heitml Production Mode

 
In Production Mode the End User sees only simple error messages that do not reveal the internal details of your program. In this section we will explain in more detail how to get information on errors that happened in Production Mode and how to let heitml know who is allowed to work in Debugging Mode and who works only in Production Mode.

Gathering Information from Production Mode

heitml logs errors in the log file of the Web Server (UNIX versions only). Also, you can configure the parameter debugdir=/tmp/debug (or heitmldebugdir for the Apache Web Server) specifying a directory name where debugging files should be stored. For each runtime error that occurs, heitml stores a debug file in this directory. The name of the file contains the date and time when the error occurred. The debug file contains all the usual heitml runtime error information, and additional information as to when the error happened, including which IP and User Name the request came from.

It is useful to make debugdir a password protected subdirectory of your Web Server to ensure that you can obtain the debugging information remotely.

Switching between debugging and production mode

heitml does User Identification by IP number or User Name. Using the debugip=192.168.17.5;10.0.1.1 (heitmldebugip for Apache) you can allow certain IP numbers to access a Web Site in Debugging Mode. Here you can give a list of complete IP numbers separated by semicolons, with no whitespace in between. You can also supply the special word localhost, which allows Browsers or Proxies on the Server to access the Web Site in Debugging Mode.

Identification by IP numbers can work quite well. However if you do not have control over the network connection, it is possible for someone to fake IP numbers. Also, IP number identification does not work precisely enough when running on multi-user machines, because everyone on such machines receive the same permissions.

The second possibility is identification by User Names. In this case the Web Site must be password protected. This causes your Browser to prompt you for a Username and Password. With debuguser=joe,jill (again, heitmldebuguser for Apache) you can specify a list of Users who are allowed to access the Web Site in Debugging Mode. Usernames must be separated by semicolons, with no whitespace in between.

All configuration options described here go into the heitml configuration file or the Web Server configuration file. See the installation pages for more detail.