These instructions assume that you have the following working
together: Web Server, database and Python.  I personnaly used
this configuration for my testing.

- Apache Web Server (http://www.apache.org/).  Currently, the
  only to restrict access to your code, is to used the web server
  authentification.  With apache, I used the AuthType Basic and
  Limit/require instruction for doing so.

- PostgreSQL (http://www.postgresql.org).  I try to make my code
  SQL-92 compliant but currently, only test it on PostgreSQL.  The
  code can show strange behavior and be corrupt especially if your
  server doesn't support transaction on UPDATE.  Also, the DB must
  have a Python DBAPI-2.0 interface.

- Python (http://www.python.org).  I used a python installation 2.1
  with some basic modules:
  - htmltmpl (http://htmltmpl.sourceforge.net/).  A simple HTML
    template system.  I always think I should upgrade to a more
    powerful one but htmltmpl really simply do the job.
  - pygresql (http://www.pygresql.org/).  A Python DBAPI-2.0
    interface to postgresql.  I think any other DBAPI-2.0 compliant
    module will do it with only small modifications.
  - xbel-utils.  A part of python-xml to manipulate XBEL XML files.
    Only necessary if you want the XBEL files import feature.

--
xbelweb installation
(after untar/unzip the distribution file to a temporary location...)

1. Move the python code into a repertory where the web server will serve
   the CGI.

2. Tell the web server to serve only CGI .py from the root directory of
   the application.  The lib and templates directory content should not be
   used.  tests neither and can even be removed.  Add any authorization you
   need.

3. Create a database for xbelweb (e.g., "xbelweb"), then create the
   tables in the database used by xbelweb using the
   ./lib/db/create_db.[your database] definition.  I do it with
   psql -U php < create_db.postgresql

4. Copy index.py.ex to index.py and edit the necessary information.