Introduction

------------

WebStack is a package which provides a common API for Python Web applications,

regardless of the underlying server or framework environment. It should be

possible with WebStack to design and implement an application and to choose a

deployment environment, without having to go back and rewrite large parts of

that application to work in the chosen environment or in other environments

(should the deployment requirements change after the application has been

written).

Framework Support

-----------------

Currently, BaseHTTPRequestHandler (via BaseHTTPServer in the standard library),

mod_python, Twisted and Webware are supported. Each framework has its own set of

strengths and weaknesses, but the idea is that deployment concerns can be

considered separately from the implementation of application functionality.

Consult the NOTES.txt files in each framework's subdirectory of the docs

directory for some notes on how applications may be run in each environment.

Tested Frameworks

-----------------

BaseHTTPRequestHandler    Python 2.2.2

mod_python                3.0.3

Twisted                   1.0.5

Webware                   0.8.1, CVS (2004-02-06)

Future Work

-----------

Things to consider for future releases: higher-level authentication support,

cookie handling, redirects, session interfaces, and much better documentation.

Field storage needs testing, especially for anything using the

cgi.FieldStorage class, and either the Twisted support needs a wrapper class

resembling cgi.FieldStorage, or the whole structure of form fields needs

reviewing.