Forum OpenACS Q&A: Response to The future of mod_nsd and other web server support

Do I smell a flame ? :) I hope not.

Thanks for the comments, Stephen. I have a couple things to address, though:

  • On the technical side, the points made by Stephen are perfectly valid. It's not going to be as easy as nsvhr, because we need a protocol module and AOLserver doesn't have that, so patching in the core server will be needed. I will think of a way to do this as cleanly as possible.
  • Using FastCGI instead of a proxy module in the other web server (because we're talking about using another web server, not about dedicated proxies like squid in reverse mode) has the advantage of being supported by a couple different web servers, and being lower overhead than a proxy.
  • From an architectural point of view, this whole FastCGI stuff is silly indeed. As you said it, it remembers of buzzword compliance and three-tiered architectures.
  • The most important thing is that the FastCGI interface is *not* for those who are already happily running AOLserver. The recommended way of running OpenACS will not change. The fact that AOLserver is a great web server will not change either. This whole "make it usable with Apache" thing is however a very popular request, because many people are reluctant to change their web server. I didn't believe it either, but then I realized that most of people I talked to about (Open)ACS -- even one of my consulting clients -- asked "what is AOLserver, I never heard of it". As Johnny Rocoo mentioned, there are quite a few downloads of the Apache RPMs, and even so I'm sure that at least half of the newbies that download it give up, because mod_nsd kind of sucks right now.
  • Hosting. How many AOLserver hosting companies do you know? I know about 2, though let's suppose there are 5 and we don't know about them. Now, how many Apache hosting companies are there? A couple bazillions.
  • Inclusion into distributions. OpenACS is not included in any distribution right now, exactly because it requires another web server in place of the carefully configured Apache that the vendor ships.
  • Upgrade path. Suppose you're a newbie and you try out OpenACS, using Apache and AOLserver with FastCGI support. It's easy to setup, because you just grab a RPM and install it. After a while, you like OpenACS more and more and build a site with it. Eventually, you'll be willing to run AOLserver, but then all you need to do is change the AOLserver config file to disable the FastCGI stuff and enable the HTTP listener. Voila, you now have a fully working AOLserver with no FastCGI crap.