1 Introduction
2 ------------
3
4 WebStack is a package which provides a common API for Python Web applications,
5 regardless of the underlying server or framework environment. It should be
6 possible with WebStack to design and implement an application and to choose a
7 deployment environment, without having to go back and rewrite large parts of
8 that application to work in the chosen environment or in other environments
9 (should the deployment requirements change after the application has been
10 written).
11
12 Framework Support
13 -----------------
14
15 Currently, BaseHTTPRequestHandler (via BaseHTTPServer in the standard
16 library), CGI, mod_python, Twisted and Webware are supported. Each framework
17 has its own set of strengths and weaknesses, but the idea is that deployment
18 concerns can be considered separately from the implementation of application
19 functionality. Consult the NOTES.txt files in each framework's subdirectory
20 of the docs directory for some notes on how applications may be run in each
21 environment.
22
23 Tested Frameworks
24 -----------------
25
26 BaseHTTPRequestHandler Python 2.2.2
27 CGI Apache 2.0.44
28 mod_python 3.0.3 (3.1.3 for cookie support)
29 Twisted 1.0.5
30 Webware 0.8.1, CVS (2004-02-06)
31
32 Changes Since WebStack 0.2
33 --------------------------
34
35 Added better header support for Webware (suggested by Ian Bicking).
36 Introduced CGI and Java Servlet support (the latter is currently
37 broken/unfinished).
38 Introduced support for cookies.
39
40 Future Work
41 -----------
42
43 Things to consider for future releases: higher-level authentication support,
44 improved cookie handling, redirects, session interfaces, and much better
45 documentation.
46
47 Field access needs testing, especially for anything using the cgi.FieldStorage
48 class - Webware and Twisted certainly need reviewing. The acquisition of
49 fields from specific sources should be made more strict - some frameworks (eg.
50 mod_python) provide path fields in the body fields dictionary.
51
52 Cookie objects need defining strictly, especially since the standard library
53 Cookie object behaves differently to mod_python (and possibly Webware) Cookie
54 objects. Moreover, the set_cookie_value method needs to provide access to the
55 usual cookie parameters as supported by the frameworks.
56
57 Java Servlet API Notes
58 ----------------------
59
60 Using JythonServlet:
61
62 mkdir SimpleApp
63 mkdir SimpleApp/WEB-INF
64 mkdir SimpleApp/WEB-INF/classes
65 mkdir SimpleApp/WEB-INF/jython
66 mkdir SimpleApp/WEB-INF/lib
67 cp ${JYTHON_HOME}/jython.jar SimpleApp/WEB-INF/lib
68 cp -R ${WEBSTACK_HOME}/WebStack SimpleApp/WEB-INF/jython
69 cp -R ${WEBSTACK_HOME}/examples/Common/Simple SimpleApp/WEB-INF/jython
70 cp ${WEBSTACK_HOME}/examples/JavaServlet/SimpleApp.py SimpleApp
71 cp ${WEBSTACK_HOME}/examples/JavaServlet/web.xml SimpleApp/WEB-INF
72 mv SimpleApp ${CATALINA_HOME}/webapps
73
74 Unfortunately, PyServlet doesn't manage to find various modules in packages:
75
76 javax.servlet.ServletException: Could not create Jython servletTraceback (innermost last):
77 File "/data/home/paulb/Software/Java/jakarta-tomcat-4.1.27/webapps/SimpleApp/SimpleApp.py", line 3, in ?
78 ImportError: cannot import name JavaServlet
79
80 The same modules can be imported in interactive Jython.
