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+.. _basics:
+
+Basics
+------
+
+The following sections will drive you through the basics of
+a CherryPy application, introducing some essential concepts.
+
+.. contents::
+   :depth:  4
+
+The one-minute application example
+##################################
+
+The most basic application you can write with CherryPy 
+involves almost all its core concepts.
+
+.. code-block:: python
+   :linenos:
+
+   import cherrypy
+   
+   class Root(object):
+       @cherrypy.expose
+       def index(self):
+           return "Hello World!"
+
+   if __name__ == '__main__':
+      cherrypy.quickstart(Root(), '/')
+
+
+First and foremost, for most tasks, you will never need more than
+a single import statement as demonstrated in line 1.
+
+Before discussing the meat, let's jump to line 9 which shows,
+how to host your application with the CherryPy application server
+and serve it with its builtin HTTP server at the `'/'` path. 
+All in one single line. Not bad.
+
+Let's now step back to the actual application. Even though CherryPy
+does not mandate it, most of the time your applications 
+will be written as Python classes. Methods of those classes will
+be called by CherryPy to respond to client requests. However,
+CherryPy needs to be aware that a method can be used that way, we
+say the method needs to be :term:`exposed`. This is precisely
+what the :func:`cherrypy.expose()` decorator does in line 4. 
+
+Save the snippet in a file named `myapp.py` and run your first
+CherryPy application:
+
+.. code-block:: bash
+
+   $ python myapp.py
+
+Then point your browser at http://127.0.0.1:8080. Tada!
+
+
+.. note::
+
+   CherryPy is a small framework that focuses on one single task: 
+   take a HTTP request and locate the most appropriate
+   Python function or method that match the request's URL. 
+   Unlike other well-known frameworks, CherryPy does not 
+   provide a built-in support for database access, HTML
+   templating or any other middleware nifty features. 
+
+   In a nutshell, once CherryPy has found and called an 
+   :term:`exposed` method, it is up to you, as a developer, to
+   provide the tools to implement your application's logic.
+
+   CherryPy takes the opinion that you, the developer, know best.
+
+.. warning::
+
+   The previous example demonstrated the simplicty of the
+   CherryPy interface but, your application will likely
+   contain a few other bits and pieces: static service,
+   more complex structure, database access, etc. 
+   This will be developed in the tutorial section.
+
+
+CherryPy is a minimal framework but not a bare one, it comes
+with a few basic tools to cover common usages that you would
+expect.
+
+Hosting one or more applications
+################################
+
+A web application needs an HTTP server to be accessed to. CherryPy
+provides its own, production ready, HTTP server. There are two
+ways to host an application with it. The simple one and the almost-as-simple one.
+
+Single application
+^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
+
+The most straightforward way is to use :func:`cherrypy.quickstart`
+function. It takes at least one argument, the instance of the 
+application to host. Two other settings are optionals. First, the
+base path at which the application will be accessible from. Second,
+a config dictionary or file to configure your application.
+
+.. code-block:: python
+
+   cherrypy.quickstart(Blog())
+   cherrypy.quickstart(Blog(), '/blog')
+   cherrypy.quickstart(Blog(), '/blog', {'/': {'tools.gzip.on': True}})
+
+The first one means that your application will be available at
+http://hostname:port/ whereas the other two will make your blog
+application available at http://hostname:port/blog. In addition,
+the last one provides specific settings for the application.
+
+.. note::
+
+   Notice in the third case how the settings are still 
+   relative to the application, not where it is made available at, 
+   hence the `{'/': ... }` rather than a `{'/blog': ... }`
+
+
+Multiple applications
+^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
+
+The :func:`cherrypy.quickstart` approach is fine for a single application,
+but lacks the capacity to host several applications with the server.
