Hi, Jim:
Jim Gallacher wrote:
The following page has been changed by JoreyBump:
http://wiki.apache.org/mod_python/MostMinimalRequestHandler
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Let's begin at the beginning. Here is the most minimal request
handler possible:
+ {{{
def handler(req):
return 0
+ }}}
This is my first use of moinmoin, so I saved more frequently than
necessary. I've already improved the page and discovered the preview
button. :)
FYI, you can get python syntax highlighting by starting your code block
with {{{#!python
Thanks for the tip.
Also I would avoid using "return 0". I know you want it to be the most
minimal handler possible, but I think it's better to encourage good
coding habits by using "return apache.OK". It will then be more logical
when users move on to more sophisticated handlers, perhaps in other
phases, where the handler may be returning something other than 0.
I've explained this in the final draft, and moved on to using apache.OK
in the next example. This handler is obviously meant to do nothing, but
to the uninitiated, the mod_python voodoo is quite thick. We take it for
granted, but I think a novice will appreciate that the return code
should be an integer (after all, that's what the debugger complains
about if there's a related error).
One of the things we're up against is that I suspect a good chunk of our
audience has no Python experience whatsoever, and they come to
mod_python investigating alternatives to other web application
development languages, like PHP. We can't assume they'll have many
Python (or Apache) skills at all, so we should take the opportunity to
ease them into basic concepts upfront (without dumbing it down, of course).
You could argue that it would be silly for a novice to start out by
writing a custom handler, but the mailing list indicates that it happens
all of the time.
