diff -r 058db99425e4 -r f4219a6e62e3 doc/book/en/development/devweb/publisher.rst
--- a/doc/book/en/development/devweb/publisher.rst	Thu Apr 15 19:28:28 2010 +0200
+++ b/doc/book/en/development/devweb/publisher.rst	Thu Apr 15 19:31:10 2010 +0200
@@ -3,6 +3,61 @@
 Publisher
 ---------
 
-XXX view.vid_from_rset
+What happens when an HTTP request is issued ?
+
+The story begins with the ``CubicWebPublisher.main_publish``
+method. We do not get upper in the bootstrap process because it is
+dependant on the used HTTP library. With `twisted`_ however,
+``cubicweb.etwist.server.CubicWebRootResource.render_request`` is the
+real entry point.
+
+What main_publish does:
+
+* get a controller id and a result set from the path (this is actually
+  delegated to the `urlpublisher` component)
+
+* the controller is then selected (if not, this is considered an
+  authorization failure and signaled as sich) and called
+
+* then either a proper result is returned, in which case the
+  request/connection object issues a ``commit`` and returns the result
+
+* or error handling must happen:
+
+  * ``ValidationErrors`` pop up there and may lead to a redirect to a
+    previously arranged url or standard error handling applies
+  * an HTTP 500 error (`Internal Server Error`) is issued
+
 
-XXX cubicweb.web.application; coop diagram for execution of a http query
+Now, let's turn to the controller. There are many of them in
+:mod:`cubicweb.web.views.basecontrollers`. We can just follow the
+default `view` controller that is selected on a `view` path. See the
+:ref:`controllers` chapter for more information on controllers.
+
+The `View` controller's entry point is the `publish` method. It does
+the following:
+
+* compute the `main` view to be applied, using either the given result
+  set or building one from a user provided rql string (`rql` and `vid`
+  can be forced from the url GET parameters), that is:
+
+    * compute the `vid` using the result set and the schema (see
+      `cubicweb.web.views.vid_from_rst`)
+    * handle all error cases that could happen in this phase
+
+* do some cache management chores
+
+* select a main template (typically `TheMainTemplate`, see chapter
+  :ref:`templates`)
+
+* call it with the result set and the computed view.
+
+What happens next actually depends on the template and the view, but
+in general this is the rendering phase.
+
+
+CubicWebPublisher API
+`````````````````````
+
+.. autoclass:: cubicweb.web.application.CubicWebPublisher
+   :members: