[ZDP] (Fwd) Re: [ZDP] Euhm, forget previous mail about ZServer....

[Rik Hoekstra]

Corrections between <> below. <x ...x> means delete phrase.

Rik


> 
> II.3 Architecture
> 
> When a HTTP request comes into a HTTP server it is passed to the
> Zope Publisher. The Zope Publisher in turn passes the request to the
> Zope Object Request Broker. The ZORB breaks the request into several
> parts and finds from this information the exact object to publish,
> which may be in the requested location, or acquired from above. The
> object then is asked to publish itself. It does this by returning a
> template which is passed back up to the Zope Publisher, throught the
> ZORB. The Publisher renders the template, calling the ZORB to render
> variables or make calls to other objects, using the original
> environment of the object. This final information is returned to the
> HTTP server.
> 
> Seeing <looking>
> at the architecture, we <can x> 
> see several modules in a layered
> structure. Thanks to the layered approach, i.e. dividing the
> publishing process into a number of discrete steps, the system is
> easily adjusted or upgraded to new protocols. Changing one layer
> doesn't affect the others and vice versa, because they aren't
> interwoven.
> 
> Please, remark that however we only speak of <tallked/wrote  about>
> a HTTP server and its <the> HTTP Protocol, we're not totally correct
> to do so. We've only talked about HTTP, because this is the first
> and most expanded <widely used> protocol  in <to publish> Zope for
> the moment. The FTP protocol is recently added, as <is> WebDav.
> 
> II.3.1 ZServer
> 
> Previously we were talking <wrote/said> that Zope could be used with
> almost every WebServer (cgi enabled) on the planet and here we are,
> talking about a server layer. Oh no, we weren't talking rubbish in
> the previous paragraphs. It's still possible to use Zope with
> another webserver, although you might loose some flexibility, like
> FTP <access>. Now you may think that this the bottleneck of Zope:
> 'You can use another webserver, but you loose some of the benifits,
> so we push you to use the ZServer'... On the contrary! It is even
> possible to make a construction so that ZServer acts as a layer
> between Apache and ZServer. And this set-up, gives you the benefits
> of both worlds: i.e. with Apache, you can still publish 'normal'
> web-sites and you can use the extra benefits which Apache offers,
> like virtual servers etc. On the other hand however, thanks to
> ZServer, you can access Zope through FTP and WebDav. Isn't this a
> beauty <wonderful>? However, how beautifull it may sound at first,
> if you're a beginner, I would advice you to wait for creating such
> constructions... because it asks for <requires> several settings.
> So, at first I would advise you to only use ZServer (or if you're
> already experienced with another WebServer, use that instead). Why
> do I advise you to use ZServer if you're a beginner? Well, ZServer
> is easy installed, almost no <without> configuration. And that's a
> releave if your a totally beginner. Ever installed Apache? It's
> great, but you've to set several configuration files and therefor
> you need to know what you're doing... So most of the time -seeing
> the tremendous benefits of using ZServer- Zope will be installed to
> use it's own build in server, as stand-alone webserver or acting as
> a layer. So, we can think of the Z Server as the general first layer
> of <to access>  Zope (see picture of our architecture).
> 
> 
>Th at said, we can actually talk about ZSer<let's say some more 
abou> Zserver .
> ZServer wasn't there with the first release of Zope. It's precessor <predecessor> is
> called ZopeHTTPServer which is a simple Python based webserver. And,
> if I may give my advise, it would be even better to install
> ZopeHTTPServer than ZServer. ZopeHTTPServer needs totally <absolutely> no 
> configuration! And it works immediately. Offcourse <Of course>, there is also
> another side of the coin: it lacks on performance and other
> feasabilities <features?> compared to other web servers. For instance, it can
> only publish via HTTP and can only publish one module at a time. And
> it has no support for thread pools. To overcome these problems, a
> successor is created, named ZServer 

<Zserver was created to overcome thes problems; 
is this true? Methinks ZServer was created to be able to publish 
Zope simultaneously in a number of different ways, which was hard 
to accomplish in another way>

>. ZServer itself is based on
> Medusa, <x which is x> created by Sam Rushing and by which <with whom> the Zope
> creaters have an agreement with. Also Medusa is a Python server
> framework <Medusa is a server framework also written in Python???>
>. Besides getting rid of the limitations of ZopeHTTPServer,
> ZServer gives HTTP, FTP, WebDav and PCGI access. Other protocols
> will probably follow (eg. FastCGI). So, ZServer is not only an HTTP
> Server, like Apache, it is  <much>more. But then again Apache is very
> specialised <specialized> as a HTTP Server.
> 
><x If you need more information on the provided protocols, then 
you can
> read the following paragraphs x>
> 
> FTP Support
> 
><x  What is so special about this FTP support? Well, x> FTP support 
can
> become very handy when creating your website. Instead of getting the
> rendered document, because that's what you get you use the HTTP
> protocol, you get the contents of the document. 

