Should I port my WebBroker projects to Indy

Long ago I started some "web applications" using Delphi 2007 and WebBroker (TWebModule). At the time I assumed you needed a webserver such as Apache or Microsoft IIS in order to create any sort of website. Additionally I don't use most of the Apache features (except for Virtual Server so I can have multiple domains on a single ip address and SSL). So to me Apache is just an extra layer and makes makes debugging difficult.

Now enter Indy (TIdHTTPServer). If I understand correctly, Indy IS a webserver. So by using Indy I am no longer bound to use Apache or some other webserver. Is this correct?

Will I have any issues supporting the Virtual Servers in an Indy environment? And what about SSL. I have searched the literature and from what I can see it fully supports SSL certificates.

I am now in the process of porting some of my application from WebBroker to Indy. This mostly entails replacing within my code references of Request: TWebRequest with ARequestInfo: TIdHTTPRequestInfo and references to Response: TWebResponse with AResponseInfo: TIdHTTPResponseInfo.

Is there anyway to use the TWebModule architecture within Indy so that I don't need to do all of this rewriting?

Lastly is there anything e开发者_如何学Pythonlse I need to be concerned with? My goal is to take Apache out of the loop.

Yes, you can use Indy's TidHTTPServer as a webserver, but it's much lower-level than IIS or Apache. There is no concept of virtual servers - this you would have to implement yourself.

Indy does support SSL as well via the OpenSSL dll's.

I imagine the biggest concerns you will have will be security related...there are millions and millions of sites running Apache or IIS and there are a ton of people devoted to finding flaws in those platforms, with a bunch of people fixing some of those flaws as they come up. Not so with Indy... there's one or two guys that respond on newsgroups to bugs that you discover. (One guy in particular, who will probably respond to your question here as well.)

Now, I use Indy HTTP server (along with SecureBlackBox SSL support) and I find it to be great for my purposes.

Indy HTTP server calls the WinSock API, and is able to implement:

• A full HTTP/1.1 server;
• A full HTTPS server (using either OpenSSL libraries or other third parties, like SecureBlackBox).

AFAIK you can use Indy to publish web modules. See http://www.2p.cz/files/2p.cz/downloads/howto/indy_soap_web_services_in_delphi.pdf

You can also use other servers, for instance directly the kernel-mode http.sys server, which is used by ISS and .Net WCF for instance, and known to be very stable and efficient (it bypasses the WinSock APIs). Of course, it will serve HTTPS conent, if needed. It is available in standard since Windows XP SP2, and therefore in Vista and Seven. Using this component will let Microsoft will do all the debugging work for you, and it will be updated with the host OS. I use it for instance in our Client-Server ORM, or directly to replace a deprecated DCOM connection, with very good speed and stability on customer side.

Regarding virtual servers - the HTTP 1.1 spec requires clients to send a Host request header so virtual servers know which domain is being used specifically to handle the case when multiple domains have the same IP. TIdHTTPRequestInfo has a Host property for that value. In fact, TIdHTTPServer internally validates to makes sure that an HTTP 1.1 request has the Host header before firing any of its OnCommand... events.