DGP is working on making use of MetaKit within the Tcl Web Server, also known as TclHttpd. Here are some notes on his observations and experiences.
Jeff Smith wrote - I am heading down this path also. I would like to share my idea and hopefully get some feedback as to whether this is feasible.
I hope to create a Database so my Squid proxy/cache server can authenticate users before they go to the Internet. I will use TclHttpd wrapped as a starkit installed on the Squid box to provide the server front end to the Database. The Squid client authentication program will be a Starkit using the http package to delivery the "username" and "password" to TclHttpd for authentication. Also I want my users to be able to change their own passwords, so that should be possible via a form on the TclHttpd server. Also an "Administrator" form to add more users. I don't know if this can all happen at the same time, I am reading the MetaKit documentation at the moment and noticed there is an issue about concurrency!
Down the track as I become more familiar with Metakit, parse(is that the correct term) the Squid access.log file with Tcl into individual user db files for reporting or billing etc. and have them accessible via TclHttpd. Users should be able to access there own reports on TclHttpd using the same authentication scheme as above.
Finally if this all works, share this with the Squid Community, promote Tcl and demonstrate what I think is a very powerfull combination, TclHttpd and Tclkit.
PS A simple trick to safely update the squid user database is to have two copies, one for reading only, the other for updating. Assuming you are using unix and squid re-opens the database every time (it is changed), simply [file copy -force workingcopy tmpcopy] and [file move -force tmpcopy readingcopy] everytime you update your working copy and the changes are guaranteed to be atomic for the squid process. Assuming your user database is small, this adds almost no overhead at all.
NB I have uploaded a small package, formkit demonstrating the use of Metakit and Tclhttpd for webforms
Jeff Smith Thanks for the feedback! Greatly appreciated.
Jeff Smith OK I have made a start. Here is a Username/Password Database for Tclhttpd using Metakit.