| paulb@68 | 1 | Introduction
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| paulb@68 | 2 | ------------
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| paulb@68 | 3 |
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| paulb@60 | 4 | WebStack is a package which provides a common API for Python Web applications,
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| paulb@60 | 5 | regardless of the underlying server or framework environment. It should be
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| paulb@60 | 6 | possible with WebStack to design and implement an application and to choose a
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| paulb@60 | 7 | deployment environment, without having to go back and rewrite large parts of
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| paulb@60 | 8 | that application to work in the chosen environment or in other environments
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| paulb@60 | 9 | (should the deployment requirements change after the application has been
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| paulb@60 | 10 | written).
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| paulb@60 | 11 |
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| paulb@68 | 12 | Framework Support
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| paulb@68 | 13 | -----------------
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| paulb@68 | 14 |
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| paulb@218 | 15 | Currently, BaseHTTPRequestHandler (via BaseHTTPServer in the standard
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| paulb@218 | 16 | library), CGI, Jython/Java Servlet API, mod_python, Twisted, Webware and Zope
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| paulb@218 | 17 | 2 are supported. Each framework has its own set of strengths and weaknesses,
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| paulb@218 | 18 | but the idea is that deployment concerns can be considered separately from the
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| paulb@218 | 19 | implementation of application functionality. Consult the NOTES.txt files in
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| paulb@218 | 20 | each framework's subdirectory of the docs directory for some notes on how
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| paulb@218 | 21 | applications may be run in each environment.
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| paulb@60 | 22 |
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| paulb@68 | 23 | Tested Frameworks
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| paulb@68 | 24 | -----------------
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| paulb@68 | 25 |
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| paulb@178 | 26 | BaseHTTPRequestHandler Python 2.2.2, Python 2.3.3
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| paulb@120 | 27 | CGI Apache 2.0.44
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| paulb@178 | 28 | Jython/Java Servlet API Jython 2.1, Java JDK 1.3.1_02, Tomcat 4.1.27 (Servlet 2.3)
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| paulb@102 | 29 | mod_python 3.0.3 (3.1.3 for cookie support)
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| paulb@68 | 30 | Twisted 1.0.5
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| paulb@68 | 31 | Webware 0.8.1, CVS (2004-02-06)
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| paulb@192 | 32 | Zope 2.7.2-0
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| paulb@192 | 33 |
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| paulb@192 | 34 | New in WebStack 0.7 (Changes Since WebStack 0.6)
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| paulb@192 | 35 | ------------------------------------------------
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| paulb@192 | 36 |
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| paulb@218 | 37 | Fixed path information semantics.
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| paulb@192 | 38 | Fixed file upload semantics.
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| paulb@227 | 39 | Fixed content type handling for Unicode output and for interpreting request
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| paulb@227 | 40 | body fields/parameters (although some improvement remains).
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| paulb@227 | 41 | Fixed field/parameter retrieval so that path and body fields are distinct,
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| paulb@227 | 42 | regardless of the framework employed.
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| paulb@192 | 43 | Introduced Zope 2 support.
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| paulb@68 | 44 |
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| paulb@178 | 45 | New in WebStack 0.6 (Changes Since WebStack 0.5)
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| paulb@178 | 46 | ------------------------------------------------
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| paulb@178 | 47 |
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| paulb@178 | 48 | Introduced Jython/Java Servlet API support.
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| paulb@178 | 49 | Minor fixes to example applications and to BaseHTTPRequestHandler.
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| paulb@178 | 50 |
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| paulb@171 | 51 | New in WebStack 0.5 (Changes Since WebStack 0.4)
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| paulb@171 | 52 | ------------------------------------------------
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| paulb@171 | 53 |
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| paulb@171 | 54 | Changed request body fields/parameters so that they are now represented using
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| paulb@171 | 55 | Unicode objects rather than plain strings.
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| paulb@171 | 56 | Introduced better support for Unicode in response streams.
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| paulb@171 | 57 |
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| paulb@160 | 58 | New in WebStack 0.4 (Changes Since WebStack 0.3)
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| paulb@160 | 59 | ------------------------------------------------
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| paulb@140 | 60 |
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| paulb@140 | 61 | Added application definition of user identity, permitting alternative
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| paulb@140 | 62 | authentication mechanisms.
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| paulb@142 | 63 | Improved BaseHTTPRequestHandler and mod_python reliability around fields from
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| paulb@142 | 64 | request bodies.
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| paulb@142 | 65 | Provided stream and environment parameterisation in the CGI adapter.
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| paulb@140 | 66 | Added LoginRedirect and Login examples.
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| paulb@164 | 67 | Added get_path_without_query and fixed get_path behaviour.
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| paulb@140 | 68 |
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| paulb@160 | 69 | New in WebStack 0.3 (Changes Since WebStack 0.2)
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| paulb@160 | 70 | ------------------------------------------------
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| paulb@120 | 71 |
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| paulb@120 | 72 | Added better header support for Webware (suggested by Ian Bicking).
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| paulb@120 | 73 | Introduced CGI and Java Servlet support (the latter is currently
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| paulb@120 | 74 | broken/unfinished).
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| paulb@120 | 75 | Introduced support for cookies.
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| paulb@120 | 76 |
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| paulb@68 | 77 | Future Work
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| paulb@68 | 78 | -----------
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| paulb@68 | 79 |
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| paulb@165 | 80 | Things to consider for future releases: improved cookie support, redirects,
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| paulb@218 | 81 | access to shared resources and much better documentation.
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| paulb@68 | 82 |
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| paulb@88 | 83 | Field access needs testing, especially for anything using the cgi.FieldStorage
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| paulb@218 | 84 | class, and the way file uploads are exposed should be reviewed (currently the
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| paulb@218 | 85 | meta-data is not exposed). The acquisition of fields from specific sources
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| paulb@218 | 86 | should be made more strict - some frameworks (eg. mod_python) provide path
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| paulb@218 | 87 | fields in the body fields dictionary.
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| paulb@102 | 88 |
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| paulb@102 | 89 | Cookie objects need defining strictly, especially since the standard library
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| paulb@102 | 90 | Cookie object behaves differently to mod_python (and possibly Webware) Cookie
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| paulb@103 | 91 | objects. Moreover, the set_cookie_value method needs to provide access to the
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| paulb@103 | 92 | usual cookie parameters as supported by the frameworks.
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| paulb@90 | 93 |
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| paulb@227 | 94 | UTF-16 (and possibly other encodings) causes problems with HTML form data sent
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| paulb@227 | 95 | in POST requests using the application/x-www-form-urlencoded content type.
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| paulb@227 | 96 | This should be investigated further.
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| paulb@218 | 97 |
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| paulb@159 | 98 | Release Procedures
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| paulb@159 | 99 | ------------------
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| paulb@159 | 100 |
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| paulb@159 | 101 | Update the WebStack/__init__.py __version__ attribute.
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| paulb@159 | 102 | Update the release notes (see above).
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| paulb@159 | 103 | Check the setup.py file and ensure that all package directories are mentioned.
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| paulb@159 | 104 | Tag, export, archive, upload.
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