This page tracks the project status, incubator-wise.

The httpd-CLI project graduated on 2004-12-16

The Apache 2.0 module mod_aspdotnet, and CLI implementation of Apache.Web.Host, together form a hosting environment for ASP.NET applications within Microsoft's .NET Framework for Windows, and the Apache 2.0 httpd server running on Win32.

This code was developed by William A. Rowe, Jr., Covalent Technologies, Inc., and is donated to the Apache community as a starting point for multiple avenues of CLI integration with the Apache 2.0 httpd server.

Microsoft, as part of it's .NET patents, asserts ownership of the implementation of System.Web.Hosting, the framework under which ASP.NET applications are instantiated. Note that this patent does not assert the implementation of System.Web.Host, System.Web.Request and other specific implementations of the server 'container' which forwards ASP.NET requests to the .NET Framework's implementation of System.Web.Hosting.

The initial goal of the PMC is to release this ASP.NET implementation of ASP.NET for he benefit of Apache httpd Win32 users.

The second goal of the PMC will be to refactor the Microsoft COM/.NET CLI thunks which exist in mod_aspdotnet, from the specific implementation of the ASP.NET-based Apache.Web.Host container.

Once the CLI thunk is a seperate and distinct component, the next two goals, may occur in parallel;

• Abstract the Apache httpd request model as it's own CLI implementation, allowing authors to handle native httpd requests without the Microsoft specific ASP.NET model.

• Build alternate CLI thunks to other engines such as mono, to allow CLI code to run on other platforms using the native Apache request model.

This goal allows CLI developers, to use tools such as C# to develop Apache-based solutions using alternate CLI hosting environments such as mono, without infringing on the claims of Microsoft which may inhibit ASP.NET-based solutions on non-Windows operating systems.

• The Apache httpd PMC owns this httpd CLI subproject, and this subproject follows the Apache httpd PMC's direction. Significant contributors to this sub-project (e.g. 6 months of sustained contribution) will be proposed for Apache httpd PMC membership.

• The CLI sub-project's modules will be available under seperate downloads, and are not envisioned to become part of a 'stock' httpd distribution.

Detailed References:

• 19 July 2004

In March '04, the httpd PMC referred the mod_aspdotnet contribution (Code Grant ack'ed in rev 1.7 of foundation/grants.txt) for incubation.

The project was recently picked back up, with Will Rowe now having the cycles to devote to the care and feeding required of incubation. Ian Holsman, also an httpd PMC member, stepped up to co-shepherd the incubation.

Invites to the interested parties were sent last week to join the mailing list cli-dev@httpd.apache.org, followed by an invitation to the dev@httpd community. The status page/ip incubation template was created, with Ian managing the site. Will has imported the initial contribution into SVN (under asf/incubator/httpd/cli/).

Next steps are documented in status, first posts will be sent to this list this week. mod_aspdotnet should have an initial release soon, followed by the refactoring of code to support an Apache.Web model that is entirely independent of the Microsoft ASP.NET technology, usable in C# with one of several CLI environments, including mono.

The cli-dev team would like to thank Noel and Sander for their advise and handholding through initial mailing list creation, SVN setup, and general guidance on the incubation process.

Will Rowe

• 30 October 2004

After soliciting a number of comments from cli-dev testers of the mod_aspdotnet, and committing their patches to solve various bugs, the subproject has extracted v2.0.0 release candidate 1 today.

The installer was migrated to InstallShield X, the only and current product for authoring .msi files from InstallShield. This, after experience with converting the Apache 1.3.33 installer, turned out to be fairly trivial, and the .ism project file did have an xml flavor that can be tracked in svn.

Next actions are creating a cli-users@httpd end-user list, declaring v2.0.0 released, adding the tracking category in bugzilla, and moving from incubator/httpd/cli to httpd/cli in svn, once graduated.

Will Rowe

• 4 February 2005

Graduation Report

December 16th is the date that the httpd-pmc vote was closed, this sub-project adopted, the repositories and first release moved into the httpd.apache.org domain, and officially kicked off. This had included the cli-users@httpd list, cli-dev@httpd list, bugzilla recordkeeping at issues.apache.org, and http://httpd.apache.org/cli/ home page.

I would like to especially thank Ian for his extraordinary help, simply navigating the particularities with the incubator's infrastructure, and all of the interested users and developers who have stepped up to this effort. A number of individuals are using this in production, for their own development, and are coming up with exciting challenges to overcome in the future.

My appologies for taking so long to close the incubator pages, and thank you to the incubation committee for helping promote this work.

Will Rowe

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