Fixed #689 -- Added a middleware and authentication backend to contrib.auth for supporting external authentication solutions. Thanks to all who contributed to this patch, including Ian Holsman, garthk, Koen Biermans, Marc Fargas, ekarulf, and Ramiro Morales.

git-svn-id: http://code.djangoproject.com/svn/django/trunk@10063 bcc190cf-cafb-0310-a4f2-bffc1f526a37

3 files changed, 44 insertions, 6 deletions

diff --git a/docs/ref/authbackends.txt b/docs/ref/authbackends.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..941152733a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/docs/ref/authbackends.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,37 @@
+.. _ref-authentication-backends:
+
+==========================================
+Built-in authentication backends reference
+==========================================
+
+.. module:: django.contrib.auth.backends
+   :synopsis: Django's built-in authentication backend classes.
+
+This document details the authentication backends that come with Django. For
+information on how how to use them and how to write your own authentication
+backends, see the :ref:`Other authentication sources section
+<authentication-backends>` of the :ref:`User authentication guide
+<topics-auth>`.
+
+
+Available authentication backends
+=================================
+
+The following backends are available in :mod:`django.contrib.auth.backends`:
+
+.. class:: ModelBackend
+
+    This is the default authentication backend used by Django.  It
+    authenticates using usernames and passwords stored in the the
+    :class:`~django.contrib.auth.models.User` model.
+
+
+.. class:: RemoteUserBackend
+
+    .. versionadded:: 1.1
+
+    Use this backend to take advantage of external-to-Django-handled
+    authentication.  It authenticates using usernames passed in
+    :attr:`request.META['REMOTE_USER'] <django.http.HttpRequest.META>`.  See
+    the :ref:`Authenticating against REMOTE_USER <howto-auth-remote-user>`
+    documentation.
diff --git a/docs/ref/index.txt b/docs/ref/index.txt
index c54cd20954..3ffa1fcce1 100644
--- a/docs/ref/index.txt
+++ b/docs/ref/index.txt
@@ -5,7 +5,8 @@ API Reference
 
 .. toctree::
    :maxdepth: 1
-   
+
+   authbackends
    contrib/index
    databases
    django-admin
@@ -19,4 +20,3 @@ API Reference
    signals
    templates/index
    unicode
-   
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/docs/ref/request-response.txt b/docs/ref/request-response.txt
index fcf4523218..cd0edc063c 100644
--- a/docs/ref/request-response.txt
+++ b/docs/ref/request-response.txt
@@ -138,6 +138,7 @@ All attributes except ``session`` should be considered read-only.
         * ``QUERY_STRING`` -- The query string, as a single (unparsed) string.
         * ``REMOTE_ADDR`` -- The IP address of the client.
         * ``REMOTE_HOST`` -- The hostname of the client.
+        * ``REMOTE_USER`` -- The user authenticated by the web server, if any.
         * ``REQUEST_METHOD`` -- A string such as ``"GET"`` or ``"POST"``.
         * ``SERVER_NAME`` -- The hostname of the server.
         * ``SERVER_PORT`` -- The port of the server.
@@ -294,7 +295,7 @@ a subclass of dictionary. Exceptions are outlined here:
     Just like the standard dictionary ``setdefault()`` method, except it uses
     ``__setitem__`` internally.
 
-.. method:: QueryDict.update(other_dict) 
+.. method:: QueryDict.update(other_dict)
 
     Takes either a ``QueryDict`` or standard dictionary. Just like the standard
     dictionary ``update()`` method, except it *appends* to the current
@@ -357,11 +358,11 @@ In addition, ``QueryDict`` has the following methods:
 
     Like :meth:`items()`, except it includes all values, as a list, for each
     member of the dictionary. For example::
-    
+
          >>> q = QueryDict('a=1&a=2&a=3')
          >>> q.lists()
          [('a', ['1', '2', '3'])]
-    
+
 .. method:: QueryDict.urlencode()
 
     Returns a string of the data in query-string format.
@@ -452,7 +453,7 @@ Methods
 -------
 
 .. method:: HttpResponse.__init__(content='', mimetype=None, status=200, content_type=DEFAULT_CONTENT_TYPE)
-    
+
     Instantiates an ``HttpResponse`` object with the given page content (a
     string) and MIME type. The ``DEFAULT_CONTENT_TYPE`` is ``'text/html'``.