title: Which should I create: an Apache server extension, or a server from scratch?
body: <p>Briefly, I need to create a server whose back end queries information from another server.  I'm wondering how others might approach this problem.</p>
  
  <p>Here's a longer description of the problem:  I need to create a server (call this server Alpha) that makes requests to another server (call this server Omega) based on web pages that are requested by the client.  The requests are network messages and are not SQL queries.  The requested information will be part of the content that gets served to Alpha's clients.  For example, the client might want to display a buddy list.  Alpha would query Omega for the client's buddy list.  Alpha then displays a web page with the buddy list.</p>
  
  <p>The clients cannot connect directly to Omega.  The server Alpha pretty much just handles client connections, manages queries from the client to the Omega server and serves new web pages (which could contain information queried from Omega).</p>
  
  <p>I'm new to web development.  I don't know much about Apache modules. But, it seems like most of the functionality is already available within Apache.  It seems like Apache could be extended for sending the network messages that query information from the other server, Omega.  Another option is to create the Alpha server from scratch.  </p>
  
  <p>Which approach would you use?  Is there another approach that is better?</p>