Wiki source code of Configuring Apache for WebObjects

Last modified by Aaron Rosenzweig on 2020/09/03 22:17

version	line-number	content
27.1	1	== Overview ==
19.1	2
63.1	3	In a deployment scenario on Mac OS X, Linux, Solaris or even Windows, your applications will most likely use Apache to server static resources. Additionally, if you develop with WODirectConnectEnabled=false (you should, see the [[Direct Connect>>doc:WO.Home.To classify.Development-Direct Connect.WebHome]] section for details), you will be running your application locally through Apache as well. Apache is a very extensible web server that provides a huge number of capabilities, some of which we will detail here.
19.1	4
27.1	5	== Split Install ==
19.1	6
59.1	7	WebObjects applications are deployed in a "split install". A split install means that your application code, components, and resources are deployed in one location to be served from your WebObjects application (on OS X, {{code language="none"}}/Library/WebObjects/Applications/{{/code}}//YourApp//{{code language="none"}}{{/code}}{{code language="none"}}.woa{{/code}}), while your {{code language="none"}}WebServerResources{{/code}} are installed in another location (on OS X, {{code language="none"}}/Library/WebServer/Documents/WebObjects/{{/code}}//YourApp//{{code language="none"}}{{/code}}{{code language="none"}}.woa/Contents/WebServerResources{{/code}}) to be served directly by Apache. This provides the optimal performance scenario, as Apache is specifically tuned for serving static content, and it does not make sense to send requests for large binary files through WebObjects if it is not necessary.
19.1	8
59.1	9	== mod_expires ==
19.1	10
59.1	11	To get the most performance out of Apache, you should make sure that you have mod_expires enabled. mod_expires controls the caching headers that are applied to static resource requests. Depending on your installation, Apache may default to mod_expires disabled, which would cause your end-users' browser to re-request every resource on your site on every page, even if it's a common header graphic.
19.1	12
59.1	13	An example mod_expires configuration might look like:
19.1	14
59.1	15	{{code 0="xml"}}
23.1	16	<IfModule mod_expires.c>
	17	ExpiresActive On
	18	ExpiresDefault A60
	19	ExpiresByType image/bmp A3600
	20	ExpiresByType image/gif A3600
	21	ExpiresByType image/ief A3600
	22	ExpiresByType image/jpeg A3600
	23	ExpiresByType image/png A3600
	24	</IfModule>
19.1	25
23.1	26	{{/code}}
19.1	27
	28	You will also need the corresponding type-extension mappings:
	29
59.1	30	{{code 0="xml"}}
23.1	31	<IfModule mod_mime.c>
	32	AddType image/bmp bmp
	33	AddType image/gif gif
	34	AddType image/ief ief
	35	AddType image/jpeg jpeg
	36	AddType image/jpeg jpg
	37	AddType image/jpeg jpe
	38	...
	39	</IfModule>
19.1	40
23.1	41	{{/code}}
19.1	42
	43	This tells Apache that when a request is made for a type image/gif, the requesting browser will be told not to request the image again for an hour (A3600 = 3600 seconds).
	44
59.1	45	== mod_rewrite ==
19.1	46
59.1	47	Anyone who has used WebObjects has likely noticed that WebObjects URLs are long [[http:~~/~~/yoursite.com/cgi-bin/WebObjects/AppName.woa/wa/something>>url:http://yoursite.com/cgi-bin/WebObjects/AppName.woa/wa/something\|\|shape="rect"]]{{code language="none"}}{{/code}}. It is a common request to make these URLs nicer for end-users who are used to just requesting [[http:~~/~~/yoursite.com>>url:http://yoursite.com\|\|shape="rect"]]{{code language="none"}}{{/code}}. Fortunately Apache provides an amazingly extensive module called "mod_rewrite" that allows you to rewrite the URL requests of your site based on a series of regular expressions and rules.
19.1	48
60.1	49	Aaron Rosenzweig has a very thorough article about [[using mod_rewrite with Apache>>url:http://web.archive.org/web/20051216205025/http://www.jewelryluv.com/fashion/pageWithName/ModRewrite/\|\|shape="rect"]][[.>>url:http://www.jewelryluv.com/fashion/pageWithName/ModRewrite/\|\|shape="rect"]]
19.1	50
59.1	51	=== mod_rewrite with mod_webobjects ===
19.1	52
59.1	53	I ran into a problem with mod_rewrite when using mod_WebObjects where mod_WebObjects had be loaded first or it just wouldn't work properly (it would work fine with cgi-bin adaptor).
