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+.. _topics-architecture:
+
+============
+Architecture
+============
+
+This document describes the architecture of Scrapy and how they components
+interact between each other.
+
+Overview
+========
+
+The following diagram shows an overview of the Scrapy architecture with its
+components and an outline of the data flow that takes place inside the system
+(shown by the green arrows). A brief description of the components is included
+below with links for more detailed information about them. The data flow is
+also described below.
+
+.. image:: _images/scrapy_architecture.png
+   :width: 700
+   :height: 468
+   :alt: Scrapy architecture
+
+Components
+==========
+
+Scrapy Engine
+-------------
+
+The engine is responsible for controlling the data flow between all components
+of the system, and triggering events when certain actions occur. See the Data
+Flow section below for more details.
+
+Scheduler
+---------
+
+The Scheduler receives requests from the engine and enqueues them for feeding
+them later (also to the engine) when the engine requests them.
+
+Downloader
+----------
+
+The Downloader is responsible for fetching web pages and feeding them to the
+engine which, in turns, feeds them to the spiders.
+
+Spiders
+-------
+
+Spiders are custom classes written by Scrapy users to parse response and
+extract items (aka scraped items) from them or additional URLs (requests) to
+follow. Each spider is able to handle a specific domain (or group of domains).
+For more information see :ref:`topics-spiders`.
+
+Item Pipeline
+-------------
+
+The Item Pipeline is responsible for processing the items once they have been
+extracted (or scraped) by the spiders. Typical tasks include cleansing,
+validation and persistence (like storing the item in a database). For more
+information see :ref:`topics-item-pipeline`.
+
+Downloader middlewares
+----------------------
+
+Downloader middlewares are specific hooks that sit between the Engine and the
+Downloader and process requests when they pass from the Engine to the
+downloader, and responses that pass from Downloader to the Engine. They provide
+a convenient mechanism for extending Scrapy functionality by plugging custom
+code. For more information see :ref:`topics-downloader-middleware`.
+
+Spider middlewares
+------------------
+
+Spider middlewares are specific hooks that sit between the Engine and the
+Spiders and are able to process spider input (responses) and output (items and
+requests). They provide a convenient mechanism for extending Scrapy
+functionality by plugging custom code. For more information see
+:ref:`topics-spider-middleware`.
+
+Data flow
+=========
+
+The data flow in Scrapy is controlled by the Engine, and goes like this:
+
+1. The Engine opens a domain, locates the Spider that handles that domain, and
+   asks the spider for the first URLs to crawl.
+
+2. The Engine gets the first URLs to crawl from the Spider and schedules them
+   in the Scheduler, as Requests.
+
+3. The Engine asks the Scheduler for the next URLs to crawl.
+
+4. The Scheduler returns the next URLs to crawl to the Engine and the Engine
+   sends them to the Downloader, passing through the Downloader Middleware
+   (request direction).
+
+5. Once the page finishes downloading the Downloader generates a Response (with
+   that page) and sends it to the Engine, passing through the Downloader
+   Middleware (response direction).
+
+6. The Engine receives the Response from the Downloader and sends it to the
+   Spider for processing, passing through the Spider Middleware (input direction).
+
+7. The Spider processes the Response and returns scraped Items and new Requests
+   (to follow) to the Engine.
+
+8. The Engine sends scraped Items (returned by the Spider) to the Item Pipeline
+   and Requests (returned by spider) to the Scheduler
+
+9. The process repeats (from step 2) until there are no more requests from the
+   Scheduler, and the Engine closes the domain.
+
+Event-driven networking
+=======================
+
+Scrapy is written with `Twisted`_, a popular event-driven networking framework
+for Python. Thus, it's implemented using a non-blocking (aka asynchronous) code
+for concurrency. For more information about this topic see `Asynchronous
+Programming with Twisted`.
+
+.. _Twisted: http://twistedmatrix.com/trac/
+.. _Asynchronous Programming with Twisted: http://twistedmatrix.com/projects/core/documentation/howto/async.html
+
diff --git a/scrapy/trunk/docs/topics/index.rst b/scrapy/trunk/docs/topics/index.rst
index 9a39be108..e03d0041a 100644
--- a/scrapy/trunk/docs/topics/index.rst
+++ b/scrapy/trunk/docs/topics/index.rst
@@ -4,6 +4,7 @@ Topics
 .. toctree::
    :maxdepth: 1
 
+   architecture
    selectors
    items
    spiders