```

Whenever you need the client to pass information in the request and you don't know how to, you can search (Google) how to do it in `httpx`, or even how to do it with `requests`, as HTTPX's design is based on Requests' design.

Then you just do the same in your tests.

E.g.:

* To pass a *path* or *query* parameter, add it to the URL itself.

But FastAPI also supports using <a href="https://docs.python.org/3/library/dataclasses.html" class="external-link" target="_blank">`dataclasses`</a> the same way:

```Python hl_lines="1  7-12  19-20"
{!../../../docs_src/dataclasses/tutorial001.py!}
```

# Middleware

You can add middleware to **FastAPI** applications.

A "middleware" is a function that works with every **request** before it is processed by any specific *path operation*. And also with every **response** before returning it.

* It takes each **request** that comes to your application.
* It can then do something to that **request** or run any needed code.

There's a small detail about names to keep in mind. 💡

The word "**server**" is commonly used to refer to both the remote/cloud computer (the physical or virtual machine) and also the program that is running on that machine (e.g. Uvicorn).

Just keep in mind that when you read "server" in general, it could refer to one of those two things.

But you need `file_path` itself to contain a *path*, like `home/johndoe/myfile.txt`.

So, the URL for that file would be something like: `/files/home/johndoe/myfile.txt`.

### OpenAPI support

OpenAPI doesn't support a way to declare a *path parameter* to contain a *path* inside, as that could lead to scenarios that are difficult to test and define.

You could want to set up a different database for testing, rollback the data after the tests, pre-fill it with some testing data, etc.

The main idea is exactly the same you saw in that previous chapter.

## Add tests for the SQL app

Let's update the example from [SQL (Relational) Databases](../tutorial/sql-databases.md){.internal-link target=_blank} to use a testing database.

# How To - Recipes

Here you will see different recipes or "how to" guides for **several topics**.

Most of these ideas would be more or less **independent**, and in most cases you should only need to study them if they apply directly to **your project**.

If something seems interesting and useful to your project, go ahead and check it, but otherwise, you might probably just skip them.

!!! tip

But you are not restricted to using some specific data model, class or type.

Do you want to have an `id` and `email` and not have any `username` in your model? Sure. You can use these same tools.

Do you want to just have a `str`? Or just a `dict`? Or a database class model instance directly? It all works the same way.

* **Starlette**:
    * Will have the next best performance, after Uvicorn. In fact, Starlette uses Uvicorn to run. So, it probably can only get "slower" than Uvicorn by having to execute more code.
    * But it provides you the tools to build simple web applications, with routing based on paths, etc.

    ```

=== "Python 3.10+ non-Annotated"

    !!! tip
        Prefer to use the `Annotated` version if possible.

    ```Python hl_lines="2"
    {!> ../../../docs_src/body_fields/tutorial001_py310.py!}
    ```

=== "Python 3.8+ non-Annotated"

    !!! tip
        Prefer to use the `Annotated` version if possible.

    ```Python hl_lines="4"