Contents:

The whiffenv module
Environment instruction entries
STATUS = "whiff.status"
HEADERS = "whiff.headers"
CONTENT_TYPE = "whiff.content_type"
DO_FILTER = "whiff.filter"
PARSE_CGI = "whiff.parse_cgi"
PARSE_CGI_GET = "whiff.parse_cgi_get"
PARSE_CGI_POST = "whiff.parse_cgi_post"
CGI_PREFIX = "whiff.cgi_prefix"
STRIP = "whiff.strip"
NAME = "whiff.name"
Environment information entries
ROOT = "whiff.root"
RESOURCES = "whiff.resources"
TEMPLATE_PATH = "whiff.template_path"
TEMPLATE_URL = "whiff.template_url"
TIME_STAMP = "whiff.time_stamp"
ERROR_WRAPPER = 'whiff.error_wrapper'
ENTRY_POINT = "whiff.entry_point"
RESPONDING_PATH = "whiff.responding_path"
PATH_REMAINDER = "whiff.path_remainder"
CGI_DICTIONARY = "whiff.cgi"
TOP_CGI_DICTIONARY = "whiff.top_cgi"
SOURCE_PATH = "whiff.source_path"
FULL_CGI_PREFIX = "whiff.full_cgi_prefix"

WHIFF writes and reads special entries in the WSGI execution environment dictionary. The entries read by WHIFF are environment instructions which tell WHIFF what to do. Entries written by WHIFF are environment information provided by WHIFF for use by the application.

The whiffenv module

The whiff.whiffenv module lists the string names and Python symbolic names for all special environment entries used by the primary whiff infrastructure (but individual middlewares and resources not part of the primary infrastructure use other entries not described here also).

In the description below we list entries from this module using the notation

To show both the symbolic name (for use within python programs) and the string name (for use within configuration templates).

Environment instruction entries

The following entries may be set by an application or configuration to instruct the WHIFF infrastructure to change its behavior.

STATUS = "whiff.status"

This string overrides the default HTTP status of "200 OK", if set.

HEADERS = "whiff.headers"

This list of pairs of strings specifies additional HTTP headers to add to the HTTP response headers.

CONTENT_TYPE = "whiff.content_type"

This string lists the content type to report in the HTTP response headers. If this is not specified WHIFF will use the default "text/html".

DO_FILTER = "whiff.filter"

This boolean flag if set to false will suppress the use of an automatic filter middleware.

PARSE_CGI = "whiff.parse_cgi"

This boolean flag if set to true will cause the WHIFF interpreter to parse both CGI GET and CGI POST parameters from the incoming request for the configuration template.

PARSE_CGI_GET = "whiff.parse_cgi_get"

This boolean flag if set to true will cause the WHIFF interpreter to parse both CGI GET parameters from the incoming request for the configuration template.

PARSE_CGI_POST = "whiff.parse_cgi_post"

This boolean flag if set to true will cause the WHIFF interpreter to parse both CGI POST parameters from the incoming request for the configuration template.

CGI_PREFIX = "whiff.cgi_prefix"

This string, if set, specifies a prefix to use to differentiate the CGI parameters intended for this page fragment from those intended for other page fragments.

STRIP = "whiff.strip"

This boolean flag, if set, will cause WHIFF to strip leading and trailing whitespace from configuration template output. This is very important when the output may be a binary file such as a JPEG image or PDF document.

NAME = "whiff.name"

This string, if set, specifies a variable name to use as a default by middlewares that require a variable name such as ifdef.

Environment information entries

The following environment entries will be set by WHIFF to provide the client WSGI application with useful objects and other information.

ROOT = "whiff.root"

This provides the WHIFF root resolver object used for determining the mapping between URLs and applications.

RESOURCES = "whiff.resources"

This provides the WHIFF resource monitor object used for translating resource paths to resource objects.

TEMPLATE_PATH = "whiff.template_path"

This list of strings gives the path used to locate the most recent configuration template.

TEMPLATE_URL = "whiff.template_url"

This URL gives the URL used to locate the most recent configuration template.

TIME_STAMP = "whiff.time_stamp"

This number provides the system time in fractional seconds for the server. This is useful for debugging, among other uses.

ERROR_WRAPPER = 'whiff.error_wrapper'

This flag, if set, indicates that an error wrapper middleware will handle any uncaught exceptions from the application.

ENTRY_POINT = "whiff.entry_point"

This string provides the server relative URL associated with the initial HTTP request. This is useful, for example, for "forms" that need to "loop back to the same page".

RESPONDING_PATH = "whiff.responding_path"

This list of strings provides the sequence of path names used to locate the present application.

PATH_REMAINDER = "whiff.path_remainder"

This list of strings provids any additional unresolved path names not used in the process of locating the present application.

CGI_DICTIONARY = "whiff.cgi"

This dictionary of strings to lists of strings provides the localized cgi parameters for the application (only after the parameters have been parsed).

TOP_CGI_DICTIONARY = "whiff.top_cgi"

This dictionary of strings to lists of strings provides the global cgi parameters for the web request (only after the parameters have been parsed).

SOURCE_PATH = "whiff.source_path"

This string lists a file path associated with the most recent configuration template.

FULL_CGI_PREFIX = "whiff.full_cgi_prefix"

This string lists the catenation of the prefixes for all parents of the present application and the cgi prefix for the current application.