Mastering Django: Core

Hooks and application order

During the request phase, before calling the view, Django applies middleware in the order it's defined in MIDDLEWARE_CLASSES, top-down. Two hooks are available:

• process_request()
• process_view()

During the response phase, after calling the view, middleware are applied in reverse order, from the bottom up. Three hooks are available:

• process_exception()
• process_template_response()
• process_response()

If you prefer, you can also think of it like an onion: each middleware class is a layer that wraps the view.

The behavior of each hook is described below.