<If you use the HTTP protocol, you get the document as it is 
rendered on the web.  FTP access gives you access to the DTML 
source of the document>

>Besides this
> benefit <Moreover>, you get all other FTP protocol benefits (like navigating
> the object hierachy with 'cd' command), next <in addition> to the things you can
> also do when working with HTTP protocol (e.g. replacing content of
> Documents, Images and files. Creating or Deleting them).
> 
> WebDav Support
> 
> At the moment, WebDav is a relative newly protocol. It's almost
> nowhere implemented... <hardly anywhere> that it is implemented in Zope, only gives
> you an idea how fast Zope is growing and updated! Basically, WebDav
> is an extension to the HTTP/1.1 protocol. It uses some extra HTTP
> commands, like 'OPTIONS' to implement it's functionality.
> Traditional webservers block commands they don't recognize (even
> Apache needs a patch to allow these extensions of the HTTP
> protocpm <protocol>), instead of propagating the command to Zope, resulting in
> breaking WebDav. Note however, that blocking of unrecognised
> commands is a good policy. It surely makes everything much safer. In
> simple words WebDav means that you can open an URL as a Web Folder.
> Its just like you would open a local folder on your computer, but
> now this folder resides somewhere on the net. 

<at least that's how it is implemented in IE 5> <some words about 
other WebDAV clients, which I don't know anything about>


> 
> PCGI Support
> 
> The PCGI support enables the possibility to forward request from
> another web server to ZServer <just like normal CGI>. The other web server is then in
> charge of controlling the CGI environment and HTTP headers. So this
> means that you're not using ZServer for HTTP requests. The
> speciality of PCGI is that it provides web applications with a
> long-running server process in which to operate. Thus alleviating
> performance problems associated with CGI programs. Do think however
> that with this method, you've to manage the environment of the other
> web server which can impose a large overhead if you're not acquinted <acquainted>
> with that one. But ofcourse <of course>, it can give you the benefits of both
> worlds (ie. the large support of protocols by ZServer with the
> specialities of the other web server). PCGI was originally developed
> at Digital Creations, but leadership of the project has now shifted
> to Jeff Bauer, a well-known Zope developer.
> 
> II.3.2 Zope Publisher
> 
> Z Publisher is the layer that communicates to the external
> environment, which is usually, like explained in the previous
> paragraph the Z Server itself (occasionally another web server), but
> may be any properly designed program, or example, ZClient is a
> program which permits Z Publisher access to be easily scripted
> without needing an active web server or HTTP calls. 

<Z Publisher is the layer that communicates to the external
environment.As I explained in the previous
paragraph this usually is either Z Server itself or
another web server, but it may be any properly designed program. For 
or example, ZClient is a program which permits Z Publisher access to 
be easily scripted without needing an active web server or HTTP 
calls. It also possible to use ZPublisher directly from python or 
from the command line, which is good for debugging your Zope 
application.>

>There exists <exist>
> several protocols which can be used in conjunction with your choosen
> web server. Among others, Zope can be accessed through CGI, PCGI,
> FastCGI, Netscape's Web Application Interface (WAI), COM, Medusa
> (which provides HTTP, WebDAV, and FTP), and the included
> ZopeHTTPServer. <Using Z Server?> Zope can even listen to different protocols
> simultaneously, into the same object system. Zope is moving towards
> ZODB3, which will provide concurrency, and allow truly
> multi-threaded access to the object database.
> 
> The Z Publisher itself contains several modules. One of these
> modules <the most important??> is the Zope Object Request Broker. Because Z ORB is the
> mostly used module of Z Publisher, most of the time, people use
> these two terms in one sentence. So sometimes when speaking of Z
> Publisher, people mean the ZORB and vica versa.
> 
> Tom.