Apache Basic Authentication for mod_wsgi (inc. Django) applications

LoadModule auth_basic_module modules/mod_auth_basic.so
LoadModule authn_file_module modules/mod_authn_file.so
LoadModule authz_user_module modules/mod_authz_user.so

<Location />
AuthType Basic
AuthName "Authentication Required"
AuthUserFile "/path/to/.htpasswd"
Require valid-user
</Location>

<Location /members>
AuthType Basic
AuthName "Authentication Required"
AuthUserFile "/path/to/.htpasswd"
Require valid-user
</Location>

import base64
from django.contrib.auth import authenticate
from django.http import HttpResponse
from django.shortcuts import render_to_response

def basic_auth(request):    
    if request.META.get('HTTP_AUTHORIZATION', 'whatever')[:5] == 'Basic':    
        auth = base64.b64decode(request.META.get('HTTP_AUTHORIZATION', 'none')[6:]).split(":")    
        if authenticate(username=auth[0], password=auth[1]) is not None:    
            return render_to_response('template.html', {})    
    response = HttpResponse()    
    response.status_code = 401    
    response['WWW-Authenticate'] = 'Basic realm="Basic Auth"'    
    return response