+To achieve this, one must use the :meth:`cherrypy.tree.mount <cherrypy._cptree.Tree.mount>` 
+function as follows:
+
+.. code-block:: python
+
+   cherrypy.tree.mount(Blog(), '/blog', blog_conf)
+   cherrypy.tree.mount(Forum(), '/forum', forum_conf)
+   
+   cherrypy.engine.start()
+   cherrypy.engine.block()
+
+Essentially, :meth:`cherrypy.tree.mount <cherrypy._cptree.Tree.mount>`  
+takes the same parameters as :func:`cherrypy.quickstart`: an :term:`application`, 
+a hosting path segment and a configuration. The last two lines 
+are simply starting application server.
+
+.. important::
+
+   :func:`cherrypy.quickstart` and :meth:`cherrypy.tree.mount <cherrypy._cptree.Tree.mount>` 
+   are not exclusive. For instance, the previous lines can be written as:
+
+   .. code-block:: python
+
+      cherrypy.tree.mount(Blog(), '/blog', blog_conf)
+      cherrypy.quickstart(Forum(), '/forum', forum_conf)
+
+.. note::
+   
+   You can also :ref:`host foreign WSGI application <hostwsgiapp>`.
+
+
+Logging
+#######
+
+Logging is an important task in any application. CherryPy will
+log all incoming requests as well as protocol errors.
+
+To do so, CherryPy manages two loggers:
+
+- an access one that logs every incoming requests 
+- an application/error log that traces errors or other application-level messages
+
+Your application may leverage that second logger by calling
+:func:`cherrypy.log() <cherrypy._cplogging.LogManager.error>`. 
+
+.. code-block:: python
+
+   cherrypy.log("hello there")
+
+You can also log an exception:
+
+.. code-block:: python
+
+   try:
+      ...
+   except:
+      cherrypy.log("kaboom!", traceback=True)
+
+Both logs are writing to files identified by the following keys
+in your configuration:
+
+- ``log.access_file`` for incoming requests using the 
+  `common log format <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_Log_Format>`_
+- ``log.error_file`` for the other log
+
+.. seealso::
+
+   Refer to the :mod:`cherrypy._cplogging` module for more
+   details about CherryPy's logging architecture.
+
+Disable logging
+^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
+
+You may be interested in disabling either logs.
+
+To disable file logging, simply set a en empty string to the 
+``log.access_file`` or ``log.error_file`` keys in your 
+:ref:`global configuration <globalsettings>`.
+
+To disable, console logging, set ``log.screen`` to `False`.
+
+
+Play along with your other loggers
+^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
+
+Your application may obviously already use the :mod:`logging`
+module to trace application level messages. CherryPy will not
+interfere with them as long as your loggers are explicitely
+named. This would work nicely:
+
+.. code-block:: python
+		
+    import logging
+    logger = logging.getLogger('myapp.mypackage')
+    logger.setLevel(logging.INFO)
+    stream = logging.StreamHandler()
+    stream.setLevel(logging.INFO)
+    logger.addHandler(stream)
+
+.. _config:
+
+Configuring
+###########
+
+CherryPy comes with a fine-grained configuration mechanism and 
+settings can be set at various levels.
+
+.. seealso::
+
+   Once you have the reviewed the basics, please refer
+   to the :ref:`in-depth discussion <configindepth>` 
+   around configuration.
+
+.. _globalsettings:
+
+Global server configuration
+^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
+
+To configure the HTTP and application servers, 
+use the :meth:`cherrypy.config.update() <cherrypy._cpconfig.Config.update>` 
+method.
+
+.. code-block:: python
+
+   cherrypy.config.update({'server.socket_port': 9090})
+
+The :mod:`cherrypy.config <cherrypy._cpconfig>` object is a dictionary and the 
+update method merges the passed dictionary into it.
+
+You can also pass a file instead (assuming a `server.conf`
+file):
+
+.. code-block:: ini
+
+   [global]
+   server.socket_port: 9090
+
+.. code-block:: python
+
+   cherrypy.config.update("server.conf")
+
+.. warning::
+
+   :meth:`cherrypy.config.update() <cherrypy._cpconfig.Config.update>`  
+   is not meant to be used to configure the application. 
+   It is a common mistake. It is used to configure the server and engine.
+
+.. _perappconf:
+
+Per-application configuration
+^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
+
+To configure your application, pass in a dictionary or a file 
+when you associate their application to the server.
