#################################
Alternatives and related projects
#################################

This document presents other projects that provide similar or complementary
functionalities. It focuses on differences with django-downloadview.


*************************
Django's static file view
*************************

`Django has a builtin static file view`_. It can stream files. As explained in
Django documentation, it is designed for development purposes. For production,
static files'd better be served by some optimized server.

Django-downloadview can replace Django's builtin static file view:

* perform actions with Django when receiving download requests: check
  permissions, generate files, gzip, logging, signals...
* delegate actual download to a reverse proxy for increased performance.
* disable optimization middlewares or decorators in development, if you want to
  serve files with Django.


***************
django-sendfile
***************

`django-sendfile`_ is a wrapper around web-server specific methods for sending
files to web clients.

``django-senfile``'s main focus is simplicity: API is made of a single
``sendfile()`` function you call inside your views:

.. code:: python

   from sendfile import sendfile

   def hello_world(request):
	"""Send 'hello-world.pdf' file as a response."""
    	return sendfile(request, '/path/to/hello-world.pdf')

The download response type depends on the chosen backend, which could
be Django, Lighttpd's X-Sendfile, Nginx's X-Accel... depending your settings:

.. code:: python

   SENDFILE_BACKEND = 'sendfile.backends.nginx'  # sendfile() will return
                                                 # X-Accel responses.
   # Additional settings for sendfile's nginx backend.
   SENDFILE_ROOT = '/path/to'
   SENDFILE_URL = '/proxied-download'

Here are main differences between the two projects:

* ``django-sendfile`` supports only files that live on local filesystem (i.e.
  where ``os.path.exists`` returns ``True``). Whereas ``django-downloadview``
  allows you to serve or proxy files stored in various locations, including
  remote ones.

* ``django-sendfile`` uses a single global configuration (i.e.
  ``settings.SENDFILE_ROOT``), thus optimizations are limited to a single
  root folder. Whereas ``django-downloadview``'s
  ``DownloadDispatcherMiddleware`` supports multiple configurations.

As of 2012-04-11, ``django-sendfile`` (version 0.3.2) seems quite popular and
may be a good alternative **provided you serve files that live in a single
directory of local filesystem**.

:func:`django_downloadview.sendfile` is a port of django-sendfile's main function.


********************
django-private-files
********************

`django-private-files`_ provides utilities for controlling access to static
files based on conditions you can specify within your Django application.


**********************
django-protected-files
**********************

`django-protected-files`_ is a Django application that lets you serve protected
static files via your frontend server after authorizing the user against
``django.contrib.auth``.

As of 2012-12-10, this project seems inactive.


.. rubric:: References

.. target-notes::

.. _`Django has a builtin static file view`:
   https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/1.4/ref/contrib/staticfiles/#static-file-development-view
.. _`django-sendfile`: http://pypi.python.org/pypi/django-sendfile
.. _`requests`: https://pypi.python.org/pypi/requests
.. _`django-private-files`: http://pypi.python.org/pypi/django-private-files
.. _`django-protected-files`:
   https://github.com/lincolnloop/django-protected-files
