Webware's CGI Adapter

=====================

Copy the Webware/WebKit/Adapters/WebKit.cgi file to your CGI directory (eg.

/home/httpd/cgi-bin) and ensure that the permissions are appropriate for a CGI

program.

Configuring in Apache

---------------------

Add a line like this to your Apache configuration file (eg. httpd.conf):

ScriptAlias /webkit "/home/httpd/cgi-bin/WebKit.cgi"

Configuring in AOLserver

------------------------

NOTE: AOLserver does not seem to handle "URL encoded" character values

NOTE: properly when such values appear in the path before the query string.

Ensure the presence of the following lines in your configuration file (eg.

config.tcl):

ns_section "ns/server/${servername}/module/nscgi"

ns_param   map "GET  /webkit /home/httpd/cgi-bin/WebKit.cgi" ;# CGI script file dir (GET).

ns_param   map "POST /webkit /home/httpd/cgi-bin/WebKit.cgi" ;# CGI script file dir (POST).

ns_param   interps CGIinterps

ns_section "ns/interps/CGIinterps"

ns_param   .cgi "/usr/bin/python"

See docs/CGI/NOTES.txt for more information on AOLserver and CGI

configuration.

Patches for CGIAdapter when working with AOLserver

--------------------------------------------------

AOLserver appears to set empty CONTENT_LENGTH environment variable values. A

patch for CGIAdapter.py in WebKit can be applied as follows (with a suitable

relative path to WebStack from Webware/WebKit):

cd Webware/WebKit

patch -p0 < ../../WebStack/patches/Webware/WebKit/CGIAdapter.py.diff

Authentication/Authorisation in Webware

=======================================

Since Webware provides some kind of CGI emulation environment, the actual HTTP

headers involved with authentication/authorisation are not available to the

WebStack transaction. Therefore, WebStack depends on Webware having access to

the REMOTE_USER environment variable set by the Web server, and with Apache,

this variable is only ever set when Apache itself has performed

authentication. Whilst applications can send the "WWW-Authenticate" header to

HTTP clients, unless Apache has been instructed to process the resulting

username/password information, the REMOTE_USER will apparently remain

undefined.

Consequently, it is recommended that the following kind of definition is added

to httpd.conf (for Apache) in order to give applications access to

username/password details:

<Location "/webkit/auth">

    AuthType Basic

    AuthName "AuthResource"

    AuthUserFile /usr/local/apache2/conf/users

    require valid-user

</Location>

The details of the application's deployment, including the exact pathname of

the users file and the appropriate access policy, must obviously be defined

according to the actual application concerned.

Note that the above example will only apply authentication to either a

specific context (for Webware releases beyond 0.8.1) and only to a specific

"region" of possible URLs (for Webware 0.8.1 and earlier).

For Webware Releases Beyond 0.8.1

=================================

WebStack applications are supported as contexts within WebKit, meaning that a

certain prefix in the URL determines whether an application is sent a

particular request.

Each context must be defined in the Webware/WebKit/Configs/Application.config

file within the 'Contexts' dictionary; for example:

Contexts['simple'] = '/home/paulb/Software/Python/WebStack/examples/Webware/SimpleContext'

Note that the path to the context directory must be absolute, although the

context directory may reside within WebKit itself such that the path may then

make use of the special WebKitPath variable.

Note also that the name of the context (eg. 'simple') must not be the same as

the name of any other package used within the application (and possibly any

other applications in the application server), with the only reasonable

exception being the context package name itself (eg. 'SimpleContext').

Otherwise, the existing package will become overridden by the contents of the

context itself.  Therefore, given that the Simple package is used to hold the

actual application code, it is not wise to use 'Simple' as the context name.

Running the application server:

Change into the WebKit directory within Webware. Then, specifying the

appropriate PYTHONPATH, invoke the application server. For example:

PYTHONPATH=../../WebStack:../../WebStack/examples/Common ./AppServer

The WebStack package must reside on the PYTHONPATH, along with the package

containing the application itself.

For Webware 0.8.1 or Earlier

============================

Support for WebStack applications is provided by a Webware plug-in which

associates Webware resources having certain suffixes with certain WebStack

applications, regardless of the context within which a resource appears. In

order to make use of such a scheme, a WebStack application would have its

resources residing in an arbitrary URL "hierarchy", but with each resource

having the special suffix to indicate that it belongs to that application.

In the case of an application whose chosen suffix is ".xyz", it would be

possible, for example, to define resources residing at the following URL

paths:

  tasks/my-tasks.xyz

  tasks/outstanding/urgent.xyz

  agenda/today.xyz

This is somewhat counter-intuitive to typical Webware concepts, and it is

recommended that Webware releases beyond 0.8.1 are used together with the

appropriate WebStack context mechanisms instead of using this plug-in scheme.

In order to support such behaviour, some patches must be applied to WebKit

(with a suitable relative path to WebStack from Webware/WebKit):

cd Webware/WebKit

patch -p0 < ../../WebStack/patches/Webware/WebKit/Application.py-0.8.1.diff

patch -p0 < ../../WebStack/patches/Webware/WebKit/HTTPRequest.py-0.8.1.diff

Each plug-in, representing a WebStack application, should be visible in the

Webware root directory. A symbolic link can be used to make each example

appear; the Simple application being installed as follows:

cd Webware

ln -s ../WebStack/examples/Webware/SimpleApp

Configuring the application server:

Ensure that the ExtraPathInfo parameter in WebKit/Configs/Application.config

is set to 0.

Running the application server:

Change into the WebKit directory within Webware. Then, specifying the

appropriate PYTHONPATH, invoke the application server. For example:

PYTHONPATH=../../WebStack:../../WebStack/examples/Common ./AppServer

The WebStack package must reside on the PYTHONPATH, along with the package

containing the application itself.