Application Server: Native PHP With CGIServlet

This cookbook will show you how to execute local CGI scripts through Resin. We'll use php-cgi as the CGI executable, and map *.php to the CGI processor servlet. Finally, it will provide instruction on setting up WordPress to run in Resin with php-cgi as the processor.

CGIServlet

CGIServlet is a servlet that comes standard with Resin which allows you to execute CGI scripts just like Apache. The full classname is com.caucho.servlets.CGIServlet. It is very easy to setup:

web-inf/resin-web.xml:

<web-app xmlns="http://caucho.com/ns/resin"
       xmlns:ee="urn:java:ee"
       xmlns:resin="urn:java:com.caucho.resin">
 
 <servlet servlet-name='cgi' servlet-class='com.caucho.servlets.CGIServlet'/>

 <servlet-mapping url-pattern='/cgi-bin/*' servlet-name='cgi'/> 

</web-app>

The example above sets up the conventional cgi-bin and interprets any files contained in this directory to be executables:

cgi-bin/test:

#!/bin/sh

echo "Status: 200 OK"
echo
echo "HI"

http://127.0.0.1:8080/cgi-bin/test

Executing PHP with CGI

The example below demonstrates how to configure Resin to execute PHP via CGI. Keep in mind that Resin comes with [Quercus], Caucho's 100% Java implementation of PHP5. You may not need native PHP if Quercus works for your application.

web-inf/resin-web.xml:

<web-app xmlns="http://caucho.com/ns/resin"
       xmlns:ee="urn:java:ee"
       xmlns:resin="urn:java:com.caucho.resin">
 
 <servlet servlet-name='php-cgi-servlet' servlet-class='com.caucho.servlets.CGIServlet'>
    <init executable="php-cgi"/>
 </servlet>

 <servlet-mapping url-pattern='/*.php' servlet-name='php-cgi-servlet'/>

</web-app>

Create a simple test php file in your webapp's root directory, as follows:

test.php

<?php phpinfo(); ?>

And then access the URL http://127.0.0.1:8080/yourwebapp/test.php and you will see something like this:

Notice "Server API" shows "CGI".

(As an interesting exercise, try commenting out the servlet-mapping in resin-web.xml, and access the page again. It should still work, but the page now show the Quercus PHP info display instead):

All *.php is mapped to QuercusServlet by default in app-default.xml. Your resin-web.xml overrides this mapping, but the webapp will fallback to QuercusServlet if not set.

WordPress on Resin with php-cgi

These instructions were tested with Resin 4.0.25 Professional, PHP 5.3.10, and WordPress 3.3.1.

# Before starting, create an empty mysql database for your WordPress tables
# PHP requires the php-mysql extension
# WordPress requires sendmail

# Shutdown resin 
resinctl stop

# Backup the packaged ROOT webapp directory: 
cd /var/www/webapps 
mv ROOT ROOT.bak

# Download and extract Wordpress:
wget http://wordpress.org/latest.zip
unzip latest.zip

# Rename wordpress to ROOT so that it is served as the ROOT webapp (/ context)
mv wordpress ROOT

# Create resin-web.xml
cd ROOT
mkdir WEB-INF
vi WEB-INF/resin-web.xml (copy/paste from the example above)

# Configure WordPress
cp wp-config-sample.php wp-config.php
vi wp-config.php (modify DB_NAME, DB_USER, DB_PASSWORD, DB_HOST)

# Startup Resin
resinctl start

Access the URL http://127.0.0.1:8080/wp-admin/install.php :