Apache Week issue 290

                                APACHE WEEK
                                      
The essential weekly guide for users of the world's most popular Web server.
                         Issue 290: 5th April 2002
                                      
                                 In this issue
                                       
     * Under development
     * Featured articles
     * Book Review: mod_perl Developer's Cookbook
     * Apache Week giveaway
       
                               Under development
                                       
     The long-awaited "bucket freelist" patch was committed this week by
     Cliff Woolley. Before this change, the bucket brigade code
     (underlying the filters interface in 2.0) directly used malloc and
     free for allocating buckets (on which filters operate: a bucket
     represents a piece of data being processed). The new behaviour has
     been optimised to re-use memory without calling free, giving a
     significant performance improvement. Some benchmarks were posted
     comparing some mod_include test pages; one page being processed
     over over three times faster using the current 2.0 code than in
     1.3.24.
     
     The next release of Apache 2.0, due to be 2.0.34 (which was
     [1]tagged last week), remains on hold as problems were discovered
     in mod_autoindex, due to some complex interactions in the handling
     of filters during sub-request processing.
     
                               Featured articles
                                       
     In this section we highlight some of the articles on the web that
     are of interest to Apache users.
     
     [2]"Apache 2.0 - A Look Under the Hood" which first appeared in the
     January 2002 issue of Linux Magazine is now available online. It
     takes a high-level look at the differences between Apache 1.3.x and
     Apache 2.0, and also touches on the changes required to port custom
     Apache 1.3.x modules for this version 2.0.
     
     Jeremy Zawodny explains what you need to do when you finally decide
     to migrate your current Web site with all its plain HTML files to a
     PHP-enabled Apache web server in this [3]article. It assumes that
     PHP is already built into your copy of Apache so it just walks you
     through the steps of configuring Apache's httpd.conf file, and then
     shows you how to use .htaccess files, and mod_rewrite to avoid
     broken links when you rename some of your .html files to .php.
     
     Perl.com starts a new series with its first installment which
     [4]introduces AxKit, an XML Application Server for Apache. It
     describes what AxKit is, lists the pros, guides you through a
     manual installation, and then accesses its test page after
     configuring it. Diagrams are used effectively to illustrate the
     pipelining technique.
     
     A tutorial entitled [5]"Apache SOAP type mapping, Part 1" examines
     the type system support provided by the Apache SOAP toolkit with
     focus on the Remote Procedure Call (RPC) model. It also explores
     the API support for serialisation and deserialisation.
     
                  Book Review: mod_perl Developer's Cookbook
                                       
     Perl developers who want to create Web applications by harnessing
     the flexibility of Apache, and mod_perl enabled Apache web site
     administrators are the target audience of this book. Meanwhile, the
     authors intended it to be a practical, hands-on reference guide
     containing working, real-world examples. All
     
     This 650-page book has 17 chapters and 3 appendices, grouped under
     three main parts - Part I covers installing and configuring
     mod_perl, Part II covers the mod_perl API, and Part III covers each
     of the Apache directives provided by mod_perl. The essence of each
     part is summarised at the start before moving on to the individual
     chapters. Each chapter begins with an introduction, is then
     followed by subsections referred to in the book as recipes. Each
     recipe is for a specific task or problem and has the following
     format - it states the objective of the task in just one sentence,
     proceeds to provide the code for the task under the "Technique"
     subsection, and then explains what the code does under the
     "Comments" subsection. There are a total of 192 recipes.
     
     Although the authors cautioned that this book is by no means
     comprehensive, I would say that this book is as close as a book can
     get to become the bible of mod_perl so if you are really serious
     about mod_perl, then get it by all means! It may set you back
     nearly 30 pounds (USD40) but it is well worth-it. Even if you are a
     beginner, eventually you will find this book useful after you are
     through with all the online mod_perl guides and documentation.
     Experts will have fun jumping right in, going through the recipes
     and rediscovering the joy of finding a dish that they have not
     tasted before.
     
     [6]Read our full review
     
                             Apache Week giveaway
                                       
     We have three copies of the "mod_perl Developer's Cookbook" to give
     away to lucky readers, thanks to the authors. For a chance to get
     your hands on a copy of this book, answer this simple question:
     
     What is the main ingredient in [7]Chilli Con Carne?
     A) Beef B) Vodka C) Chocolate
     
     Send your answer (A, B, or C) to [8][email protected] to reach us
     no later than 16th April 2002. We do read all the entries, so if
     you have something on your mind about Apache Week, Apache security,
     or life in general, add it after your answer. Your e-mail address
     will not be used for anything other than to let you know if you
     won. Three winners will be drawn at random from all correct entries
     submitted, we disqualify people who make more than one entry, no
     cash alternative, void where prohibited, editors' decision is
     final.
       ______________________________________________________________
     
     This issuefeature brought to you by: Mark J Cox, Joe Orton, Min Min
     Tsan
     Comments or criticisms? Please email us at
     [9][email protected].
     
     [10]Apache Week is copyright 1996-2002 by [11]Red Hat, Inc.

References

   1. http://www.apacheweek.com/issues/02-03-29#dev
   2. http://www.linux-mag.com/2002-01/apache_01.html
   3. http://www.linux-mag.com/2002-01/lamp_01.html
   4. http://www.perl.com/pub/a/2002/03/12/axkit.html
   5. http://www-106.ibm.com/developerworks/webservices/library/ws-soapmap1/
   6. http://www.apacheweek.com/features/book-mod_perlcookbook
   7. http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/nakedchef/recipe_wk1.shtml#chilli
   8. mailto:[email protected]
   9. mailto:[email protected]
  10. http://www.apacheweek.com/
  11. http://www.redhat.com/

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