Using Zope With Apache - A Few Good Reasons (Page 2 of 7 )
If you've been playing with Zope for a while, you already know that Zopecomes with its own HTTP server, which can be used to serve Zopedocuments to any connecting client. While this ZServer is a remarkablyfull-featured and powerful application, it's still not as easy (or asflexible) 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 Apacheuptogether:
1. If you're a Webmaster transitioning an existing site to Zope, it'sunlikely that your entire site will be build around Zope. It's morelikely that you'll have some static HTML pages and some dynamic,interactive sections which are populated via user activity. In suchsituations, it's not very optimal to have Zope serve up the staticpages; Apache is better suited to the task, and also more efficient atit.
2. If you're running multiple virtual hosts on the same site, you'reprobably going to have trouble configuring Zope to handle them. It's fareasier (not to mention less time-consuming) to have Apache handle thevirtual hosting for you, and have Zope simply serve up the pages asneeded.
3. If you're already using Apache's HTTP authentication feature, youmight find it inconvenient to switch over to Zope's authenticationsystem. In such situations, it might be preferable, and less disruptiveto your users, to disable Zope authentication and continue to useApache's authentication database - even on Zope-generated pages, orwithin Zope's management interface.
Now, I'm not going to cover each of these applications in detail in thisarticle; rather, I will be focusing on the technicalities of using theApache Web server to pass requests on to Zope, and to serve up thereturned Zope content in a transparent manner. In order to do this, youwill need to reconfigure and recompile your Apache server to includesupport for a few additional modules. Here's a list of what you're goingto 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 Zopeinstallation; if you don't, drop by
http://www.zope.org/ and getyourself set up.
Next: When Persistence Pays Off >>
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