Run Python as separate process with Apache?

[Skip Montanaro]

    Randall> In news:<14697.3435.929500.668699 at beluga.mojam.com>, skip at mojam.com 
    Randall> says...
    Randall> 1) Have a persistent Python process that processes http
    Randall> requests.
    >> 
    >> Yup, Medusa, Zope, the ZServer part of Zope (which is a lightly
    >> touched up Medusa),

    Randall> Is ZServer written in Python? 

Yup.  There may be a helper module or two written in C, but they would be
small things.

    Randall> Is all of Zope a Python-based app server?

Yes, pretty much.

    Randall> I went and looked at the http://www.zope.org site (I've seen
    Randall> Jon Udell rave about it in the past btw) and saw that it sounds
    Randall> like it is somehow more tightly tied to Python than to other
    Randall> scripting languages. Is that correct?

Well, you can write new methods or products in Python and you can write
methods in HTML.  ActiveState is working on methods in Perl I believe, but I 
don't know the timeframe.

    >> or something based on the HTTPServer class in the Python core should
    >> do the trick.  I use ZServer listening on 127.0.0.2 at port 9673 and
    >> have Apache running on the same machine with proxy support.  It then
    >> proxies to the server only those things I want the ZServer to see.

    Randall> So there is a plug-in for Apache that can route requests to
    Randall> ZServer?

I just use mod_rewrite to map interesting requests, e.g.:

    RewriteRule ^/(.*)\.shtml http://127.0.0.2:9673/filter?file=$1.shtml [P] 

which says to map any .shtml requests to the filter method on the ZServer.

    Randall> So this is possible to do with Apache and ZEngine and Apache
    Randall> can still handle all URLs that don't have a leading /webapps
    Randall> pattern?

*Everything* is possible with mod_rewrite... ;-)

    >> My ZServer then talks to a MySQL database using the MySQLdb module.
    >> If you want SQL connection capability I suspect you'll find Zope is
    >> much closer to a complete solution.

    Randall> Does ZServer support other RDBMSs? 

Yes, though I'm not expert enough to know all of them.  I know they support
Gadfly and Oracle.  Don't know about Postgres.

    Randall> With the Servlet API the actual act of asking for a session id
    Randall> causes the Tomcat engine (or any servlet api compliant
    Randall> container) to create one if it already doesn't exist and then
    Randall> to go set a cookie on the client browser all seamlessly without
    Randall> your having to do anything. Then it will do timeouts on the
    Randall> session id based on how long since it was last asked for. I'm
    Randall> hoping I can find something as slick and automatic in the
    Randall> Zope/Python world.

I wouldn't be surprised.  You might want to ask at zope at zope.org.  

-- 
Skip Montanaro, skip at mojam.com, http://www.mojam.com/, http://www.musi-cal.com/
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