Randy wrote:
> Any suggestions? (other than put it on a xxnix box)

The common wisdom says that Windows is easier to use. In a lot of
cases, this is true.

This is not one of those cases. Apache::ASP is a native of *ix systems,
and so it's far easier to install it there. You usually don't have to
set up Apache, mod_perl, or compilers on a Linux box...they're just
assumed to be there, already working, or at least easy to install. The
lack of this support environment is what you're running into on Windows.

Even if you have an absolute requirement to use Windows for the final
product, I would suggest getting started with Linux first. That will
give you necessary experience with Apache and Apache::ASP which will
help you to understand the Windows instructions.

You don't have to get dedicated hardware for this, or install Linux.
You can download all this, ready to go. First, get VMware Player, here:

http://www.vmware.com/download/player/download.html

Now we need a VM. Download VA-LAMP-vmware-*.zip from:

http://virtualappliances.net/download/vmware/

This VM is set up for basic Apache serving already. There are several
more steps required to add Apache::ASP support, but all are easy. It
might take 15 minutes, all told.

0. Install VMware Player. It wants to reboot the host machine, but it
isn't really necessary.

1. Extract the contents of the VM zip file to the place you want the VM
to live. You'll need 2.5 GB of disk space.

2. Open the VA-LAMP folder and double-click the VA-LAMP.vmx file you
find inside. This will start the VM in VMware Player.

3. After the VM boots -- it won't take long! -- you'll see it report the
IP address that your LAN's DHCP server assigned it. Write it down. For
the sake of the discussion below, we'll say it's 192.168.0.42

4. Put that IP address into a web browser to test that the VM is
working. You should see the VM's welcome page.

5. Say Start > Run and put \\192.168.0.42\wwwroot into the Open field
and hit Enter. This will connect to the directory holding the content
being served from the VM by Apache. Log in as admin/admin when
prompted. You should see index.html. Delete it, or move it off the VM.

6. Now we have to create the new Apache configuration file, and it's
easier to do it in Windows and transfer it over, rather than transcribe
it into the VM directly. You'll need a Unix-aware text editor for this.
If you don't have one, I can recommend Notepad++, which is free:

http://notepad-plus.sourceforge.net/

Paste the text below into a new text file, adjusting the first two lines
as desired. If you're using Notepad++, say Format > Convert to UNIX
Format. Then save it out as \\192.168.0.42\wwwroot\asp.conf to write a
copy of the new configuration file to the VM's virtual hard disk.

-------------- 8< ---------- cut here --------- 8< -------------

ServerAdmin your@...
ServerName my-first-apache-asp-server
DocumentRoot /var/www/html

<Directory "/var/www/html">
Allow from all
AllowOverride None
DirectoryIndex index.asp
Options FollowSymLinks
Order allow,deny
</Directory>

<IfModule mod_perl.c>
PerlModule Apache::ASP

<Files ~ (\.asp)>
SetHandler perl-script
PerlHandler Apache::ASP
PerlSetVar Global /var/www/html
PerlSetVar StateDir /tmp/asp
</Files>
</IfModule>

-------------- 8< ---------- cut here --------- 8< -------------

7. Click back into the VMware Player window, log in as root/root, and
give the following commands to set up Apache. First, we'll blow away
the default Apache config and put our new one in its place:

# cd /etc/apache2/sites-enabled
# rm *
# mv /var/www/html/asp.conf ../sites-available
# ln -s ../sites-available/asp.conf .

We've started with a minimal VM, so we don't have the C compilers and
such on the system yet. Let's go get 'em:

# apt-get update
# apt-get install build-essential

Now we need to set up CPAN:

# cpan

Answer the configuration questions, accepting all defaults.

Now we can install Apache::ASP and its prerequisites:

cpan> install Bundle::Apache::ASP
cpan> exit

Now, the clincher: we need to restart Apache, to load our new configuration:

# apache2ctl restart

This should run quickly and silently. It if complains, you did
something incorrect above.

9. Pop out of the VM (Ctrl-Alt), open your Unix-aware text editor again,
ensure it's in Unix line ending mode, and write this:

<% print "Hello, world!" %>

Save it out as \\192.168.0.42\wwwroot\index.asp and hit the refresh
button in your web browser. The page should change to say "Hello,
world!" If so, congratulations, Apache::ASP is working. Continue on
with the examples at http://apache-asp.org/eg/

If all of this is too much for you to deal with, best just use Windows'
own flavor of ASP.

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