Add a standard test handler in the distribution

• Key: MODPYTHON-28
• Type: Improvement
• Status: Closed
• Resolution: Fixed
• Priority: Major
• Assignee: Nicolas Lehuen
• Reporter: Nicolas Lehuen
• Affects Version/s: 2.7.10, 3.1.4
• Fix Version/s: 3.2.7

Description

Improving the testing phase of the installation is crucial as we get a steady stream of question from new users who can't run the mptest or are confused about its meaning (for example, the fact that any URL ending with .py runs the mptest handler is misleading at first).

We should include a standard mptest handler in the distribution so that we can better help beginners, without making them struggle with a new file PYTHONPATH, syntax errors in the handler, etc. Ideally, the mptest handler should display useful informations both in the Apache log and in the result page ; this would help us check their environment and provide better help.

The information displayed could be (both in the log and the result page) :

- Apache version (+MPM type if this information can be queried at runtime)
- Python version
- mod_python version
- sys.path
- mod_python.publisher available yes/no
- mod_python.psp available yes/no

Of course, if anything goes wrong, it should be clearly stated in the Apache log (no misleading 404 errors, please !).

The testing phase of the installation would then be : 1) set "SetHandler mod_python.mptest" directive and 2) watch the results. This would be far less messy as it is currently.