Improvements to the Kiosk Web Server

(January, 1999)

We're upgrading our Kiosk Web server from Stronghold 1.3 (which incorporates Apache 1.1.1) to Stronghold 2.3 (which incorporates Apache 1.2.6). (Apache is the world's most popular Web server, and Stronghold adds extra features related to security and advanced scripting.) This server is used for Kiosk Web Hosting and Kiosk Bundle accounts (HPA customers have a different Web server.)

This change will not affect your HTML, as the Web server doesn't have anything to do with HTML (it simply transmits it to the browsers which interpret it.) However, advanced Kiosk server features (such as scripting and CGIs) are subject to some improvements, as listed below. (The new server also incorporates a number of invisible improvements with regards to speed, security, and HTTP/1.1 compatibility.)

CGIs

The CGI environment should be the same as it was before, plus some new
environment variables such as REQUEST_URI.  Installation and execution
of your own CGIs should be the same as before, with these exceptions:

NOTE 1:  If you are executing your CGIs with <!--#exec cgi="..." -->,
you will need to change to <!--#include virtual="..." -->,
which can do exactly the same thing (for CGIs).  Any existing
<!--#exec cgi="..." --> directives should work the same when changed
to <!--#include virtual="..." -->.  (This directive works with text
files, HTML files, and CGIs.)  <!--#exec cgi="..." --> is no longer
supported.

NOTE 2:  CGIs formerly executed as user "nobody", but this has changed.
If you are using your CGI to write data to the files we provided in your
Kiosk's /data directory, these files are owned by user "nobody" you will
need to have us set up suexec for you.  See our documentation.

  Details on suexec in our CGI writeup.

NOTE 3:  If you are executing The World's copies of mailto.pl or
Count.cgi with the URL "http://world.std.com/cgi-bin/...", we suggest
you change to "http://www.TheWorld.com/cgi-bin/..." to reduce dependence
on an external server.  (www.TheWorld.com under the governance of the Kiosk
Web server, while world.std.com is the HPA Web server.)

  Tips on using mailto.pl:
  http://www.TheWorld.com/web/help/mailto-pl-tips.shtml

A tutorial on installing and debugging CGIs has been prepared.

  CGI Installation & Troubleshooting on The World
  http://www.TheWorld.com/web/help/cgi-installation.shtml

See the above guide for links to collections of CGIs you can use.

SSIs (Server-Side Includes)

SSIs are now referred to as "XSSIs" ("X" for "extended") in the 
documentation because some new ones have been added, the most important
one being <!--#if expr="..." --> to allow you to display or hide
part of a page depending on various conditions.  Also added is
<!--#printenv -->, which displays a list of all environment variables
(for debugging purposes).  Some new variables have been added
(such as REQUEST_URI) and the standard date format now displays all
four digits of the year.

NOTE:  If you use <!--#exec cgi="..." -->, please see Note 1 under
"CGIs" (above).

A new "cookbook" showing useful examples of all XSSI directives
has been prepared.

  The World's XSSI Cookbook
  http://www.TheWorld.com/web/help/xssi-cookbook.shtml

  XSSI Documentation (Stronghold Administration Guide)
  http://www.c2.net/products/stronghold/docs-2.3/admin_guide/HTML/content.html#1001005

PHP (Personal Home Page)

PHP is an embedded scripting language similar to XSSIs in terms of
how you use it, but closer to a "real" programming language,
approaching some of the flexibility of CGIs (but contained entirely
within your HTML.)  PHP support is new.

To learn about PHP, see Chapter 11 of the Stronghold Administration
Guide:

  PHP documentation (Stronghold Administration Guide)
  http://www.c2.net/products/stronghold/docs-2.3/admin_guide/HTML/PHP.html

PHP is enabled only for files with ".php" or ".phtml" extensions
(the two are synonymous.)

Server-Generated Indexes

For directories that do not have an index.html (or index.shtml or
index.cgi) file, the list of files ("FancyIndexing") there are no
significant changes, except the .xbm icons have been replaced with
.gif icons.