Re: WordPress with Zend PHP

An early strength of PHP over other web scripting platforms was that it runs
as an Apache module instead of a separate CGI process that is spawned when a
PHP request comes in. However, it can run as a separate CGI engine and I did
that on the i for 2-3 years before switching to Zend's official release.
Instead of running like a CGI engine, Zend Core takes the typical PHP
approach of running as a module of Apache. That Apache server is the one
that's in PASE. In essence, Zend Core for i5 is AAMP (AIX, Apache, MySQL,
PHP).

Normally in a CGI process, a request comes in for *.php and there are Apache
directives telling the web server to pass that request off to the PHP
binary. When the engine is finished with the request, it outputs its XHTML
etc. back to Apache which then serves it to the browser.

By running PHP as a module, the extra steps of sending the request off to an
outside binary are removed and every Apache job basically speaks PHP instead
of just simply serving traffic.

With Zend Core, the proxy directives are taking the *.php requests received
by an i5/OS Apache instance and sending them to Apache in PASE. The i5
Apache instance is just another client to Apache in PASE. Once the PHP
request is handled by PASE Apache, whatever outputs is taken by the i5
Apache and served to the browser.

As long as there isn't a firewall between you and your system, you can
directly talk to the Apache server in PASE. It's a full Apache install so it
has its own logs and a conf file which you can edit. It's located at
/usr/local/Zend/apache2/conf/htttpd.conf so if you don't have any other
server listening on port 80, you can have it listen on port 80 instead of
port 8000. I did mention that I ran into a problem with PASE Apache in that
it can't listen to more than one port. If I want to make a connection on
port 443, I either have to take every connection securely or I still have to
bounce the connection off an instance of i5/OS listening on port 443 which
then proxy's locally to port 80. Zend support has also provided me with a
solution where I would have to run two Apache servers in PASE -- one
listening on 80 and one listening on 443 with mod_ssl.

Now why wouldn't everybody skip the proxy step? I asked that of the list and
I believe Scott gave the best answer. Some people have been developing web
applications on the i long enough that they're using hooks only available in
an i5/OS instance of Apache. My company isn't tied to any i5/OS specific
feature of Apache so we had the freedom to do this and Zend support has
been, y'know, supportive of that choice. The've actually taken the time to
help with issues like the one I mentioned above instead of giving me the
response I expected. e.g. 'piss off, that's not an official install.'

Alfred

On Tue, Mar 17, 2009 at 12:11, Pete Helgren <Pete@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Alfred,

So, how do you configure this? I have always been a little uncertain
exactly *where* the "true" PHP server resides. Is it at 8000 or at 89?

An example of how you accomplished what you described below would be
helpful.

Pete


Alfredo Delgado wrote:

Todd,

If that's the choice then why not just avoid the proxy step and serve
directly off the Apache instance in PASE? That's what I'm presently

doing.

The only problem I've run into so far is that if I want to make both

regular

HTTP connections and SSL connection I still have to proxy through i5/OS
Apache or run two instances of Apache in PASE.

Regards,
Alfred

On Mon, Mar 16, 2009 at 17:10, <TAllen@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

As far as I can see, it is definitely the ProxyPass causing the pain. I
don't see any way around it. It looks like we'll be forced to chuck it

and

move to a Windows server. I'd really rather not do that but don't have

a

choice at this point. Maybe I can come back to it later if someone at

Zend

can provide a way around it.

Thanks,
Todd





Pete Helgren
<Pete@xxxxxxxxxx>
Sent by:

To

web400-bounces@mi Web Enabling the AS400 / iSeries
drange.com <web400@xxxxxxxxxxxx>

cc

2009-03-16 16:49

Subject

Re: [WEB400] WordPress with Zend
PHP
Please respond to
Web Enabling the
AS400 / iSeries
<web400@midrange.
com>






Jim,

When I get it going I will. Right now the proxy pass directive (I
think) is causing WordPress quite a bit of pain.

I am going to post to the WP support site but I am still not sure if it
is WP issue or one with the Apache configuration in Zend.

Should I post in the Zend i5/OS forum as well?

Pete

Jim Dillard wrote:

Pete,

Thank you for this!

Please post similar information for Wordpress. I would like to create

a

link from the Zend forums to your post here regarding Wordpress.

IBM's Michael Sandberg has a post with the install instructions to many
open source applications (SugarCRM, MediaWiki, phpBB, etc.) and your
information will be another link.

Thanking you in advance!

Jim Dillard
IBM Alliance Manager
Zend

-----Original Message-----
From: web400-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:web400-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx]
On Behalf Of Pete Helgren
Sent: Monday, March 16, 2009 10:51 AM
To: Web Enabling the AS400 / iSeries
Subject: Re: [WEB400] WordPress with Zend PHP

Todd,

I am not using Wordpress (yet) but in Serendipty (another blog php app)
I used the default 80 port. The proxy pass directive handles the
"translation" to/from the default port you specify in the web
configuration file in Web Admin.

My (relevant) configuration settings in Web Admin look like this:
# Configuration originally created by Create HTTP Server wizard on Mon
Feb 05 16:09:18 MST 2007
.....
Listen 10.0.10.206:80 http
DocumentRoot /www/zendcore/htdocs
.....
DirectoryIndex index.html index.php
ProxyPass / http://127.0.0.1:8000/mywebroot/
ProxyPassReverse / http://127.0.0.1:8000/mywebroot/
<Directory />
Order Deny,allow
Deny From all
</Directory>

<Directory /www/zendcore/htdocs/mywebroot>
Order Allow,Deny
Allow From all
</Directory>

<Directory /www/zendcore/htdocs/mywebroot/myblogroot>
Order Allow,Deny
Allow From all
</Directory>

I do plan to install Wordpress because I have run into a couple issues
with Serendipty and would like to use Wordpress.

Pete


TAllen@xxxxxxxxxxxx wrote:

Has anyone gotten WordPress to work with the Zend PHP product? I'm

having

no success, mainly due to the fact that there are basically 2 servers

- the

native Apache server and the Zend Apache server running in PASE.

WordPress

originally set the site URL (WordPress address) as 127.0.0.1:8000

(PASE

server). Changing that to the real IP address seemed to fix the

problems

but there is another address in the settings for the blog address,

which is

set to 127.0.0.1:8000. Changing the blog address to the real IP

address

caused the WordPress home page to become unreachable.

To change the theme I had to update the blog address to the real IP

address

and then change the address back to 127.0.0.1:8000 to get to the WP

home

page.

Perhaps WordPress is too smart for its own good but it seems this

problem

could come up with other PHP applications.

Thanks,
Todd

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