+
+.. code-block:: python
+
+   cherrypy.quickstart(myapp, '/', {'/': {'tools.gzip.on': True}})
+
+or via a file (called `app.conf` for instance):
+
+.. code-block:: ini
+
+   [/]
+   tools.gzip.on: True
+
+.. code-block:: python
+
+   cherrypy.quickstart(myapp, '/', "app.conf")
+ 
+Although, you can define most of your configuration in a global
+fashion, it is sometimes convenient to define them
+where they are applied in the code.
+
+.. code-block:: python
+
+   class Root(object):
+       @cherrypy.expose
+       @cherrypy.tools.gzip()
+       def index(self):
+           return "hello world!"
+
+A variant notation to the above:
+
+.. code-block:: python
+
+   class Root(object):
+       @cherrypy.expose
+       def index(self):
+           return "hello world!"
+       index._cp_config = {'tools.gzip.on': True}
+
+Both methods have the same effect so pick the one
+that suits your style best.
+
+Additional application settings
+^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
+
+You can add settings that are not specific to a request URL
+and retrieve them from your page handler as follows:
+
+.. code-block:: ini
+		
+   [/]
+   tools.gzip.on: True
+
+   [googleapi]
+   key = "..."
+   appid = "..."
+   
+.. code-block:: python
+
+   class Root(object):
+       @cherrypy.expose
+       def index(self):
+           google_appid = cherrypy.request.app.config['googleapi']['appid']
+           return "hello world!"
+
+   cherrypy.quickstart(Root(), '/', "app.conf")
+
+
+Cookies
+#######
+
+CherryPy uses the :mod:`Cookie` module from python and in particular the
+:class:`Cookie.SimpleCookie` object type to handle cookies.
+
+- To send a cookie to a browser, set ``cherrypy.response.cookie[key] = value``.
+- To retrieve a cookie sent by a browser, use ``cherrypy.request.cookie[key]``.
+- To delete a cookie (on the client side), you must *send* the cookie with its
+  expiration time set to `0`:
+
+.. code-block:: python
+
+    cherrypy.response.cookie[key] = value
+    cherrypy.response.cookie[key]['expires'] = 0
+
+It's important to understand that the request cookies are **not** automatically
+copied to the response cookies. Clients will send the same cookies on every
+request, and therefore ``cherrypy.request.cookie`` should be populated each
+time. But the server doesn't need to send the same cookies with every response;
+therefore, ``cherrypy.response.cookie`` will usually be empty. When you wish
+to “delete” (expire) a cookie, therefore, you must set
+``cherrypy.response.cookie[key] = value`` first, and then set its ``expires``
+attribute to 0.
+
+Extended example:
+
+.. code-block:: python
+
+    import cherrypy
+
+    class MyCookieApp(object):
+        @cherrypy.expose
+        def set(self):
+            cookie = cherrypy.response.cookie
+            cookie['cookieName'] = 'cookieValue'
+            cookie['cookieName']['path'] = '/'
+            cookie['cookieName']['max-age'] = 3600
+            cookie['cookieName']['version'] = 1
+            return "<html><body>Hello, I just sent you a cookie</body></html>"
+
+        @cherrypy.expose
+        def read(self):
+            cookie = cherrypy.request.cookie
+            res = """<html><body>Hi, you sent me %s cookies.<br />
+                    Here is a list of cookie names/values:<br />""" % len(cookie)
+            for name in cookie.keys():
+                res += "name: %s, value: %s<br>" % (name, cookie[name].value)
+            return res + "</body></html>"
+
+    if __name__ == '__main__':
+        cherrypy.quickstart(MyCookieApp(), '/cookie')
+
+
+.. _basicsession:
+
+Using sessions
+##############
+
+Sessions are one of the most common mechanism used by developers to 
+identify users and synchronize their activity. By default, CherryPy
+does not activate sessions because it is not a mandatory feature
+to have, to enable it simply add the following settings in your
+configuration:
+
+.. code-block:: ini
+
+   [/]
+   tools.sessions.on: True
+
+.. code-block:: python
+
+   cherrypy.quickstart(myapp, '/', "app.conf")
+ 
+Sessions are, by default, stored in RAM so, if you restart your server
+all of your current sessions will be lost. You can store them in memcached
+or on the filesystem instead.
