Adam Prime wrote:
> Sudheer Puppala wrote:
>> Hi
>>
>>  I am java/flex programmer since 1yrs and a little bit of perl. I
>> have a requirement of write a
>> handler at apache http server side using perl.
>>
>> Scenario:
>>
>>
>>  1. My flex application request for a particular file to the apache
>>  server.
>>  2. The server upon receiving a request look for the mime type of the
>>
>>  file. If that file mime type is video/flv or .flv I should write a
>> handler
>>  for that.
>>
>>  3. The handler should be in a position to call a java class. where I
>> will
>>
>>  decrypt the fille and send it back to the flex application.
>>
>>
>> Here my request is how can I write my own handler? where can I write
>> it? and
>> as I am not a perl programmer, I am not getting the solution for that. So
>> could any one help me with an example.
>
> I'd start here:
>
> http://perl.apache.org/docs/2.0/user/handlers/intro.html
>
> to get the headers (including the content-type) from the incoming request:
>
> http://perl.apache.org/docs/2.0/api/Apache2/RequestRec.html#C_headers_in_
>
> to run Java code you can look at:
>
> http://search.cpan.org/~patl/Inline-Java-0.52/Java.pod
>

--- OR (alternatively) -----

"Behind" your Apache httpd server, you can run an Apache Tomcat server,
which is a Java servlet engine specialised for that.
Your front-end Apache module can, if necessary, forward a request to the
back-end Tomcat server. The back-end Tomcat server runs the request
(and the Java application). The result comes back to your front-end
mod_perl module, which returns it to the client.

Schematically :

A) If the request is entirely processed by the mod_perl handler in Apache :

in) Client --> Apache httpd --> mod_perl handler
out) Client <-- Apache httpd <-- mod_perl handler

B) If the request requires a processing by a Java application :

in) Client --> Apache httpd --> mod_perl handler --> Tomcat --> Java app
out) Client <-- Apache httpd <-- mod_perl handler <-- Tomcat <-- Java app

One of the basic Perl mottos is : There Is More Than One Way To Do It