BE and web servers (was: Re: [be] Bibledit 4.0 packaged for Ubuntu - testing requested )

[Jonathan Marsden]

Teus Benschop wrote:

> 1. I tried accessing the home pages through Apache on Ubuntu 9.10, and
> this is what it says:
> Not Found
> The requested URL /~teus was not found on this server.
> Apache/2.2.12 (Ubuntu) Server at localhost Port 80

> What would the user or the bibledit installation script need to do to
> enable this function? By default serving homepages through apache seems
> to be switched off in Ubuntu and most likely other distributions too.

In Ubuntu, the commands would be

  sudo /usr/sbin/a2enmod userdir
  sudo /etc/init.d/apache2 restart

In Debian, you would probably do

  su -c "/usr/sbin/a2enmod userdir"
  su -c "/etc/init.d/apache2 restart"

(I did not test the latter one).

> A script that enables the functionality for Apache or other servers
> would help here.

See above.  But the whole idea of needing a *local* Apache installation
per Bibledit user seems... worth further discussion, shall we say.  For
example, could the server location be configured by the end user to
point to a single shared web server installation, for a group of users
working as a team?

Why does every single Bibledit user now need a web server for full
Bibledit functionality, and what do they lose if they choose *not* to
run a web server on their workstation?  Do the benefits outweigh the
extra fuss in getting a web server set up and running -- and how can BE
end users evaluate this?

If the web server functionality if truly necessary and is truly local
(per user), then perhaps BE should be configurable to start up its own
tiny little web server on an unused high port it selects per BE session,
bound only to localhost, and terminate the web server on BE exit ; this
way there is no conflict with other web servers running on the same
machine that may not be configured the way Bibledit expects or needs, etc.

> While I agree that bibledit should not dictate apache, does the user
> have a choice in e.g. Ubuntu to install another php and server push
> capable web server apart from Apache? Bibledit uses both of these
> technologies for sending and receiving messages. Server pushing
> technology is relatively new, and I am not sure how many web servers
> support this.

I'm not sure of their relative capabilities, but there is no shortage of
other web servers available in the Debian/Ubuntu world, including nginx,
thttpd, webfs, yaws, fnord, roxen and lighttpd :)

> This test was now removed from the ./configure script as it appeared to
> look for php-cli, not php itself which would have been enough. Other
> ways of testing the php-capability of the servers would need to be
> invented. Any thoughts?

Just send it a test HTTP request that needs PHP or whatever the exact
functionality requirement is, and see what it does in response.  If it
does the right thing, great, if not, warn the user :)  Of course this
needs to be a run time, not build-time, test, and could then test a
user-configured web server, or not test at all if the user explicitly
configured "no web server at all".  This way you could 'grey out' all
"web-server requiring" menu items if there is no available web server
suitable for BE, too.

Jonathan