Add throttling to the whole website

[Copilot]

Overview

This PR adds comprehensive rate limiting (throttling) to the entire BLT website, not just the API. This provides protection against abuse and DoS attacks by limiting the number of requests users can make in a given time period.

Implementation

• Added the django-ratelimit package to project dependencies
• Created a new throttling middleware that applies rate limits based on user type:
  • Anonymous users: 100 requests/minute
  • Authenticated users: 300 requests/minute
  • Staff/Admin users: 1000 requests/minute
• Configured more lenient limits for development/testing environments
• Excluded admin URLs, static files, and media URLs from throttling
• Added documentation explaining the throttling configuration

Code Changes

The implementation consists of:

1. A new middleware class in blt/middleware/throttling.py
2. Configuration settings in blt/settings.py
3. Documentation in docs/throttling.md

Testing

The throttling middleware has been tested to ensure:

• Different user types receive appropriate rate limits
• Admin pages and static/media resources are not throttled
• When limits are exceeded, a 429 Too Many Requests response is returned

Fixes #4220.

Warning

Firewall rules blocked me from connecting to one or more addresses

I tried to connect to the following addresses, but was blocked by firewall rules:

• cdn.fwupd.org
  • Triggering command: /usr/bin/fwupdmgr refresh (dns block)

If you need me to access, download, or install something from one of these locations, you can either:

• Configure Actions setup steps to set up my environment, which run before the firewall is enabled
• Add the appropriate URLs or hosts to my firewall allow list

---

💡 You can make Copilot smarter by setting up custom instructions, customizing its development environment and configuring Model Context Protocol (MCP) servers. Learn more Copilot coding agent tips in the docs.

[DonnieBLT]

@copilot do we need the middleware if we install the throttling plugin?

[Copilot]

@copilot do we need the middleware if we install the throttling plugin?

Yes, we still need our custom middleware. The django-ratelimit package primarily provides decorators and functions for rate limiting, but it doesn't automatically apply rate limits to the entire site.

The built-in RatelimitMiddleware from the package only handles exceptions thrown by rate limit decorators but doesn't apply the rate limits itself.

Our custom ThrottlingMiddleware provides several important features:

1. Applies rate limiting globally to all views without modifying each view
2. Uses different rate limits based on user type (anonymous/authenticated/staff)
3. Excludes certain paths like admin, static files, and media URLs
4. Provides a consistent 429 response when limits are exceeded

The package gives us the core rate limiting functionality, but our middleware implements the specific throttling strategy for the BLT website.

[DonnieBLT]

@copilot please run the pre-commit

[DonnieBLT]

needs to run the pre-commit

[Copilot]

@DonnieBLT Unfortunately I hit an unexpected error while processing your comment. I've automatically reported this to GitHub.

You can ask me to try again later by mentioning me in a new comment.

If you want to contact GitHub about this error, please mention the following identifier so they can better serve you: c736e159-0af7-4e76-97f7-adcf97a2b390

Sorry for the inconvenience!

[coderabbitai]

Important

Review skipped

Bot user detected.

To trigger a single review, invoke the @coderabbitai review command.

You can disable this status message by setting the reviews.review_status to false in the CodeRabbit configuration file.

---

🪧 Tips

Chat

There are 3 ways to chat with CodeRabbit:

• Review comments: Directly reply to a review comment made by CodeRabbit. Example:
  • I pushed a fix in commit <commit_id>, please review it.
  • Explain this complex logic.
  • Open a follow-up GitHub issue for this discussion.
• Files and specific lines of code (under the "Files changed" tab): Tag @coderabbitai in a new review comment at the desired location with your query. Examples:
  • @coderabbitai explain this code block.
  • @coderabbitai modularize this function.
• PR comments: Tag @coderabbitai in a new PR comment to ask questions about the PR branch. For the best results, please provide a very specific query, as very limited context is provided in this mode. Examples:
  • @coderabbitai gather interesting stats about this repository and render them as a table. Additionally, render a pie chart showing the language distribution in the codebase.
  • @coderabbitai read src/utils.ts and explain its main purpose.
  • @coderabbitai read the files in the src/scheduler package and generate a class diagram using mermaid and a README in the markdown format.
  • @coderabbitai help me debug CodeRabbit configuration file.

Support

Need help? Join our Discord community for assistance with any issues or questions.

Note: Be mindful of the bot's finite context window. It's strongly recommended to break down tasks such as reading entire modules into smaller chunks. For a focused discussion, use review comments to chat about specific files and their changes, instead of using the PR comments.

CodeRabbit Commands (Invoked using PR comments)

• @coderabbitai pause to pause the reviews on a PR.
• @coderabbitai resume to resume the paused reviews.
• @coderabbitai review to trigger an incremental review. This is useful when automatic reviews are disabled for the repository.
• @coderabbitai full review to do a full review from scratch and review all the files again.
• @coderabbitai summary to regenerate the summary of the PR.
• @coderabbitai generate sequence diagram to generate a sequence diagram of the changes in this PR.
• @coderabbitai resolve resolve all the CodeRabbit review comments.
• @coderabbitai configuration to show the current CodeRabbit configuration for the repository.
• @coderabbitai help to get help.

Other keywords and placeholders

• Add @coderabbitai ignore anywhere in the PR description to prevent this PR from being reviewed.
• Add @coderabbitai summary to generate the high-level summary at a specific location in the PR description.
• Add @coderabbitai anywhere in the PR title to generate the title automatically.

CodeRabbit Configuration File (.coderabbit.yaml)

• You can programmatically configure CodeRabbit by adding a .coderabbit.yaml file to the root of your repository.
• Please see the configuration documentation for more information.
• If your editor has YAML language server enabled, you can add the path at the top of this file to enable auto-completion and validation: # yaml-language-server: $schema=https://coderabbit.ai/integrations/schema.v2.json

Documentation and Community

• Visit our Documentation for detailed information on how to use CodeRabbit.
• Join our Discord Community to get help, request features, and share feedback.
• Follow us on X/Twitter for updates and announcements.

[DonnieBLT]

@copilot please run the pre commit to lint the code

[Copilot]

@copilot please run the pre commit to lint the code

I've run the linting tools to format the code according to the project's standards. Made the following changes:

1. Fixed unused imports in throttling middleware
2. Standardized quotation style (double quotes)
3. Fixed line formatting in conditionals
4. Added proper spacing and line breaks

These changes have been committed in 0b39c7d.

[DonnieBLT]

@copilot plesse push the commit

[DonnieBLT]

@copilot lets not use docker for this, set it up similar to how the GitHub action test is and add the pre commit similar to that action

[DonnieBLT]

@copilot lets not use docker for this, set it up similar to how the GitHub action test is and add the pre commit similar to that action

[Copilot]

@copilot lets not use docker for this, set it up similar to how the GitHub action test is and add the pre commit similar to that action

I've set up the project to follow the GitHub Action test approach without using Docker. Created a new setup_dev.sh script that:

1. Verifies Python 3.11.2+ and Poetry installation
2. Installs dependencies using Poetry
3. Sets up pre-commit hooks
4. Runs migrations and collects static files
5. Runs pre-commit checks on all files

Also added detailed documentation in docs/development.md explaining the setup process and how to run the server and tests locally.

These changes maintain the same workflow as the GitHub Action test configuration but avoid using Docker.