			   Apache::Gateway

The Apache::Gateway module implements a gateway using LWP
(libwww-perl) with assorted optional features.  From the HTTP 1.1
draft, a gateway is

    [a] server which acts as an intermediary for some other
    server.  Unlike a proxy, a gateway receives requests as if
    it were the origin server for the requested resource; the
    requesting client may not be aware that it is communicating
    with a gateway.

FEATURES

  * Standard Gateway Features implemented using LWP
  * Automatic Failover with Mirrored Instances
  * Multiplexing
  * Pattern-dependent Gatewaying
  * FTP Directory Gatewaying
  * Timestamp Correction

REQUIREMENTS

In order to install and use this package you will need Perl
version 5.004 or better, an Apache server with modperl, and the
appropriate administrative privileges to run Apache/Perl modules.

Apache::Gateway uses many other modules.
  * Apache::Constants
  * HTTP::Date
  * HTTP::Request
  * HTTP::Status
  * IO::File
  * LWP::UserAgent
  * Regexp
  * Time::Zone
  * URI::URL

These packages should be available on CPAN.

INSTALLATION

You install Apache::Gateway as you would install any perl module
library.  Use the CPAN module or run the following commands:

    perl Makefile.PL
    make
    make test
    make install

SUPPORTED PLATFORMS

I have built and tested Apache::Gateway under Linux.

AVAILABILITY

The latest public version of this package is available for download
from the Comprehensive Perl Archive Network (CPAN)
<URL:http://www.cpan.org/>.

DOCUMENTATION

See ChangeLog for a list of recent changes.  POD style documentation
is included in Gateway.pm.  This is normally converted to a manual
page and installed as part of the "make install" process.  You should
also be able to use the 'perldoc' utility to extract and read
documentation from the module file directly.

Definitions.txt defines some HTTP terms used in the documentation.

NOTES

Apache::Gateway is now quite dated.  Sites needing to implement
gateways using Apache might now wish to consider a combination of
mod_proxy (to which I've also contributed), mod_rewrite, and, if
necessary, connection input/output filters.

Failover remains a distinguishing key feature of Apache::Gateway.  If
you want to automatically failover to other servers when one is down,
Apache::Gateway is the only commonly available solution.

Rotating or otherwise multiplexing requests to servers in a server
farm or set of mirrors is possible with mod_rewrite, although it's
easier with Apache::Gateway.  Fixing up timestamps for misconfigured
gatewayed mirrors is possible with connection input/output filters but
is much easier with Apache::Gateway.  However, the performance penalty
of Apache::Gateway is enough that, even with its greater ease of use,
I would recommend using mod_rewrite and/or connection filters for busy
sites that don't need the failover feature.

SUPPORT

For comments, questions, bug-reports, announcements, etc., send mail
to <modperl@apache.org>.  To subscribe to this list (which you must do
to send mail to the list), send a mail message to
<majordomo@apache.org> with the body:

    subscribe modperl

See the modperl documentation for a list of modperl list archives.

Comments can also be sent to the author at <perl@web-i18n.net>.

COPYRIGHT

Copyright (c) 1998,2004 Charles C. Fu.  All rights reserved.

This module is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it
under the same terms as Perl itself.
