Converting docbook on the fly with apache

[Frans Englich <frans.englich@telia.com>]

Hello all,

I have a set of documents in docbook format on a website, which are regularly 
updated(a script fetches from a CVS server). I don't want to serve static, 
generated html files(due to practical reasons) but dynamically. All of the 
files are separated(articles) and are hence relatively fast to parse.

I want to serve html files, instead of DocBook+XSL, and hence must convert 
them on the fly.

I have some questions concerning this:

* Is there an (apache) mechanism which caches this conversion? (only exports 
when the file have changed)

* The web server is probably running apache 1.3, and without Java support(but 
PHP is there for sure. What solution is suitable for my conditions?

Eventually, server upgrades are possible so feel free to suggest solutions 
outside above outlined scope.

I have practically no experience with Apache, so I can use document pointers 
into that cathedral. Especially, on the "serving chain", and architecture in 
general. I need to be able to figure out if php code is expanded before XML 
conversion, for example.

Any ideas and suggestions are highly appreciated.

		Frans