Rebol embedded into a web site - newbie question

[Nelson B.]

Hi all, this is my first post on this forum.
I'm an absolute newbie with REBOL. I just installed it, tried, and tested it with some of the examples and it seems to be really nice!!! I have some experience with C++ and PHP.
I do web sites, I use Dreamweaver, and I know that like PHP, REBOL can be embedded into any web site, can any tell me how to do it? I had read at different articles on Rebol web site and other sites, one of them says that there are 3 ways to do it, and I tried all of them but no luck.

Please help!!

Thanks in advance.

[Sunanda]

You can certainly use REBOL server-side to write CGI scripts.

That's not the same as using Dreamweaver -- where you use it client side to generate HTML pages that you upload to a website (yes, I know I'm simplifying the point of Dreamweaver; but that's the way most people use it).

And it's not quite the same as PHP -- where (usually) PHP statements are embedded in HTML. Those statements are then executed server-side by PHP to complete the HTML -- so the client (browser) sees just HTML statements.

You can use REBOL in that way. There have been two produces that work that way: RSP and Magic!

RSP (REBOL Server Pages) seems to have vanished.

Magic! I think is still around, but tricky to locate. I tried and got this far (if you get further, you may find all the docs in French):

http://www.rebolfrance.info/rebolfrance.org/projets?s=magic

[notchent]

Hi Nelson,

Take a look at:  http://musiclessonz.com/rebol_tutorial.html#section-26

That describes how to use Rebol in CGI, and there's a quick bit at the end about using Rebol inline with an older Rebol web server.   Cheyenne is a newer web server software that supports Rebol Server Pages, which work in a way similar to PHP (inline in the HTML code) - to use that though, you need to install, run, and use Cheyenne as the software that serves your web pages.  If you want to use Rebol on a typical shared server machine running Apache, for example, it's probably most practical just to upload Rebol to your server machine, and use it to run CGI scripts, as described in the above section.  Hope that helps

[Nelson B.]

Cheyenne is a newer web server software that supports Rebol Server Pages, which work in a way similar to PHP (inline in the HTML code) - to use that though, you need to install, run, and use Cheyenne as the software that serves your web pages.  If you want to use Rebol on a typical shared server machine running Apache, for example, it's probably most practical just to upload Rebol to your server machine, and use it to run CGI scripts, as described in the above section.

Thank you very much for you quick response.
As I mentioned before I also use PHP, and I have installed Apache on my laptop which I use to run PHP.

(I'm at work right now, I'll take a look at your suggestions later.)

Two quick questions:
so that means that whatever server I use to run/upload my web site, it has to support Rebol, am I right?  (like most servers support PHP, it is the same case for Rebol). If so, does most of the servers support Rebol?  --> like if I want to upload my web site let's say with godaddy, they must support Rebol in order to be able to have my web site up and running...

One again, thanks to you and Sunanda.

[Sunanda]

Two quick questions:
so that means that whatever server I use to run/upload my web site, it has to support Rebol, am I right?  (like most servers support PHP, it is the same case for Rebol). If so, does most of the servers support Rebol?  --> like if I want to upload my web site let's say with godaddy, they must support Rebol in order to be able to have my web site up and running...

Yes, both your ISP and your webserver need to support REBOL.

The webserver support is easy. Your CGI script by convention has a "shebang" on the first line. That points to the processor that will handle the script.

So (if using PERL), the first line of (say) index.pl will read

#!c:\languages\perl.exe

With REBOL, the first line of index.r says something like:

#!c:\languages\rebol.exe -cs

So you can mix and match languages at will.

The webserver may need a tiny bit of configuration  -- with Apache, for example, it is a one-line change in the CONF file.

ISP running REBOL -- this can be harder. Some will, some won't. Some let you upload the right binary to your cgi-bin yourself. You'll need to check with them

[notchent]

I've used Lunarpages' inexpensive shared accounts to host a number of small Rebol scripts.  If your host allows you to upload and run binary executables files, you should be able to use Rebol - just be sure to get the right version of Rebol for the operating system which your web server runs on (Linux, Windows, etc.)

[Nelson B.]

I'll try to setup the Apache server that I'm currently using with PHP and/or try any of the other options you suggested me.

Guys, thank you again for all of your info, I'll let you know if I'm having troubles... 

[PeterWood]

You can find Magic! 3.5 at

http://auverlot.fr/Fichiers.html

and Rebol Server Pages at

http://www.ross-gill.com/techniques/rsp/

Peter

[Nelson B.]

You can find Magic! 3.5 at

http://auverlot.fr/Fichiers.html

and Rebol Server Pages at

http://www.ross-gill.com/techniques/rsp/

Peter

So far I setup the Apache 2.2 server, some things are working, some others don't. I have the book "REBOL: The Official Guide" published on 2000 (I think  ), and I find it really interesting so far. It gives some different ideas about how to setup Apache with Rebol, but as I said, some things are working, some others don't.

I will take a look at those links.

Thank you Peter for your post.