[Mono-list] Web Forms, Apache module mod_asp.net?

[Jay Freeman (saurik)]

Exactly, it is important to consider that there is more to ASP.NET
development than WebForms.  Before even thinking of doing work on this
people should take a long hard look at Jakarta (Apache's implementation of
the Java Servlet specification, blessed by Sun as the reference
implementation).  ASP.NET is really designed in the same regard as this is.
There are HttpModules to consider, .NET objects that implement interfaces
that can modify the flow of website operations at levels as low as
authentication.  WebForms and ASPX files in general should really be
implemented as an HttpModule that runs within the application server (much
as JSP files are a specific Java servlet).

As you mention, this is how ASP.NET works, there is an ISAPI connector that
connects to an out-of-process application server to do the actual work.
This is identical to how Jakarta works, the application server itself is
100% Java with a number of connectors for various web servers.  Virtually
every concept in ASP.NET has a duplicate in Jakarta: AuthenticationModules
to Jakarta Realms, config.web/web.config to Java Servlet's web.xml, etc..  I
guess it's time for the obligatory link to some archive where I've mentioned
this before:
http://discuss.develop.com/archives/wa.exe?A2=ind0009A&L=DOTNET&P=R16681 .

Frankly, I'd like to see any work on this be consumed under Apache as an
Apache project and work closely with Costin on Jakarta rather than be a
separate entity or be attached to Mono (which I'd much prefer stick to a
core implementation).

Sincerely,
Jay Freeman (saurik)
saurik@saurik.com

----- Original Message -----
From: "Sebastien Lambla" <sebastien.lambla@6sens.com>
To: <mono-list@ximian.com>
Sent: Wednesday, July 11, 2001 11:20 AM
Subject: RE: [Mono-list] Web Forms, Apache module mod_asp.net?


> << Surely that would be for the apache module to handle? Certainly not
> something
> for the web forms classes themselves, as ultimately they just generate
HTML,
> no? >>
>
> I think it would be better to simply process all requests for the aspx
files
> to a .net module written in C#, it would be far better for portability and
> for handling all the internals.
> Moreover, ASP.net generate HTML or whatever document type you'd want to
> include, but it can modify headers, authentication is to be handled in
> conformance to the .config file (which is XML), 404 error messages are
also
> defined in this file... Actually, the module would get the request,
process
> the full response, and throw it back to Apache which just send it on the
> connection. That's how the ISAPI .net module is working on top of .net as
I
> understood.
>
> Sebastien Lambla