Enhancement patch for mod_info.c for Apache 1.1.1 and 1.2.0

["Lou D. Langholtz" <ld...@usi.utah.edu>]

I've made a patch for code changes I've just finished that adds a
directive to the Info Module for adding additional information for
modules listed. It's available at
<http://www.eng.utah.edu/~ldl/apache/patches/1.2.0/97071001/>.

Some background as to why I did this...

It seems like a really important task I've often had, is helping users
become aware of the nifty features the web servers I've run have had.
mod_info has helped --- in that it shows what modules are available and
how they're configured --- but of course it couldn't be runtime
configured to show or link to any additional information as to for
instance what the directives would do. With these code changes to
mod_info.c it now can.

I'll keep a demonstration of it in use on a Apache 1.1.1 server
accessable at <http://www.usi.utah.edu/.info> through Monday July 14th,
US/MDT. Please let me know what you think of the addition, especially
wether I should expand the directive to also add info for the Server
Settings part of the info page listing. I'm thinking I will anyway but
I'd appreciate getting opinions either way. Thanks :-)

Lastly, I'll keep my fingers crossed (of course), that we can get
something like this installed into the distribution Apache at some point
before 2.0 ;-)

Re: Enhancement patch for mod_info.c for Apache 1.1.1 and 1.2.0

["Lou D. Langholtz" <ld...@usi.utah.edu>]

Rasmus Lerdorf wrote:
> 
> > I've made a patch for code changes I've just finished that adds a
> > directive to the Info Module for adding additional information for
> > modules listed. It's available at
> > <http://www.eng.utah.edu/~ldl/apache/patches/1.2.0/97071001/>.
> 
> It looks ok to me, but I am not sure all that many people would use this
> feature.
> 
> +0
> 
> -Rasmus

I won't deny trying to feature creep into the code :-)

On the other hand, this change really does seem useful for the web sites
I admin since lots of people do content but only I do the technical
stuff. For them, at least, anything I can do to help self-document the
server seems a plus. I've worked on technical web site FAQ lists and
other docs before and always felt like having a hook back like this
would help bring the information together more thouroughly.

The other thing I've wanted for sometime was an addition to the module
API... a const char string for a compile-time-configured URL that the
module's author could use to address information they wanted to provide
with their module --- like usage information, copyrights, or just
further author recognition. Kind of like Netscape's help menu that links
in help through external web pages. This also seems like another good
incentive for more companies to develop for Apache; more recognition. In
the meantime, the patch seems to take care of at least the usage part of
this and I don't believe that the extra functionality bloats the binary
size more than it's worth since its so little code.

Re: Enhancement patch for mod_info.c for Apache 1.1.1 and 1.2.0

[Rasmus Lerdorf <ra...@lerdorf.on.ca>]

> I've made a patch for code changes I've just finished that adds a
> directive to the Info Module for adding additional information for
> modules listed. It's available at
> <http://www.eng.utah.edu/~ldl/apache/patches/1.2.0/97071001/>.

It looks ok to me, but I am not sure all that many people would use this
feature.  

+0

-Rasmus

Re: Enhancement patch for mod_info.c for Apache 1.1.1 and 1.2.0

[Dean Gaudet <dg...@arctic.org>]

+1, I can appreciate the desire for this. 

Dean

On Fri, 11 Jul 1997, Lou D. Langholtz wrote:

> I've made a patch for code changes I've just finished that adds a
> directive to the Info Module for adding additional information for
> modules listed. It's available at
> <http://www.eng.utah.edu/~ldl/apache/patches/1.2.0/97071001/>.
> 
> Some background as to why I did this...
> 
> It seems like a really important task I've often had, is helping users
> become aware of the nifty features the web servers I've run have had.
> mod_info has helped --- in that it shows what modules are available and
> how they're configured --- but of course it couldn't be runtime
> configured to show or link to any additional information as to for
> instance what the directives would do. With these code changes to
> mod_info.c it now can.
> 
> I'll keep a demonstration of it in use on a Apache 1.1.1 server
> accessable at <http://www.usi.utah.edu/.info> through Monday July 14th,
> US/MDT. Please let me know what you think of the addition, especially
> wether I should expand the directive to also add info for the Server
> Settings part of the info page listing. I'm thinking I will anyway but
> I'd appreciate getting opinions either way. Thanks :-)
> 
> Lastly, I'll keep my fingers crossed (of course), that we can get
> something like this installed into the distribution Apache at some point
> before 2.0 ;-)
>