[Web-SIG] Emulating req.write() in WSGI

[P.J. Eby]

At 01:01 PM 6/28/2010 -0600, Aaron Fransen wrote:
>One of the nice things about mod_python is the req.write() function.
>
>Although I realize it's somewhat of an abuse to the http protocol, 
>it's handy being able to periodically update the client browser with 
>a status message for a long-running job.
>
>So handy in fact that I have a number of applications that rely 
>fairly heavily on it as a means of keeping the client (person) happy 
>instead of just showing them the default "browser busy" notification.
>
>There are a couple of workarounds, neither of which are ideal:
>1. Take them immediately to a secondary page, then submit the actual 
>job automatically on that second page.
>2. Instead of using HTTP POST, use an HTTP Request Object (ie. Ajax).
>
>Both of them involve significantly more development effort than an 
>equivalent req.write().
>
>Is there a way to emulate the periodic-write functionality in WSGI?

Each string yielded (or passed to the write() callable returned by 
start_response) is supposed to be sent straight through to the client.

As long as your WSGI stack is actually conformant to the protocol, 
that's all you need to do.