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Integration with Apache

The Hyperwave module is best used when PHP3 is compiled as an apache module. In such a case the underlying Hyperwave server can be hidden from users almost completely if apache uses its rewriting engine. The following instructions will explain this.

Since PHP3 with Hyperwave support build into apache is intended to replace the native Hyperwave solution based on wavemaster I will assume that the apache server will only serve as a Hyperwave web interface. This is not necessary but it simplifies the configuration. The concept is quite simple. First of all you need a PHP3 script which evaluates the PATH_INFO variable and treats its value as the name of a Hyperwave object. Let's call this script 'Hyperwave'. The URL http://your.hostname/Hyperwave/name_of_object would than return the Hyperwave object with the name 'name_of_object'. Depending on the type of the object the script has to react accordingly. If it is a collection, it will probably return a list of children. If it is a document it will return the mime type and the content. A slight improvement can be achieved if the apache rewriting engine is used. From the users point of view it would be more straight forward if the URL http://your.hostname/name_of_object would return the object. The rewriting rule is quite easy:

RewriteRule ^/(.*) /usr/local/apache/htdocs/HyperWave/$1 [L]
Now every URL relates to an object in the Hyperwave server. This causes a simple to solve problem. There is no way to execute a different script, e.g. for searching, than the 'Hyperwave' script. This can be fixed with another rewriting rule like the following:

RewriteRule ^/hw/(.*) /usr/local/apache/htdocs/hw/$1 [L]
This will reserve the directory /usr/local/apache/htdocs/hw for additional scripts and other files. Just make sure this rule is evaluated before the one above. There is just a little drawback: all Hyperwave objects whose name starts with 'hw/' will be shadowed. So, make sure you don't use such names. If you need more directories, e.g. for images just add more rules or place them all in one directory. Finally, don't forget to turn on the rewriting engine with

RewriteEngine on
My experiences have shown that you will need the following scripts:


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