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I've been looking around the options for dynamic web content recently for various projects. One of them is to be hosted under IIS, the other I can do with as I please. The IIS based one required a CMS so that many people can add content. The original request was for something that used ASP, VBScript and Access databases and was not .NET. I searched around and found nothing suitable. Widening the search I came across Drupal which seemed to fit the bill except that it was PHP and MySQL.
At about the same time I was considering this I came across the PHP EasyWindows Installer which installs PHP as a CGI engine which is cool enough, I don't think I have to worry about high volume traffic.
So I installed it and MySQL on Windows XP and it runs a treat. The pages are server up quite swiftly and the package looks quite powerful. It looks nicely designed: a clear segragation between content (all stored in the database) layout (a single, nicely laid out template file that builds all the pages on the site, easily edited in HTML-Kit) and formatting (.CSS).
I'm still exploring it but it is looking suitable for my needs and the person I am doing it for has agreed to install PHP and MySQL on his windows box. I'm not reluctant to learn PHP although I find that after python all the $s in the code look like noise: not as bad as perl (from which it is distantly related) but nearly so. The drupal source that I have looked through is quite clean. There is not a great deal of documentation but that is par for the course. I might not even need to write any PHP, I've found modules to do most of the things I want.
One nice thing about Drupal that Python Desktop Server is lacking: a button to preview messages before submitting them.
For my other project I am looking into a way to present email archives on a web site. I've looked through various options, none of which appealed:
- HyperLink
Crude presentation, no Gentoo ebuild.
- MHonarch
Gentoo package failed to emerge
- Macho
Nice presentation but an embarrasing name to search for on the net and also written in lisp (((ugh))). I don't really want to install yet another language and I certainly don't want to learn lisp.
- Mailman
GNU list manager thing which includes a modern version of PiperMail which was what I wanted (python email->web code). I installed it but was boggled by the complexity so I uninstalled it quick. Life is too short. There are various other list managers I could hack on but it's a matter of finding the small part for presenting the archives amongst the rest of it. Plus I need to be sure they can handle multiple addresses, CC's, attachments, html mail etc.
- Mod_Python
So I gave mod_python a whirl. It installed easily enough but I soon ran into a problem whereby if I generated too much HTML (two or three pages) then I'd get a segmentation error and no response from Apache. It's probably another Gentoo version mismatch problem but I didn't want to get involved so I ditched mod_python.
I finally decided upon python CGI. This was easy to set up and gives me total control. No learning curve beyond the cgi module and I can use the IMAP library to access my email.
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