Advanced Chili!Soft ASP Configuration

Advanced Chili!Soft ASP Configuration

Locations/Applications
Locations where ASPs will run on your server are called "applications". An application is essentially the same as a directory, and includes any files and subdirectories within that directory.

There are several applications set up when Chili!Soft ASP is installed on your Virtual Server. These include:

DocumentRoot directories listed in your Apache configuration file (~/www/conf/httpd.conf)
Aliases listed in your Apache configuration file
Other specific applications listed in your Chili!Soft configuration file
(~/usr/local/casp/asp-apache-3000/casp.cnfg)

The Application Root is the directory defined by one of the three previous application definitions. ASPs will run in any Application Root, or any subdirectory of the application root.

NOTE: Chili!Soft does not recognize symbolic links. Because of this, symbolically-linked directories inside an application are not included within that application

Managing Applications
As indicated above, there are three ways to define an application in Chili!Soft. Because two of these methods take information from the httpd.conf file, these methods can be turned on or off within the casp.cnfg file.

The use of DocumentRoot directories as applications is discussed in the section "Chili!Soft and Virtual Subhosts" below. Controlling whether aliases from your httpd.conf file are included as applications can be done in the [applications] section of the casp.cnfg file.

The Chili!Soft configuration file is located in the ~/usr/local/casp/asp-apache-3000/ directory of your Virtual Server, and is called casp.cnfg. This contains a number of changeable settings that control how your ASP server behaves.

NOTE: Do not change any values in the [machines] section of the casp.cnfg file. Any changes to this section will cause your ASPs to stop functioning.

The last section of the casp.cnfg file is labeled [applications] and includes a list of all the directories other than http aliases and document roots where ASPs will run. The default casp.cnfg has an [applications] section similar to this:



      [applications] 

      readonly_appvars=1 

      use_aliases=yes 

      config_name=.aspconf 

      /casp-sys="/usr/local/casp/admin/sys" 

      /caspsamp="/usr/local/casp/caspsamp" 

      /casp401k="/usr/local/casp/caspsamp/401k/content" 

      /caspclient="/usr/local/casp/caspsamp/friendship/client/content" 

      /caspagent="/usr/local/casp/caspsamp/friendship/agent/content" 

      /caspdoc="/usr/local/casp/caspdoc"

The second configuration command above in the [applications] section is the value to tell Chili!Soft to use the aliases in the httpd.conf as applications or not. By setting it to use_aliases=no, the Aliases listed in your httpd.conf file will not be areas where ASPs will run.

config_name=.aspconf tells where additional applications can be listed. The file indicated (.aspconf) must be located in your primary DocumentRoot directory. Adding and removing applications from the .aspconf file does not require you to shut down and restart your ASP engine or the Web server. This allows you to quickly and easily add or remove application locations.

The locations listed after the config_name setting are application definitions, following the format

/application_name="path/to/application"

Most of the applications listed here are sample applications. An application name is treated by the Web server as the same as an Alias listed in the httpd.conf file. In other words, to access the /caspdoc application, you would use your primary domain name and follow the format:

http://YOUR-DOMAIN.NAME/caspdoc

Global Application Settings
Any ASP page within an application can pass information directly to another ASP page within the same application. You can not pass information directly between applications. When an application starts (this is done when an ASP page within the application is accessed), you can load up various settings for that application. Additionally, you can configure session information to set up information for each client who accesses your application. These settings are written in JScript or VBScript, and are stored in a file called Global.asa, located in the application root directory.

Chili!Soft ASP and Virtual Subhosts
By default, Chili!Soft allows all Virtual Subhosts to share the same server (one ASP server run per Virtual Server). Chili!Soft ASP can be configured to limit which Virtual Subhosts may use the server. This is done by editing the Chili!Soft ASP configuration file (~/usr/local/casp/asp-apache-3456/casp.cnfg). For example:

[virtual hosts]
allow_all=no
SUBHOST-DOMAIN.NAME

This entry would make the Chili!Soft server available only to SUBHOST-DOMAIN.NAME but not to any other Virtual Subhosts.

SEE ALSO:

About ChiliSoft

Chili!Soft ASP and Databases

About ASP

Virtual Server Help