19.1	54
59.1	55	So in http.conf, search for mod_rewrite and change it to:
19.1	56
23.1	57	{{noformat}}
	58	LoadModule WebObjects_module /System/Library/WebObjects/Adaptors/Apache/mod_WebObjects.so
	59	LoadModule rewrite_module libexec/httpd/mod_rewrite.so
19.1	60
23.1	61	{{/noformat}}
19.1	62
	63	, find again:
	64
23.1	65	{{noformat}}
	66	AddModule mod_WebObjects.c
	67	AddModule mod_rewrite.c
19.1	68
23.1	69	{{/noformat}}
19.1	70
27.1	71	There's still a load module in /System/Library/WebObjects/Adaptors/Apache/apache.conf, but you can just ignore it - it produces a warning about being loaded twice.
19.1	72
27.1	73	=== Mike Schrag ===
19.1	74
59.1	75	Here's an example mod_rewrite we use on one of our apps:
19.1	76
59.1	77	{{code 0="xml"}}
23.1	78	<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
	79	RewriteEngine On
	80	RewriteRule ^/$ /page/HomePage [R]
	81	RewriteCond %{QUERY_STRING} ^appNum=([-0-9]+)(.*)$
	82	RewriteRule ^/page/(.*)$ /cgi-bin/WebObjects/AppName.woa/%1/wa/viewPage?pageName=$1%2 [L,PT]
	83	RewriteRule ^/page/(.*)$ /cgi-bin/WebObjects/AppName.woa/wa/viewPage?pageName=$1 [L,PT,QSA]
	84	</IfModule>
19.1	85
23.1	86	{{/code}}
19.1	87
59.1	88	The WOA produces URLs in the format [[http:~~/~~/site.com/page/HomePage?appNum=2>>url:http://site.com/page/HomePage?appNum=2\|\|shape="rect"]]{{code language="none"}}{{/code}}, which turns into [[http:~~/~~/site.com/cgi-bin/WebObjects/AppName.woa/2/viewPage?pageName=HomePage>>url:http://site.com/cgi-bin/WebObjects/AppName.woa/2/viewPage?pageName=HomePage\|\|shape="rect"]]{{code language="none"}}{{/code}}.
19.1	89
29.1	90
59.1	91
	92	{{id name="Apache22Adapter"/}}
	93
62.1	94	=== Ray Kiddy ===
	95
	96	This worked for me (September 2020) and seems easier to parse. I wanted to change all of "(% class="nolink" %)http:~/~/opencalaccess.org/cgi-bin/WebObjects/app.woa(%%)/" to "http:~/~/opencalaccess.org/app/" and this worked.
	97
	98	>RewriteEngine OnRewriteRule ^/$ /app [R]RewriteRule ^/index.html$ /app [R]RewriteRule ^/app(/(.*))?$ /cgi-bin/WebObjects/app.woa$1 [PT,L]
	99
	100	I inserted this into my file: /etc/apache2/sites-enabled/[[opencalaccess.org>>url:http://opencalaccess.org\|\|shape="rect"]].conf which specifies the values particular to this one domain.
	101
	102	I added this as arguments to the app:
	103
	104	(((
	105	(% class="Apple-tab-span" %)
	106
	107	>-Der.extensions.ERXApplication.replaceApplicationPath.pattern=/cgi-bin/WebObjects/app.woa-Der.extensions.ERXApplication.replaceApplicationPath.replace=/app
	108
	109	And you can, of course, do this in the Properties file as well. Much thanx to Stefan Gärtner on the mailing list (Subject: Re: Apache rules and SSL, 2020/08/27)
	110	)))
	111
57.1	112	=== Jeff Schmitz ===
	113
59.1	114	This one stumped me for a couple days, so thought I'd add it. Was trying to add mod_rewrite functionality as described above, and things went well on my dev machine by adding the rewrite rules just to the /etc/apache2/httpd.conf file. However, on the deployment machine I also had to add them to the /etc/apache2/sites/0000_any_.conf file.
57.1	115
27.1	116	== WebObjects Adaptor for Apache 2.2 ==
19.1	117
27.1	118	=== Travis Cripps ===
19.1	119
59.1	120	A number of people have expressed interest in using the WebObjects adaptor with Apache 2.2.x. I finally gotten a chance to sit down and work on it today. I'm writing to let you know that it's available in the Project Wonder CVS repository. (also there are [[precompiled binaries>>url:http://wocommunity.org/documents/tools/mod_WebObjects/\|\|shape="rect"]] for various OS available)
19.1	121
59.1	122	The necessary changes turned out to be mostly minor updates to change calls to outdated/deprecated functions. The biggest (and non-trivial) change was for SSL support. It's been re-written to use Apache's mod_ssl module.
19.1	123
59.1	124	I've tested with MacOS X 10.4.7, Apache 2.2.2, with and without ssl support. It works in all of my tests.
19.1	125
59.1	126	Configuration of the web server to work with the adaptor turned out to be surprisingly challenging, due to the new, very strict default access rules that ship in Apache 2.2.x httpd.conf file. Once I discovered that, it was trivial to change the setting, but it's worth mentioning here to save some people a lot of frustration.
