SimpleXMLRPCServer and forking

[Chuck May]

I have a couple of questions concerning the SimpleXMLRPCServer.

1. I'm trying to implement a situation where the web client makes a call 
to the XML-RPC server, a database is updated showing that a job is 
beginning to run, and the server returns success to the calling user.  
After the request completes, the job (which takes a long time) starts to 
run and completes.  Upon completion, the results are posted into the 
database.  Here is some very simple code that illistates what I am 
talking about:

   import SimpleXMLRPCServer, sys, socket

   class Functions:
       def _logon(self, user, db):
    	    # handle user verification

       def dump(self, user, db, request):
           _logon(user, db)
           # return success
           # continue long running request

   if __name__ == '__main__':
       server = SimpleXMLRPCServer.SimpleXMLRPCServer((localhost, 8000))
       server.register_instance(Functions())
       server.serve_forever()

Does anyone know the best way to handle that?  Should I use a fork() in 
the dump function?  I'm not sure how that will affect the XML-RPC server 
though.  I could call an external program and launch it as a background 
process, but I'd like to keep the code self-contained.

2. Am I correct in saying that SimpleXMLRPCServer can only process a 
single request at a time?  It doesn't appear to be using the forking 
model.  If that is the case, does anyone know an easy way to create a 
forking version?  I could copy the source code and make some changes, 
but I was wondering if there was a way to subclass instead.

Thanks for any help,

-- 
Chuck May
IMS, Inc.
NmOaSyPcAM at imsweb.com