Basic auth decorator in django views

basic_auth.py

import datetime
import json

from django.contrib.auth.decorators import login_required
from django.core.serializers.json import DjangoJSONEncoder
from django.http import HttpResponse, HttpResponseForbidden
from django.contrib import auth
from django.contrib.auth import authenticate, login


# The basic auth decorator
def login_or_basic_auth_required(view):
    def _decorator(request, *args, **kwargs):
        if request.META.has_key('HTTP_AUTHORIZATION'):
            auth_method, credentials = request.META['HTTP_AUTHORIZATION'].split(' ', 1)
            if auth_method.lower() == 'basic':
                credentials = credentials.strip().decode('base64')
                username, password = credentials.split(':', 1)
                user = auth.authenticate(username=username, password=password)
                if user is not None and user.is_active:
                    # Correct password, and the user is marked "active"
                    return view(request, *args, **kwargs)
                else:
                    return HttpResponseForbidden('Incorrect user credentials.')
            response = HttpResponse()
            response.status_code = 401
            response['WWW-Authenticate'] = 'Basic'
            return response
        else:
            if request.user.is_authenticated():
                return view(request, *args, **kwargs)
            else:
                return HttpResponseForbidden('Incorrect user credentials')
    return _decorator


# A simple test view
@login_or_basic_auth_required
def test(request):
    test_data = {
        'string': 'some string',
        'date': datetime.datetime.today(),
        'integer': 1,
        'bool': True,
        'array': ['a', 'b', 'c']
    }
    data = json.dumps(['authenticated and receiving data!', test_data], cls=DjangoJSONEncoder)
    return HttpResponse(data)