[Zope] ZServer Problems

[Brian Lloyd]

> Tim wrote:
> > I  have ZServer up and running on both Solaris 2.6 and Linux.
> > 
> > I can get it to serve pages doing http and pcgi through 
> > Netscape Enterprise
> > Server.
> > 
> > WebDAV works when done through ZServer, but not Enterprise 
> > Server. I thought
> > I had read somewhere that this would work regardless of the 
> > web server being
> > used (but I have not the slightest idea why it should).
> 
> I'm not surprised that it doesn't work with Netscape server.  
> WebDAV to
> Zope doesn't actually work with Apache either -- it requires 
> a four line
> patch, as Apache intercepts one of WebDAV HTTP method calls.
> 
> Fundamentally, Netscape is probably refusing to pass HTTP 
> methods to CGI
> scripts.   Just my guess.  This means the Netscape plugin 
> would need to
> be modified.
> 
> --Paul

It's actually much worse than that - NSE gives you only an API,
not the ability to patch source code (which is not available), so
you are stuck with the capabilities given you by the API. Last I
looked, there was no way to circumvent NSE's internal handling of 
HTTP methods using the nsapi, which means _no_one_ will be able
to implement a WebDAV-enabled _anything_ under that server until 
Netscape makes it possible... :(

FWIW, NSE understands its own set of "extended" HTTP methods
which are similar to (but not compatible with) the new HTTP
methods defined in DAV. These extensions and their semantics
were created by NS to add value to their servers and make them
work with their proprietary authoring tools, so I don't know
how motivated NS would be to change the current situation. 

If WebDAV takes off, they may be motivated to support it, but
it's quite possible that they would just map DAV methods to their
own internal code (just as they do now) and still prevent back-end
app servers from handling these methods directly.



Brian Lloyd        brian@digicool.com
Software Engineer  540.371.6909              
Digital Creations  http://www.digicool.com