I'm writing an application which runs within Apache and uses mod_python to provide basic authentication and return content to the user, something like:
import modpython .... def handler(): # main part of the application starts here ...
def authenhandler(): ... # Store information about the user in an object u = new User(req.user, pass)
I'd like to be able to pass the u object somehow from authenhandler to handler in an elegant fashion, but without using global variables (as I understand it these persist for the life of the child process which will be more than one request, which is not what I want, and could be a security hole).
I suppose that I could use session variables, but since this part of my application provides a WebDAV server, basic authentication credentials are passed on each request (so I don't really want to have to look after keeping track of sessions when I don't have to). I would rather not modify all my existing classes to support an extra parameter in their constructors.
What I'm really looking for is some sort of global dictionary like PHP's $REQUEST or $SESSION, which I can assign freely to during the life of the request *from anywhere in my application* and which gets cleaned up for me automatically afterwards. Does something like this exist in mod_python?
If the approach above isn't possible, what would your recommendations be for a solution to this issue?
Many thanks for your time, Andrew James -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
