[mod_python] redirects and url rewriting

Daniel J. Popowich wrote:

> 
>>I think the best option for your problem is:
>>
>>req.headers_out[ "Location" ] = uri
>>return apache.HTTP_MOVED_PERMANENTLY #301 
>>
> 
> 
> This won't work for some of what I'm doing, i.e., user goes to a page
> that needs authentication so they are redirected to a login page
> (without having to save state to a session).  There are other similar
> situations where, programmatically, you discover that the user should
> be somewhere else within your mod_python app and you'd like to
> redirect them to other URIs which can check req.prev for existing
> state (thus saving network traffic, server hits, etc.  Heck, you got
> everything you need to know, why tell the client, "go here" when you
> can just deliver it in the first place?).
> 
> Also, being the kind of geek that needs to know how and why things
> work, I'd like to know why some redirects rewrite my browser url and
> some don't; ultimately, I'd like to be able to control the behaviour
> with mod_python.

I don't know why mod_python is behaving in the manner you describe, but 
I can tell you that a clear understanding of the HTTP protocol is needed 
here.

Browsers determine what to display in the address bar based on two 
things only: (1) the URL requested by a user (bookmark, address bar or 
some other UI mechanism), or (2) an HTTP Redirect: header returned by 
the server.

Without either of those, there is no way for the browser to know that 
the page requested at /foo/bar can be found in the future at /baz/quux.

--Michael