+
+Using sessions in your applications is done as follows:
+
+.. code-block:: python
+
+   import cherrypy
+  
+   @cherrypy.expose
+   def index(self):
+       if 'count' not in cherrypy.session:
+          cherrypy.session['count'] = 0
+       cherrypy.session['count'] += 1
+
+In this snippet, everytime the the index page handler is called,
+the current user's session has its `'count'` key incremented by `1`.
+
+CherryPy knows which session to use by inspecting the cookie
+sent alongside the request. This cookie contains the session
+identifier used by CherryPy to load the user's session from
+the storage.
+
+.. seealso::
+
+   Refer to the :mod:`cherrypy.lib.sessions` module for more
+   details about the session interface and implementation.
+   Notably you will learn about sessions expiration.
+
+Filesystem backend
+^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
+
+Using a filesystem is a simple to not lose your sessions
+between reboots. Each session is saved in its own file within
+the given directory. 
+
+.. code-block:: ini
+
+   [/]
+   tools.sessions.on: True
+   tools.sessions.storage_type = "file"
+   tools.sessions.storage_path = "/some/directorys"
+
+Memcached backend
+^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
+
+`Memcached <http://memcached.org/>`_ is a popular key-store on top of your RAM, 
+it is distributed and a good choice if you want to
+share sessions outside of the process running CherryPy.
+
+.. code-block:: ini
+
+   [/]
+   tools.sessions.on: True
+   tools.sessions.storage_type = "memcached"
+
+.. _staticontent:
+
+Static content serving
+######################
+
+CherryPy can serve your static content such as images, javascript and 
+CSS resources, etc. 
+
+.. note::
+
+   CherryPy uses the :mod:`mimetypes` module to determine the
+   best content-type to serve a particular resource. If the choice
+   is not valid, you can simply set more media-types as follows:
+
+   .. code-block:: python
+ 
+      import mimetypes
+      mimetypes.types_map['.csv'] = 'text/csv'
+
+
+Serving a single file
+^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
+
+You can serve a single file as follows:
+
+.. code-block:: ini
+
+   [/style.css]
+   tools.staticfile.on = True
+   tools.staticfile.filename = "/home/site/style.css"
+
+CherryPy will automatically respond to URLs such as 
+`http://hostname/style.css`.
+
+Serving a whole directory
+^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
+
+Serving a whole directory is similar to a single file:
+
+.. code-block:: ini
+
+   [/static]
+   tools.staticdir.on = True
+   tools.staticdir.dir = "/home/site/static"
+
+Assuming you have a file at `static/js/my.js`, 
+CherryPy will automatically respond to URLs such as 
+`http://hostname/static/js/my.js`.
+
+
+.. note::
+
+   CherryPy always requires the absolute path to the files or directories
+   it will serve. If you have several static sections to configure
+   but located in the same root directory, you can use the following 
+   shortcut:
+
+   
+   .. code-block:: ini
+
+      [/]
+      tools.staticdir.root = "/home/site"
+
+      [/static]
+      tools.staticdir.on = True
+      tools.staticdir.dir = "static"
+
+Allow files downloading
+^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
+
+Using ``"application/x-download"`` response content-type,
+you can tell a browser that a resource should be downloaded
+onto the user's machine rather than displayed.
+
+You could for instance write a page handler as follows:
+
+.. code-block:: python
+
+    from cherrypy.lib.static import serve_file
+
+    @cherrypy.expose
+    def download(self, filepath):
+        return serve_file(filepath, "application/x-download", "attachment")
+
+Assuming the filepath is a valid path on your machine, the 
+response would be considered as a downloadable content by
+the browser.
+
+.. warning::
+
+   The above page handler is a security risk on its own since any file
+   of the server could be accessed (if the user running the
+   server had permissions on them).
