When you install Python, you might be asked if you want to update the `PATH` environment variable.

//// tab | Linux, macOS

Let's say you install Python and it ends up in a directory `/opt/custompython/bin`.

If you say yes to update the `PATH` environment variable, then the installer will add `/opt/custompython/bin` to the `PATH` environment variable.

It could look like this:

```plaintext

* `http://localhost`
* `https://localhost`
* `http://localhost:8080`

Even if they are all in `localhost`, they use different protocols or ports, so, they are different "origins".

## Steps { #steps }

So, let's say you have a frontend running in your browser at `http://localhost:8080`, and its JavaScript is trying to communicate with a backend running at `http://localhost` (because we don't specify a port, the browser will assume the default port `80`).

In a real application, you probably would have your tests in a different file.

And your **FastAPI** application might also be composed of several files/modules, etc.

### **FastAPI** app file { #fastapi-app-file }

Let's say you have a file structure as described in [Bigger Applications](bigger-applications.md){.internal-link target=_blank}:

```
.
├── app
│   ├── __init__.py
│   └── main.py
```

/// info

If you come from Flask, this would be the equivalent of Flask's Blueprints.

///

## An example file structure { #an-example-file-structure }

Let's say you have a file structure like this:

```
.
├── app
│   ├── __init__.py
│   ├── main.py
│   ├── dependencies.py
│   └── routers
│   │   ├── __init__.py
│   │   ├── items.py
│   │   └── users.py

But it's possible to customize it, you can set a specific CDN, or serve the files yourself.

## Custom CDN for JavaScript and CSS { #custom-cdn-for-javascript-and-css }

Let's say that you want to use a different <abbr title="Content Delivery Network">CDN</abbr>, for example you want to use `https://unpkg.com/`.

This could be useful if for example you live in a country that restricts some URLs.

So you wait for your crush to finish the story (finish the current work ⏯ / task being processed 🤓), smile gently and say that you are going for the burgers ⏸.

The first thing you should do is to "pin" the version of **FastAPI** you are using to the specific latest version that you know works correctly for your application.

For example, let's say you are using version `0.112.0` in your app.

If you use a `requirements.txt` file you could specify the version with:

```txt
fastapi[standard]==0.112.0
```

Several of these are explored in the next chapters of the tutorial.

## Order matters { #order-matters }

When creating *path operations*, you can find situations where you have a fixed path.

Like `/users/me`, let's say that it's to get data about the current user.

And then you can also have a path `/users/{user_id}` to get data about a specific user by some user ID.

If you want to return additional status codes apart from the main one, you can do that by returning a `Response` directly, like a `JSONResponse`, and set the additional status code directly.

For example, let's say that you want to have a *path operation* that allows to update items, and returns HTTP status codes of 200 "OK" when successful.

Now, let's see how you could use that to return a custom response.

Let's say that you want to return an <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XML" class="external-link" target="_blank">XML</a> response.

You could put your XML content in a string, put that in a `Response`, and return it: