[Xapian-discuss] Re: Getting Omega to execute and generate XML

[R. Mattes]

On Sun, 14 Aug 2005 19:38:22 +0200, Floris Bos wrote:

> Hi Ralf,
> 
> Thanks for your quick reply, I'm starting to get close now but I think I 
> need your help one more time. There is one thing I still don't understand. 
> You said:
> 
> "Now, put the omega binary int oyour CGI directory and make it executable by 
> the
> webserver"
> 
> I don't really see how to do this. Is this about enabling my webserver to 
> permit cgi execution?

No, just make shure the omega file is executable by the webserver. 
On (Uni|Linu)x one can control who's able to execute an application.
I've no idea about Windoxs (omega.exe sounds like Windows) - you
probably just put it into a CGI enabled directory.
 
>  I've done this by following the steps in this manual:
> http://httpd.apache.org/docs/1.3/howto/cgi.html#configuringapachetopermitcgi
> but this manual describes something different I believe. It's about
> permitting to execute scripts from a certain directory but the omega
> executable is not a script but the program that runs the scripts so I'm
> getting awfully confused now.

Hmm, some clarification: a CGI (or better a CGI enabled program) is just
a program that gets executed by the webserver (and communicates with the
server in a certain way - the Common Gateway Interface). A script is
nothing more than a special case of program (one that needs an
interpreter).

> I did configure Omega the right way using the omega.conf file so it
> should be able to find my templates.

Out of curiosity: where did you put the omega.conf file?
Could you also psot it's contents?

>  I copied Omega to the directory
> cgi-bin\search so it's full path is:
> C:\Apache\htdocs\test\cgi-bin\search\omega.exe
> 
<side-note>
Another security note: don't put your cgi stuff into the same tree as 
the html documents ...
</side-note>

> Maybe I can understand this better by asking exactly how to call
> Omega.exe to run the script template. I thought I would do this like:
> 
> http://localhost/test/cgi-bin/search?DB=default&P=test&FMT=xml

Iff /test/cgi-bin/search is  CGI-enabled then you want to call:

  http://localhost/test/cgi-bin/search/Omega.exe?DB=default&FMT=xml

> When I do this I get the error I usually get when I mistype an ul: can't
> find the server
> (translated from dutch so english message might differ)
> 
> Is the way I call Omega in the above example the right way to do it or
> am I going wrong at this point.

You are missing the name of the executable (Omega.exe). 

>  I'm trying to find out if I'm still
> calling Omega the wrong way or if it is my webserver configuration that
> needs to be changed (and if the latter is the case, what do I exactly
> need to tell my webserver to permit).

HTH RalfD


> Thanks in advance!
> 
> - Floris