+
+
+Dealing with JSON
+#################
+
+CherryPy has built-in support for JSON encoding and decoding
+of the request and/or response.
+
+Decoding request
+^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
+
+To automatically decode the content of a request using JSON:
+
+.. code-block:: python
+
+   class Root(object):
+       @cherrypy.expose
+       @cherrypy.tools.json_in()
+       def index(self):
+           data = cherrypy.request.json
+
+The `json` attribute attached to the request contains
+the decoded content.
+
+Encoding response
+^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
+
+To automatically encode the content of a response using JSON:
+
+.. code-block:: python
+
+   class Root(object):
+       @cherrypy.expose
+       @cherrypy.tools.json_out()
+       def index(self):
+           return {'key': 'value'}
+
+CherryPy will encode any content returned by your page handler
+using JSON. Not all type of objects may natively be
+encoded.
+
+Authentication
+##############
+
+CherryPy provides support for two very simple authentication mechanisms,
+both described in :rfc:`2617`: Basic and Digest. They are most commonly
+known to trigger a browser's popup asking users their name
+and password.
+
+Basic
+^^^^^
+
+Basic authentication is the simplest form of authentication however
+it is not a secure one as the user's credentials are embedded into
+the request. We advise against using it unless you are running on
+SSL or within a closed network.
+
+.. code-block:: python
+
+   from cherrypy.lib import auth_basic
+
+   USERS = {'jon': 'secret'}
+
+   def validate_password(username, password):
+       if username in USERS and USERS[username] == password:
+          return True
+       return False
+
+   conf = {
+      '/protected/area': {
+          'tools.auth_basic.on': True,
+          'tools.auth_basic.realm': 'localhost',
+          'tools.auth_basic.checkpassword': validate_password
+       } 
+   }
+
+   cherrypy.quickstart(myapp, '/', conf)
+
+Simply put, you have to provide a function that will
+be called by CherryPy passing the username and password 
+decoded from the request.
+
+The function can read its data from any source it has to: a file,
+a database, memory, etc.
+
+
+Digest
+^^^^^^
+
+Digest authentication differs by the fact the credentials
+are not carried on by the request so it's a little more secure
+than basic.
+
+CherryPy's digest support has a similar interface to the 
+basic one explained above.
+
+.. code-block:: python
+
+   from cherrypy.lib import auth_digest
+
+   USERS = {'jon': 'secret'}
+
+   conf = {
+      '/protected/area': {
+           'tools.auth_digest.on': True,
+           'tools.auth_digest.realm': 'localhost',
+           'tools.auth_digest.get_ha1': auth_digest.get_ha1_dict_plain(USERS),
+           'tools.auth_digest.key': 'a565c27146791cfb'
+      }
+   }
+
+   cherrypy.quickstart(myapp, '/', conf)
+
+Favicon
+#######
+
+CherryPy serves its own sweet red cherrypy as the default 
+`favicon <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Favicon>`_ using the static file
+tool. You can serve your own favicon as follows:
+
+.. code-block:: python
+
+    import cherrypy
+
+    class HelloWorld(object):
+       @cherrypy.expose
+       def index(self):
+           return "Hello World!"
+
+    if __name__ == '__main__':
+        cherrypy.quickstart(HelloWorld(), '/',
+            {
+                '/favicon.ico':
+                {
+                    'tools.staticfile.on': True,
+                    'tools.staticfile.filename:' '/path/to/myfavicon.ico'
+                }
+            }
+        )
+
+Please refer to the :ref:`static serving <staticontent>` section
+for more details.
+
+You can also use a file to configure it:
+
+.. code-block:: ini
+
+    [/favicon.ico]
+    tools.staticfile.on: True
+    tools.staticfile.filename: "/path/to/myfavicon.ico"
+
+
+.. code-block:: python
+
+    import cherrypy
+
+    class HelloWorld(object):
+       @cherrypy.expose
+       def index(self):
+           return "Hello World!"
+
+    if __name__ == '__main__':
+        cherrypy.quickstart(HelloWorld(), '/', app.conf)