19.1	127
	128	The new default configuration is:
	129
59.1	130	{{code 0="xml"}}
23.1	131	<Directory />
	132	Options FollowSymLinks
	133	AllowOverride None
	134	Order deny,allow
	135	Deny from all
	136	</Directory>
19.1	137
23.1	138	{{/code}}
19.1	139
59.1	140	Your options are to comment out the last 2 lines of that block, or to override them in a VirtualHost block. Just setting the usual Location block didn't seem to work for me.
19.1	141
	142	And, of course, either change the name of the WebObjectsAlias setting from /cgi-bin/WebObjects to <foo>/WebObjects or comment out the ScriptAlias definition for the /cgi-bin/ directory.
	143
57.1	144	{{info title="Note"}}
59.1	145	The default {{code language="none"}}ScriptAlias{{/code}} directive in the 10.5 and 10.6 {{code language="none"}}httpd.conf{{/code}} files is:
57.1	146
59.1	147	{{noformat}}
57.1	148	ScriptAliasMatch ^/cgi-bin/((?!(?i:webobjects)).*$) "/Library/WebServer/CGI-Executables/$1"
	149
59.1	150	{{/noformat}}
	151
	152	This prevents {{code language="none"}}/cgi-bin/WebObjects{{/code}} from matching, so no change to {{code language="none"}}WebObjectsAlias{{/code}} or {{code language="none"}}ScriptAlias{{/code}} is necessary.
57.1	153	{{/info}}
	154
19.1	155	Other than these tips, it's pretty much the standard compilation and installation, and configuration.
	156
59.1	157	1. Alter the make.config file in the Adaptors directory of the Wonder repository to reflect your apache installation setup.*
19.1	158	1. Run make to build the Adaptor
59.1	159	1. Curse because of that one setting you forgot. Fix it.
19.1	160	1. make clean; make
59.1	161	1. Install the mod_WebObjects module with apxs
19.1	162	1. Configure your httpd.conf and either link or copy the WebObjects directory from the standard location (if on MacOS X) to your new htdocs directory.
	163	1. apachectl configtest; apachectl graceful
	164	1. Test.
59.1	165	1. Curse again. Change the httpd.conf file as necessary.
	166	1. apachectl graceful. Go to 8 as necessary.
	167	1. Finally! apachectl graceful
19.1	168
59.1	169	Enjoy your shiny new WO adaptor.
19.1	170
59.1	171	* (((
	172	Note: if you are getting the error
19.1	173
23.1	174	{{noformat}}
	175	libtool: compile: unable to infer tagged configuration
	176	libtool: compile: specify a tag with `--tag'
	177	apxs:Error: Command failed with rc=65536
19.1	178
23.1	179	{{/noformat}}
59.1	180	)))
19.1	181
	182	Add to the end of your make.config the following:
59.1	183	{{code language="none"}}CC = gcc{{/code}}
60.1	184
	185	== Webobjects Adaptor for Apache 2.4 ==
	186
	187	=== Access control ===
	188
	189	Check out [[http:~~/~~/httpd.apache.org/docs/2.4/upgrading.html#access>>url:http://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.4/upgrading.html#access\|\|shape="rect"]]
	190
	191	In 2.2, access control based on client hostname, IP address, and other characteristics of client requests was done using the directives [[Order>>url:http://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.4/mod/mod_access_compat.html#order\|\|shape="rect"]]{{code language="none"}}{{/code}}, [[Allow>>url:http://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.4/mod/mod_access_compat.html#allow\|\|shape="rect"]]{{code language="none"}}{{/code}}, [[Deny>>url:http://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.4/mod/mod_access_compat.html#deny\|\|shape="rect"]]{{code language="none"}}{{/code}}, and [[Satisfy>>url:http://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.4/mod/mod_access_compat.html#satisfy\|\|shape="rect"]]{{code language="none"}}{{/code}}.
	192
	193	In 2.4, such access control is done in the same way as other authorization checks, using the new module [[mod_authz_host>>url:http://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.4/mod/mod_authz_host.html\|\|shape="rect"]]{{code language="none"}}{{/code}}. The old access control idioms should be replaced by the new authentication mechanisms, although for compatibility with old configurations, the new module [[mod_access_compat>>url:http://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.4/mod/mod_access_compat.html\|\|shape="rect"]]{{code language="none"}}{{/code}} is provided.
	194
	195	==== 2.2 configuration: ====
	196
	197	{{code}}
	198	<Location /cgi-bin/WebObjects/>
	199	Order allow,deny
	200	Allow from all
	201	</Location>
	202	{{/code}}
	203
	204	====
	205	2.4 configuration: ====
	206
	207	{{code}}
	208	<Location /cgi-bin/WebObjects/>
	209	Require all granted
	210	</Location>
	211	{{/code}}

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