Middleware Glossary

Browse 10 middleware terms defined in plain English, from the cultural dictionary of computing.

10 Middleware Terms

Authentication Middleware
Middleware that intercepts requests to verify identity, parse credentials, establish user context, or reject unauthenticated calls before application logic...
Authorization Middleware
Middleware that enforces access rules on requests after identity has been established but before business logic executes. It is commonly used to apply...
Custom Handler
A user-defined function or component that handles a request, event, callback, or processing step in a tailored way. Custom handlers allow teams to extend...
Custom Middleware
Middleware added by an application team to intercept and process requests, responses, or events in ways not provided by the framework out of the box. Custom...
Koa
A minimalist Node.js web framework created by the same team behind Express, designed around async/await and a middleware stack that uses a cascading...
Message Broker
An intermediary system that receives messages from producers, routes them based on topics, queues, or content-based rules, and delivers them to consumers....
Rack
A Ruby web server interface specification that defines a minimal contract: an application is any object that responds to call(env) and returns a [status,...
Redux Thunk
A Redux middleware that allows action creators to return functions (thunks) instead of plain action objects, giving them access to dispatch and getState so...
Request Context
A per-request object or scope that carries metadata associated with the current HTTP request — such as the authenticated user, request ID, locale, database...
Request Pipeline
The ordered chain of middleware and handlers that an HTTP request passes through from arrival to response — typically including logging, authentication, rate...

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