Helicon Ape 1.1.0.15 – what risen minor gives

Hello! About two months ago our technology peacemaker, Helicon Ape, has been released. Day after day we are improving existing features and designing the new ones. Two builds have already been released and now we are going to increase our product’s minor version number because this monkey is gonna be really fancy ;)

So what new features has Ape obtained? Well, this post will shed some light on this issue.

Helicon Manager

Server variables autocompletion was added to the editor. This feature can be very helpful for mod_rewrite and mod_setenvif users. Ctrl+Space combination is used to open autocompletion form:

mod_hotlink implemented (NEW)

The module is aimed at protecting your web server from people stealing your traffic by directly linking to the content on your server. This is especially important for those having image, video, documents archives and other downloadable content.

After enabling mod_hotlink your site will work as if nothing happened, all search engines and backward links will still be valid, all user’s favorites will remain working. But if someone tries to embed your stuff directly on their site, they will only see an error message or your site’s logo. You can save tons of traffic and thus money. You can even turn these hotlinks into real visitors by redirecting hotlink request to your site’s homepage.

We also recommend you to have a look at this article: Strong hotlink protection with Helicon Ape mod_hotlink module.

mod_filter implemented (NEW)

This module provides selective filter application depending on the content type. Currently mod_hotlink, mod_gzip and mod_deflate can be managed by mod_filter directives.

mod_deflate implemented (NEW)

We’ve added mod_deflate directives support. Please note that technically mod_deflate and mod_gzip have the same compression algorithm.

mod_expires

Regular expressions support for ExpiresByType directive.

mod_setenvif

• Extended conditions syntax implemented (AND, OR and grouping support). Now you can easily create smart conditions to control Helicon Ape modules
• Mime and Query_String attributes support implemented
• Server variable can be used as an attribute. Two syntaxes are possible. You may use mod_rewrite style: %{VARIABLE_NAME} or simply VARIABLE_NAME:

mod_cache and mod_gzip

Management through environment variables implemented.