[Zope] ZServer -> Apache/mod_proxy -> mod_gzip: Possible???

[Paul Horbal]

Hi everyone...  

After following Oliver's advice and bumbling through the mod_gzip mailing list further, I've gotten mod_gzip to start compressing all the Zope stuff served through Apache.  Here's a listing of the entries in my httpd.conf for anybody else that would like to try it (I highly recommend it):

# In the main part of httpd.conf

        mod_gzip_on     Yes
        mod_gzip_can_negotiate  Yes
        mod_gzip_add_header_count       Yes
        mod_gzip_minimum_file_size      400
        mod_gzip_maximum_file_size      0
        mod_gzip_temp_dir       /tmp
        mod_gzip_keep_workfiles No
        mod_gzip_maximum_inmem_size     100000
        mod_gzip_dechunk        Yes


        mod_gzip_item_include   mime    ^text/*
        mod_gzip_item_include   mime    httpd/unix-directory
        mod_gzip_item_include   file    \.htm$
        mod_gzip_item_include   file    \.html$
        mod_gzip_item_include   handler proxy-server
        mod_gzip_item_include   handler cgi-script

        mod_gzip_item_exclude   rspheader       Content-Type:image/*
        mod_gzip_item_exclude   mime    text/css
        mod_gzip_item_exclude   file    \.css$
        mod_gzip_item_exclude   file    \.js$


# Now the VirtualHost for my Zope ZServer

<VirtualHost xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx>
  ServerName www.foo.com
  ServerAdmin me@foo.com

  ProxyPass / http://foo:8080/zopedir/
  ProxyPassReverse / http://foo:8080/zopedir/
  ProxyPass /misc_ http://foo:8080/misc_
  ProxyPass /p_ http://foo:8080/p_
</VirtualHost>


Note the salient features:

a) ...include mime ^text/*  -- tells mod_gzip to look for any file with a mime type of "text" - this includes most stuff served up through Zope IIRC

b) ...include handler proxy-server  --  reminds mod_gzip to try and intercept mod_proxy requests too (this is the part I was missing)

c) ...exclude rspheader Content-Type:image/*  --  tells mod_gzip not to bother compressing images (the gain is minimal in most cases and actually chokes NS4 browsers)



cheers,
Paul.





On Wed, Nov 28, 2001 at 10:21:17AM +0100, Oliver Bleutgen wrote:
> Paul Horbal wrote:
> 
> > Hi everyone,
> > 
> > I've searched high and low but I can't find any documentation for 
> > setting up mod_gzip to work with a Zope server (ZServer) being served 
> > through Apache's mod_proxy with the ProxyPass directives.
> > 
> > Is this possible at the moment?  Is there maybe a Zope product that 
> > handles gzipping served pages?  This seems like a really good idea...
> > 
> > I have mod_gzip working with Apache - other VirtualHosts on the same 
> > machine that aren't proxied serve gzipped pages - but apparently 
> > mod_proxy and mod_gzip don't like to play in the same sandbox.  Other 
> > people have reported success using mod_rewrite instead...  Is there some 
> > sort of performance hit you sustain in this case?  If not, how do you 
> > set that up?  =)
> 
> 
> HI Paul,
> 
> I use mod_proxy + mod_gzip and it works great - if it weren't for the 
> damn browsers ;-). Seriously, there can be some gotchas, but all 
> encountered were client side problems.
> 
> I use mod proxy, invoced via a rewrite rule (RewriteRule .... [P])
> The only thing which might be special is
> mod_gzip_item_include handler proxy-server
> 
> There are some examples on the mod_gzip homepage&mailing lists.
> 
> cheers,
> oliver
> 
> 
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-- 
horbal@atips.ca