AxKit2, Apache and all that

Hello.

I've been happily using AxKit for about five months now. It
was
installed and set up by someone who has left the company
long ago, so
I haven't set it up myself, but that usually doesn't give
problems.
Right now we are rebuilding our web server to a newer OS and
I thought
it would make sense to upgrade the software as well. So I
upgraded
from Apache1 to Apache2, from mod_perl1 tot mod_perl2 and...
well, I
think this meant I had not choice but to move to AxKit2 as
well.

So I downloaded it, installed some missing perl modules, ran
the demo,
which all worked well. And then I wanted to integrate it
into the new
web server.

And this is when I started to panic a bit.

'AxKit2 does away with Apache', the wiki says. I have to
admit that
this very statement puzzled me at first, as I had always
though of
AxKit as just a mod_perl/Apache module but, if I understand
correctly,
it is actually working alongside Apache, only taking care of
(in our
case) the XML-to-XML-via-XSLT process?

Okay, that makes sense. But still, I'd like Apache and
mod_perl to do
all the other things -serving images, pdfs, taking care of
authentication etc.- they have been doing so nicely for me
all this
time. But I am kind of confused about where to start. Or,
since I
would like to keep using various existing AxKit plugins and
taglibs,
is the whole idea to move to AxKit2 right now just not very
clever?

I apologise if this is a very low-level question. I will
happily share
anything I learn by editing the wiki and, who knows, share
new/changed
modules with the community.

Martijn.

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Martijn,

> it would make sense to upgrade the software as well. So
I upgraded
> from Apache1 to Apache2, from mod_perl1 tot mod_perl2
and... well, I
> think this meant I had not choice but to move to AxKit2
as well.

> 'AxKit2 does away with Apache', the wiki says. I have
to admit that
> this very statement puzzled me at first, as I had
always though of
> AxKit as just a mod_perl/Apache module but, if I
understand correctly,
> it is actually working alongside Apache, only taking
care of (in our
> case) the XML-to-XML-via-XSLT process?

No, it has nothing to do with apache at all. It's a
webserver in its own
right.

> Okay, that makes sense. But still, I'd like Apache and
mod_perl to do
> all the other things -serving images, pdfs, taking care
of
> authentication etc.- they have been doing so nicely for
me all this
> time.

That probably is possible yes. (I haven't tried it tho).

> But I am kind of confused about where to start. Or,
since I
> would like to keep using various existing AxKit plugins
and taglibs,
> is the whole idea to move to AxKit2 right now just not
very clever?

If you want to keep all that, either upgrade apache to 1.3.n
and use
axkit1 with mod_perl or
go for apache2 with modperl2 and use, I believe, tomkit.

> I apologise if this is a very low-level question. I
will happily share
> anything I learn by editing the wiki and, who knows,
share new/changed
> modules with the community.

np!

John



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As I understand it, you have a couple of choices.

1) You can run both apache1 and apache2 on the same server.
But one  
of them will have to run on a different port.

2) Switch to axkit2, but use apache2 to handle certain
things using  
ProxyPass and reverse proxying. I've heard of people even
setting it  
up to handle static content like images and pdfs from apache
and  
dynamic content through the proxy, but I've never done it. I
think  
people using rails do that to speed stuff up.

--simon


--
http://simonwoodside.com



On Jun 7, 2007, at 1:23 PM, Martijn wrote:

