Webware for Python

I've been meaning to write a "PlugInTemplate" which you copy and change to 
fit your stuff. This sounds like a good situation to force me to do it. :-)

I also I have "write the plug-in author's guide" on my list, but you're not 
likely to get that in the next 24 hrs. In lieu of that, you can use the 
template and ask me all the questions you want.

In those cases where we want to do a plug-in, but the hooks aren't quite 
there in WebKit, we will add those hooks. In fact, we already did this for 
the upcoming Win32Kit. We'll keep the hooks fairly generic. For example, 
the last hooks were the new initThread() and delThread() methods in 
AppServer. You can't tell that Win32Kit prompted those.


It's interesting that on another list, someone mentioned that one of the 
goals for the next AOLserver release was to make everything modular so 
people could use the pieces they want, possibly outside of the server. I'm 
surprised by how many open source projects just turn into monoliths which 
later have to be painfully hacked apart.

I'm glad we avoided that mess. :-)

-Chuck


At 03:53 PM 8/24/00 -0700, Daniel Green wrote:
>Once I'm done integrating the DirectoryProperties stuff (relatively easy), I
>want to add the AuthenticationHandlers. What would be the best way to do this?
>Hack it right into the request loop, or would it be possible to write it as a
>plug-in? Can anybody point me in the proper direction for plug-in writing?
>
>I would prefer the plug-in method myself.
>
>=====
>Daniel Green
>Software Designer

Here's a little more info related to the authentication feature Dan is 
championing.

The core logic of Application.dispatchRequest() is basically this part:

	## ssPath = "server side path for the request's URL"
	if ssPath is None:
		self.handleBadURL(transaction)
	elif isdir(ssPath) and noslash(request.pathInfo()): # (*) see below
		self.handleDeficientDirectoryURL(transaction)
	elif self.isSessionIdProblematic(request):
		self.handleInvalidSession(transaction)
	else:
		self.handleGoodURL(transaction)


So we basically hit one of these four methods:
	self.handleBadURL(transaction)
	self.handleDeficientDirectoryURL(transaction)
	self.handleInvalidSession(transaction)
	self.handleGoodURL(transaction)

handleGoodURL() is literally:

	def handleGoodURL(self, transaction):
		self.createServletInTransaction(transaction)
		self.awake(transaction)
		self.respond(transaction)
		self.sleep(transaction)


Perhaps it would be appropriate for the authentication plug-in to subclass 
Application, override handleGoodURL() and do the right thing regarding 
authentication, then call super.

Or, since authentication is a pretty common and core concept to serving, we 
could explicitly provide a hook for it in handleGoodURL(), but the default 
handler would be a no-op and WebKit would define a basic Authenticator 
class to dictate the interface it expects.

Thoughts?

-Chuck