Hello World!")
    return apache.OK