The mod_ssl module uses the OpenSSL library to provide strong cryptography via the Secure Sockets Layer (SSLv3) and Transport Layer Security (TLSv1) protocols. This module provides everything necessary to request a signed certificate from a trusted certificate signing authority to run a secure web server on FreeBSD.

In FreeBSD, mod_ssl module is enabled by default in both the package and the port. The available configuration directives are explained at http://httpd.apache.org/docs/current/mod/mod_ssl.html.

The mod_perl module makes it possible to write Apache modules in Perl. In addition, the persistent interpreter embedded in the server avoids the overhead of starting an external interpreter and the penalty of Perl start-up time.

The mod_perl can be installed using the www/mod_perl2 package or port. Documentation for using this module can be found at http://perl.apache.org/docs/2.0/index.html.

PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor (PHP) is a general-purpose scripting language that is especially suited for web development. Capable of being embedded into HTML, its syntax draws upon C, Java™, and Perl with the intention of allowing web developers to write dynamically generated webpages quickly.

To gain support for PHP5 for the Apache web server, install the www/mod_php5 package or port. This will install and configure the modules required to support dynamic PHP applications. The installation will automatically add this line to /usr/local/etc/apache24/httpd.conf:

LoadModule php5_module        libexec/apache24/libphp5.so

Then, perform a graceful restart to load the PHP module:

# apachectl graceful

The PHP support provided by www/mod_php5 is limited. Additional support can be installed using the lang/php5-extensions port which provides a menu driven interface to the available PHP extensions.

Alternatively, individual extensions can be installed using the appropriate port. For instance, to add PHP support for the MySQL database server, install databases/php5-mysql.

After installing an extension, the Apache server must be reloaded to pick up the new configuration changes:

# apachectl graceful

Django is a BSD-licensed framework designed to allow developers to write high performance, elegant web applications quickly. It provides an object-relational mapper so that data types are developed as Python objects. A rich dynamic database-access API is provided for those objects without the developer ever having to write SQL. It also provides an extensible template system so that the logic of the application is separated from the HTML presentation.

Django depends on mod_python, and an SQL database engine. In FreeBSD, the www/py-django port automatically installs mod_python and supports the PostgreSQL, MySQL, or SQLite databases, with the default being SQLite. To change the database engine, type make config within /usr/ports/www/py-django, then install the port.

Once Django is installed, the application will need a project directory along with the Apache configuration in order to use the embedded Python interpreter. This interpreter is used to call the application for specific URLs on the site.

To configure Apache to pass requests for certain URLs to the web application, add the following to httpd.conf, specifying the full path to the project directory:

<Location "/">
    SetHandler python-program
    PythonPath "['/dir/to/the/django/packages/'] + sys.path"
    PythonHandler django.core.handlers.modpython
    SetEnv DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE mysite.settings
    PythonAutoReload On
    PythonDebug On
</Location>

Refer to https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/1.6/ for more information on how to use Django.

Ruby on Rails is another open source web framework that provides a full development stack. It is optimized to make web developers more productive and capable of writing powerful applications quickly. On FreeBSD, it can be installed using the www/rubygem-rails package or port.

Refer to http://rubyonrails.org/documentation for more information on how to use Ruby on Rails.