Xteriorize FAQ

The simple answer is 'to serve Xacerbate-generated content via HTTP'. Even if you use Apache, the easiest way to connect it to Xacerbate is currently to proxy some or all of the requests via Xteriorize.

At some point it would be interesting to provide native Xacerbate support for Apache. (Maybe we could call the glue code Nteriorize.) But Apache is a big application to install, configure and run, so Xteriorize could still be useful for development purposes, and for low-volume and intranet HTTP applications.

At present Xteriorize expects to be able to connect to Xacerbate, but this could be changed fairly easily. The question is why anyone would want to run Xteriorize without Xacerbate. There are lots of mature, existing web servers out there, and they provide features not currently available in Xteriorize. Xteriorize has been designed to be as 'thin' as possible, wherever possible it simply converts between HTTP and Xacerbate's protocol. Developing it to make a more satisfactory general-purpose web server would result in a bigger, more complex application that would not necessarily offer many benefits for those using Xteriorize as an Xacerbate gateway.

Not any time soon. If you need SSL, we recommend running Xteriorize behind an Apache proxy, and letting Apache handle the secure sockets.

It's not the most modular aspect of the Xcruciate project, but it was simple to implement and it works. At the moment we are still working out what other services can usefully be connected to Xacerbate. As the list grows, we'll look at providing a more generic interface to which gateways can be connected.