Using Zope With Apache - A Few Good Reasons (
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If you've been playing with Zope for a while, you already know that Zope
comes with its own HTTP server, which can be used to serve Zope
documents to any connecting client. While this ZServer is a remarkably
full-featured and powerful application, it's still not as easy (or as
flexible) as Apache, which is still the planet's numero uno Web server.
There are a number of reasons why you might want to hook Zope and Apache
up
together:
1. If you're a Webmaster transitioning an existing site to Zope, it's
unlikely that your entire site will be build around Zope. It's more
likely that you'll have some static HTML pages and some dynamic,
interactive sections which are populated via user activity. In such
situations, it's not very optimal to have Zope serve up the static
pages; Apache is better suited to the task, and also more efficient at
it.
2. If you're running multiple virtual hosts on the same site, you're
probably going to have trouble configuring Zope to handle them. It's far
easier (not to mention less time-consuming) to have Apache handle the
virtual hosting for you, and have Zope simply serve up the pages as
needed.
3. If you're already using Apache's HTTP authentication feature, you
might find it inconvenient to switch over to Zope's authentication
system. In such situations, it might be preferable, and less disruptive
to your users, to disable Zope authentication and continue to use
Apache's authentication database - even on Zope-generated pages, or
within Zope's management interface.
Now, I'm not going to cover each of these applications in detail in this
article; rather, I will be focusing on the technicalities of using the
Apache Web server to pass requests on to Zope, and to serve up the
returned Zope content in a transparent manner. In order to do this, you
will need to reconfigure and recompile your Apache server to include
support for a few additional modules. Here's a list of what you're going
to need - download it now, and then proceed to the next page.
The Apache Web server, from
http://httpd.apache.org/
The FastCGI module, from
http://www.fastcgi.com/
As I said before, I'm assuming that you already have a working Zope
installation; if you don't, drop by
http://www.zope.org/ and get
yourself set up.
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