Django — Middleware

What is Middleware?

Middleware is a framework of hooks into Django's request/response processing.

Built-in Middleware

# settings.py
MIDDLEWARE = [
    'django.middleware.security.SecurityMiddleware',
    'django.contrib.sessions.middleware.SessionMiddleware',
    'django.middleware.common.CommonMiddleware',
    'django.middleware.csrf.CsrfViewMiddleware',
    'django.contrib.auth.middleware.AuthenticationMiddleware',
    'django.contrib.messages.middleware.MessageMiddleware',
]

Custom Middleware

# myapp/middleware.py
class TimingMiddleware:
    def __init__(self, get_response):
        self.get_response = get_response
    
    def __call__(self, request):
        import time
        start_time = time.time()
        
        response = self.get_response(request)
        
        duration = time.time() - start_time
        print(f"Request took {duration:.2f} seconds")
        
        return response

Register Middleware

# settings.py
MIDDLEWARE = [
    'myapp.middleware.TimingMiddleware',
    # ... other middleware
]

Middleware Methods

Method	Description
init	Initialize with get_response
call	Process request and response
process_view	Before view execution
process_exception	Handle exceptions
process_template_response	Modify template response

Mini Practice

1. Create a simple middleware
2. Log request timing
3. Add custom headers
4. Register middleware in settings

Up Next

Continue with Security — Django's security features.