In this issue

Poised to be the largest gathering of Apache users to date, ApacheCon 2001 is being held in Santa Clara, USA in April. Registration at the ApacheCon site is now open and if you don't want to pay to see the talks why not go along to the exhibition instead? A free two-day exhibition runs on April 5th and 6th where you can explore the exhibit floor packed with leading Apache supporters. Meet the experts and walk away with free information and giveaways.

ApacheCon 2001 is advertised as the only Apache event to be fully supported by the Apache Software Foundation. Apache founders and leading contributors have designed the technical program consisting of 40 sessions with over 100+ hours of instruction. The topics include:

• Apache 2.0
• Writing multilingual sites with mod_perl and Template Toolkit
• Slashcode, the bender release
• An Introduction to Alexandria
• Web Application Technologies - Surveying The Landscape
• Managing the Apache HTTP server with SNMP
• WebDAV and Apache
• Apache Cocoon 2 - What's new
• Introduction to the Batik Project
• Embperl - Building Dynamic Websites with Perl
• Apache Distributed Authoring Environments
• Introduction to Mason
• Building Web Services with Apache
• PHP: Hackers Paradise Revisited
• Security Solutions with SSL
• Apache and Frontpage extensions
• All About Virtual Hosting
• Writing Apache Filters
• Building an Enterprise Information Portal with Jetspeed
• The Tomcat Servlet Container
• Building a Large-Scale E-Commerce Site with Apache and mod_perl
• Using Oracle with Apache/PHP - a Dreamteam?
• Apache as WAP Server
• Using Cocoon to Build Web sites for wireless devices
• Apache and LDAP
• Planning and programming for Cross Platform
• Licensing Issues in Commercial OSS Products
• Audio and Apache
• Running a Profitable Open-Source Company: A Case Study

Apache Week will be there as always to cover the events, but if you don't attend you'll miss out on all the fun and the chance to meet the Apache gurus.

This week's hot topic was whether or not the separation of HTTP code from the "core server" in Apache 2.0 should continue. One of the goals of Apache 2.0 is that it is "protocol independent"; so it would be possible to write an Apache module which implemented, for instance, an SMTP server. Currently though, the code is still tied to HTTP, and Ryan Bloom has been trying to change this.

The discussion evolved onto a high-level, trying to address the general problem of whether fundamental changes should be made when a beta is just round the corner.

Interest in APR from developers in the Samba-TNG project sparked some debate about possible new features for APR, and whether or not Samba-TNG could use the "bucket brigades" API.

In this section we highlight some of the articles on the web that are of interest to Apache users.

Just before "The JSP Files" series reaches its fourth segment, about how JSP can be used to process the data entered into a Web form, the Developer Shed finally caught up with "Slapping Together A JSP Development Environment" which was first mentioned in "The JSP Files (part 1)". It is about time too as readers are wondering how to get Apache and Tomcat working together. Despite being an excellent tutorial, we feel it would be better off using mod_jk instead of mod_jserv as the former replaces the latter in handling the communication between Tomcat and Apache.

PHP Builder starts newbies off on the right track with "Fundamentals of Web Application Development". The four important factors it advocates are security, maintainability, usability and performance. Code is not provided to illustrate the principles but it is expected to be forthcoming in the sequel as this is more of a philosophical article than a technical one.

In "Keeping your Dynamic Pages Dynamic", John Coggeshall presents some PHP code snippets. These ensure that web browsers display the most up-to-date information available from one's web site by sending the correct HTTP Headers before any content.