<img class="shadow" src="/img/deployment/concepts/image01.png">

---

Now that we know the difference between the terms **process** and **program**, let's continue talking about deployments.

## Running on Startup

systems is data "<abbr title="also called marshalling, conversion">serialization</abbr>" which is taking data from the code (Python) and converting it into something that can be sent through the network. For example, converting an object containing data from a database into a JSON object. Converting `datetime` objects into strings, etc.

Another big feature needed by APIs is data validation, making sure that the data is valid, given certain parameters. For example, that some field is an `int`,...

# Using the Request Directly

Up to now, you have been declaring the parts of the request that you need with their types.

Taking data from:

* The path as parameters.
* Headers.
* Cookies.
* etc.

And by doing so, **FastAPI** is validating that data, converting it and generating documentation for your API automatically.

But there are situations where you might need to access the `Request` object directly.

### Create the `FastAPI` app

```Python hl_lines="46"
{!../../../docs_src/nosql_databases/tutorial001.py!}
```

### Create the *path operation function*

## Motivation

Let's start with a simple example:

```Python
{!../../../docs_src/python_types/tutorial001.py!}
```

Calling this program outputs:

```
John Doe
```

The function does the following:

* Takes a `first_name` and `last_name`.
* Converts the first letter of each one to upper case with `title()`.

<img src="/img/async/concurrent-burgers/concurrent-burgers-05.png" class="illustration">

While waiting and talking to your crush, from time to time, you check the number displayed on the counter to see if it's your turn already.

Then at some point, it finally is your turn. You go to the counter, get your burgers and come back to the table.

    * PR [#294](https://github.com/tiangolo/fastapi/pull/294).

## 0.28.0

* Implement dependency cache per request.
    * This avoids calling each dependency multiple times for the same request.
    * This is useful while calling external services, performing costly computation, etc.

This will probably happen for more than one of those tabs.

If you had multiple clients talking to your app exactly at the same time, this is what could happen.

And as your app starts to handle more and more clients at the same time, the waiting time in a single request needs to be shorter and shorter to trigger the error.

Because this code is executed before the application **starts** taking requests, and right after it **finishes** handling requests, it covers the whole application **lifespan** (the word "lifespan" will be important in a second 😉).

An example could be that you have an external authentication provider that you need to call.

You send it a token and it returns an authenticated user.

This provider might be charging you per request, and calling it might take some extra time than if you had a fixed mock user for tests.

You probably want to test the external provider once, but not necessarily call it for every test that runs.