Proxies for simplifying web development
06/11/2005 08:23 PM · apache, python, plone, zope
I’ve been working on Plone building a new skin. Since it’s built around Zope and python it doesn’t necessarily integrate in with Apache very tightly. I have Zope running on a custom port only listening on the localhost interface. Apache then listens on the normal web port and proxies appropriate requests to Zope/Plone and serves up the rest itself. I’ve been familiar with this type of configuration for a while but tended to ignore it because it adds more variables to a system, thus increasing complexity and resources needed.
For those reasons I’ve tended towards php because it integrates into Apache so tightly. I could avoid complexity and reduce the resources needed to run it. However, I’m beginning to think that I should always have a proxy in front of my web applications. It doesn’t add that much complexity, resources are cheap, and it gives me a tremendous degree of flexibility in adding new tiers to my web platform.