> Hello.
>
> I've been happily using AxKit for about five months
now. It was
> installed and set up by someone who has left the
company long ago, so
> I haven't set it up myself, but that usually doesn't
give problems.
> Right now we are rebuilding our web server to a newer
OS and I thought
> it would make sense to upgrade the software as well. So
I upgraded
> from Apache1 to Apache2, from mod_perl1 tot mod_perl2
and... well, I
> think this meant I had not choice but to move to AxKit2
as well.
>
> So I downloaded it, installed some missing perl
modules, ran the demo,
> which all worked well. And then I wanted to integrate
it into the new
> web server.
>
> And this is when I started to panic a bit.
>
> 'AxKit2 does away with Apache', the wiki says. I have
to admit that
> this very statement puzzled me at first, as I had
always though of
> AxKit as just a mod_perl/Apache module but, if I
understand correctly,
> it is actually working alongside Apache, only taking
care of (in our
> case) the XML-to-XML-via-XSLT process?
>
> Okay, that makes sense. But still, I'd like Apache and
mod_perl to do
> all the other things -serving images, pdfs, taking care
of
> authentication etc.- they have been doing so nicely for
me all this
> time. But I am kind of confused about where to start.
Or, since I
> would like to keep using various existing AxKit plugins
and taglibs,
> is the whole idea to move to AxKit2 right now just not
very clever?
>
> I apologise if this is a very low-level question. I
will happily share
> anything I learn by editing the wiki and, who knows,
share new/changed
> modules with the community.
>
> Martijn.
>
>
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> To unsubscribe, e-mail: axkit-users-unsubscribeaxkit.org
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>


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Martijn wrote:
> Okay, that makes sense. But still, I'd like Apache and
mod_perl to do
> all the other things -serving images, pdfs, taking care
of
> authentication etc.- they have been doing so nicely for
me all this
> time. But I am kind of confused about where to start.
Or, since I
> would like to keep using various existing AxKit plugins
and taglibs,
> is the whole idea to move to AxKit2 right now just not
very clever?

So part of the reason I took this approach was that everyone
runs 2 web 
servers anyway - in the mod_perl setup they run a
lightweight proxy 
front end and a heavy mod_perl backend. So I decided we
didn't really 
need two Apache's when one will do. There were other reasons
too, 
they're in the list archives.

So my basic advice is to run Apache2 in proxypass mode
talking to your 
AxKit2 server on the backend. Then you can serve static
files directly 
from Apache2 if you want.

You don't have to run it this way - AxKit2 alone is a very
effective 
file delivery web server. But you might want some of the
bells and 
whistles that Apache provides.

Matt.

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> So my basic advice is to run Apache2 in proxypass mode
talking to your
> AxKit2 server on the backend. Then you can serve static
files directly
> from Apache2 if you want.
>
> You don't have to run it this way - AxKit2 alone is a
very effective
> file delivery web server. But you might want some of
the bells and
> whistles that Apache provides.

Thanks for all your advice! I will give it a try and go for
AxKit2 -
quite probably I will give the occasional shout here. Let's
hope most
of these shouts are out of excitement rather than panic.


Martijn.

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Lo,

I did offer to write a file upload. Well, I haven't as
yet...
Mainly because I have no clue about Danga. Would a mod to
the
parse_post_params work ie have the danga stuff carefully
hidden
from me or will one of the project coders have to hack at
it?

Any clue, caveats gratefully received...

John



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roseyaxkit.20.ftumshspamgourmet.com wrote:
> Lo,
> 
> I did offer to write a file upload. Well, I haven't as
yet...
> Mainly because I have no clue about Danga. Would a mod
to the
> parse_post_params work ie have the danga stuff
carefully hidden
> from me or will one of the project coders have to hack
at it?

You certainly shouldn't have to have any knowledge about
Danga. All you 
need to know about is the format that file upload data comes
in as. 
Check the parse_post_params plugin.

Also, use latest svn for this, as there are bugs in the
released code.

Matt.

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On Tue, 2007-06-12 at 18:58, Matt Sergeant - mattsergeant.org wrote:

> roseyaxkit.20.ftumshspamgourmet.com wrote:
> > I did offer to write a file upload.

> You certainly shouldn't have to have any knowledge
about Danga. All you 
> need to know about is the format that file upload data
comes in as. 
> Check the parse_post_params plugin.
> 
> Also, use latest svn for this, as there are bugs in the
released code.

Right, it's nearly done.
It's using two modules, MIME::Parser and File::Temp. Is that
ok?

All I have to do is test it using browsers (I was using
curl) and
also put a lot of the hard coded stuff into the config
file.

I've also taken the liberty of removing the die and putting
in a return
DECLINED but that doesn't seem right. How do I show a
graceful error
from a system plugin? There are two sorts of errors here,
one that is
essentially a die and the other is not  ie they
are trying to upload
too large a file, what's to do about that?

Anyway, if it compiles, I'll ship it...

John



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