apache as an application platform?

[Brad Harper <br...@epsiia.com>]

I'm attempting to scope out the amount and type of work necessary to
re-implement a legacy one-off server application. It is centered around
search and retrieval of content. The input is special-purpose and currently
being indexed by a home-grown technology that predates lucene or any other
of the OS alternatives.

I'm considering use of a stripped-down apache server using domain-specific
modules as the application platform, leveraging APR and pre-existing modules
for security, SSL, logging, etc. The search technology would become
lucene-based.

The original app uses raw sockets to read a fit-to-purpose protocol and
returns content with a primitive payload header. With HTTP/HTTPS as a
protocol, I'm further considering re-implementation of this interface as a
web-service, using XML-RPC.

The original server is implemented in C++ of varying quality. The apache
route seems attractive, rather than a Tomcat re-write, since the caching,
thread-safety, security, etc. is largely handled by httpd. I'm hoping that
much of the domain-specific logic can be re-used and moved into modules.

Comments anyone? Pros? Cons? Has anyone attempted anything like this?

Thanks.

Brad
-- 
View this message in context: http://www.nabble.com/apache-as-an-application-platform--tf3903240.html#a11066219
Sent from the Apache HTTP Server - Module Writers mailing list archive at Nabble.com.

Re: apache as an application platform?

[Joachim Zobel <jz...@heute-morgen.de>]

Am Montag, den 11.06.2007, 11:46 -0700 schrieb Brad Harper: 
> The original server is implemented in C++ of varying quality. 

You should have a look at mod_cpp. If it is usable, you avoid talking
directly to the apache C API from C++.

> The apache
> route seems attractive, rather than a Tomcat re-write, since the caching,
> thread-safety, security, etc. is largely handled by httpd. 

Rewriting is actually the easy way out. Apache has reached a level of
complexity where some people consider it easier to write their own httpd
than to use/extend apache.

> I'm hoping that
> much of the domain-specific logic can be re-used and moved into modules.

If you have a good spec for that, rewriting may be easier.

Sincerely,
Joachim