| The Apache/Perl integration project brings together the full power of |
| the Perl programming language and the Apache HTTP server. This is |
| achieved by linking the Perl runtime library into the server and |
| providing an object oriented Perl interface to the server's C language |
| API. |
| These pieces are seamlessly glued together by the `mod_perl' server |
| plugin, making it is possible to write Apache modules entirely in |
| Perl. In addition, the persistent interpreter embedded in the server |
| avoids the overhead of starting an external interpreter program and |
| the additional Perl start-up (compile) time. |
| |
| Without question, the most popular Apache/Perl module is |
| Apache::Registry module. This module emulates the CGI environment, |
| allowing programmers to write scripts that run under CGI or |
| mod_perl without change. Existing CGI scripts may require some |
| changes, simply because a CGI script has a very short lifetime of one |
| HTTP request, allowing you to get away with "quick and dirty" |
| scripting. Using mod_perl and Apache::Registry requires you to be |
| more careful, but it also gives new meaning to the work "quick"! |
| Apache::Registry maintains a cache of compiled scripts, which happens |
| the first time a script is accessed by a child server or once again if |
| the file is updated on disk. |
| |
| Although it may be all you need, a speedy CGI replacement is only a |
| small part of this project. Callback hooks are in place for each stage |
| of a request. Apache-Perl modules may step in during the handler, |
| header parser, uri translate, authentication, authorization, access, |
| type check, fixup, logger and cleanup stages of a request. |
| |
| Apache/Perl modules include: |
| Apache::Registry - Run unaltered CGI scripts |
| Apache::Status - Embedded interpreter runtime status |
| Apache::Embperl - Embed Perl code in HTML documents |
| Apache::SSI - Implement server-side includes in Perl |
| Apache::DBI - Maintain persistent DBI connections |
| Apache::DCELogin - Obtain a DCE Login context |
| Apache::AuthenDBI - Authenticate via Perl DBI/DBD::* |
| Apache::AuthzAge - Authorize based on age |
| Apache::AccessLimitNum - Limit user access by number of requests |
| Apache::Constants - Constants defined in httpd.h |
| Apache::MsqlProxy - Translate URI's into mSQL database queries |
| |
| There's plenty more Apache/Perl software you might be interested in. |
| The Apache/Perl module list keeps track of modules inside and outside |
| the distribution, along with idea placeholders. |
| |
| It is also possible to use Perl to configure your server (in |
| *.conf files) with <Perl> sections. This eases often complicated and |
| cumbersome configuration of vitrual host and various resources. Since |
| any Perl code can be used in these sections, configuration info could |
| be pulled in from an RDBMS with DBI or your favorite database package. |
| |
| While the output of mod_perl scripts can be included with Server Side |
| Includes just as CGI scripts can, mod_perl's integration with |
| mod_include gives an extra speed boost and allows Perl code to be |
| directly inside SSI files. |
| |
| For comments, questions, bug-reports, announcements, etc., join the |
| Apache/Perl mailing list by sending mail to |
| modperl@apache.org with the string "subscribe modperl" in |
| the body. |
| |
| There is a hypermail archive for this list available from: |
| http://outside.organic.com/mail-archives/modperl/ |
| |
| The mod_perl FAQ is available from: |
| http://www.ping.de/~fdc/mod_perl/ |
| |
| For more general information see the Apache/Perl homepage: |
| http://perl.apache.org/ |
| or |
| http://apache.perl.org/ |
| |
| Enjoy, |
| -Doug MacEachern (dougm@perl.apache.org) |
| |
