[Xitami] how to configure alias

[Simon McVittie]

> Based on the info below is it possible for you to send me the paths that I
> put in both alias boxes so that when I insert an image <IMG
> SRC="../../../images/masthead.gif" BORDER="0" WIDTH="600" HEIGHT="100"
> ALIGN="bottom" ALT="">it will work
> 
> C:\Xitami\cgi-bin\esp-pages  This is the path to the folder which holds the
> files
> 
> C:\images  this is the path to the images folder

No, not really. The best way to make this work is to change the src 
attribute of the <IMG> tags to /images/whatever.gif. If you use an 
automatic program like Frontpage or Dreamweaver or something to make your 
HTML, either hand-edit the <IMG> tags or get a different automatic program.
Relative paths (especially ones with .. in them) are generally good for 
simple hierarchical sites where everything goes in one folder (i.e. pure 
HTML/images sites) and bad for sites with CGI, aliases, or anything else 
advanced.

The rest of this e-mail describes a hack to make it behave like you ask for 
- it probably isn't a good idea though, because it's a very weird 
configuration and will break as soon as you upload it to any other server 
(i.e. any computer not running your personal hand-configured copy of 
Xitami) - so if you upload your pages to your ISP's web server, or a 
commercial web host, or basically any computer you don't actually have 
physical access to, it won't work. Consider very carefully whether this is 
what you want...

*** If you want a reasonably normal server, look away now ;-) ***






It's _possible_ to do what you're asking by using an extra alias to 
deliberately "move" ESP deeper into the site hierarchy. See the notes 
above, and note that if you later decide you want to move your site to your 
ISP or commercial host's server, IT WON'T WORK so don't ask me to fix it.

Exactly what you do depends on the URL to your script, not the folder the 
content is kept in. Web browsers don't know that your pages are in 
c:\xitami\cgi-bin\esp-pages (how would they?), but they do know the URL 
they just used to get at the script which serves the pages.

If the ***URL for your script*** is currently something like
http://127.0.0.1/cgi-bin/myscript?page=mypage
then you could do:

-- begin cfg section
[Alias]
images=c:\images

[Cgi-Alias]
cgi-bin/esp/esp=c:\Xitami\cgi-bin
-- end cfg section

and tell people that the new URL is:
http://127.0.0.1/cgi-bin/esp/esp/myscript?page=mypage

(note the two completely pointless esp "folders", to make sure going up 3 
levels gets you somewhere sensible)

Or, if the ***URL for your script***  is currently something like
http://127.0.0.1/cgi-bin/esp-pages/myscript?page=mypage
then you could do:

-- begin cfg section
[Alias]
images=c:\images

[Cgi-Alias]
cgi-bin/esp/esp-pages=c:\Xitami\cgi-bin\esp-pages
-- end cfg section

and tell people that the new URL is:
http://127.0.0.1/cgi-bin/esp/esp-pages/myscript?page=mypage

Neither of these is a clever idea. Don't use them if you want your server 
to be anywhere near normal.