mod_pguserdir 1.0.4

But, lets start by breaking that crazy name apart. mod - perl - service.

mod - Its a module for the popular and ubiquitous Apache HTTP Server. perl - Of course, its the popular and ubiquitous programming language. service - Ah, this is the unique part. Its the new ingredient that unifies Apache, Perl and XML into an easy to use web-services system.

With the mod_perlservice system, you can write perl subs and packages on your server and call them over the internet from client code. Clients can pass scalars, arrays and hashes to the server-side subroutines and obtain the return value ( scalar, array or hash ) back from the remote code. Some folks refer to this functionality as "remoting" or "RPC", so if you like, you can say mod_perlservice is remoting with Perl and Apache. Client programs may be written in a variety of languages; libraries for C, Perl, and Flash Action Script are all ready to go!

Now that you know what mod_perlservice is, lets look at why it is. The author (Thats me!) believes that mod_perlservice has a very clean, easy-to-use interface when compared with other RPC systems. Also, since it builds on the Apache platform, it benefits from Apaches ubiquity, security, and status as a standard. Since mod_perlservice sports an embedded perl interpreter, it offers high performance for demanding applications.

So what can I use this mod_perlservice for?

You can use it to create networked applications that require client-server communication, information processing and sharing. mod_perlservice is for applications and you will not use it to create dynamic content for your HTML pages. However, you surely can use it for Flash remoting with Perl.

Here are some usage examples:

A desktop application (written using your favorite C++ GUI library) that records the current local air temperatue and sends it to an online database every 10 minutes. The server can be queried to obtain the current and historical local air temperature of any other participating client.

A Flash-based stock portfolio management system. You can create model stock portfolios and retrieve realtime stock quote information and news.

A command-line utility in Perl that accepts English sentences on standard input and outputs the sentences in French. Translation occurs in server-side Perl code. If the sentence is idomatic and the translation is incorrect, the user has the option of sending the server a correct translation that will be stored in an online idiom database.