Comparing Web Technologies

1
Chapter 9

• Comparing Web Technologies

2
Agenda

• Browser
• Hypertext Markup Language (HTML)
• Common Gateway Interface
• Web Application Server
• Plug-in

3
Browser

• Selection Criteria
• Popular Browser
• Next generation

4
Selection Criteria

• OS platform
• Unix
• Windows
• Lynx
• Standards
• World Wide Web Consortium (W3C)
• Backward-compatible
• Forward-compatible

5
Selection Criteria

• Functions
• Frames
• Forms
• Tables
• Fonts
• Cascade style sheet (CSS)
• JavaScript
• Java

6
Selection Criteria

• Functions
• Plug-ins
• News
• Mail
• HTML editor
• Reliability
• Cost

7
Selection Criteria

• Support
• Vendor
• Third party
• Hardware requirement
• Server side
• Client side
• Speed/performance

8
Selection Criteria

• Types
• Text-based
• Multimedia-based
• Online
• Offline (Offline Explorer)
• Standard compliance
• Can you think any other selection criteria for
  browser?

9
Popular Browser

• Netscape Communicator
• Internet Explorer
• Opera
• Lynx
• Amaya
• Arachne
• HotJava

10
Next Generation

• Desired features
• Integrated Internet service
• Open source code for quality and portability
• Real-time communication for chat
• Small and modular programs
• Speed
• Standards Compliance
• Anything else?

11
Next Generation

• Reality
• Incompatible/proprietary feature
• Complexity/more memory requirement
• Unreliable/more bug/more insecure
• What do you think about the reality?

12
Agenda

• Browser
• Hypertext Markup Language (HTML)
• Common Gateway Interface
• Web Application Server
• Plug-in

13
Hypertext Markup Language

• HTML 4.0
• Dynamic HTML
• Extensible markup language

14
Agenda

• Browser
• Hypertext Markup Language (HTML)
• Common Gateway Interface
• Web Application Server
• Plug-in

15
Common Gateway Interface

• General concepts
• Languages
• Language selection criteria

16
General Concept

• Common gateway interface (CGI) enables
  interaction between a web server and a browser
  using the hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP)
• CGI handles information requests and return the
  appropriate document or generate a dynamic
  document
• CGI is a gateway between database and web browser

17
Languages

• C
• C
• Java
• JavaScript
• Jscript
• ECMAScript
• Perl
• Python
• VisualBasic Script

18
Language Selection Criteria

• Hardware-independent
• Browser-independent
• Fast prototyping
• Easy to use and read
• Efficient and complete
• Object-oriented
• Portable
• Multi-platform environment
• Event handling and client-side execution
• Create and read cookies

19
Agenda

• Browser
• Hypertext Markup Language (HTML)
• Common Gateway Interface
• Web Application Server
• Plug-in

20
Web Application Server

• General Concepts
• Selection Criteria
• Products

21
General Concepts

• Three-tier architecture
• Client
• Database server
• Web application server
• Functions of web application server
• Transaction management
• Clustering and load balancing

22
Selection Criteria

• Easy to use
• Functions
• File, proxy, redirect and virtual hosting
• Interaction with heterogeneous databases
• Availability
• Security
• Scalability

23
Selection Criteria

• Performance
• Transaction Integrity
• Speed
• Quality of service
• Rapid application development
• Platform-independent

24
Selection Criteria

• Manageability
• Portability
• Integration with legacy systems
• Can you think any other selection criteria for
  web application server?

25
Products

• Avenida Web Server
• Bea WebLogic Enterprise
• Cold Fusion
• Enterprise Application Server
• eXcelon
• Inprise Application Server
• Lotus Domino Application Server

26
Products

• Netwcape Application Server
• SilverStream
• WebObjects
• WebSphere Application Server
• Sope

27
Agenda

• Browser
• Hypertext Markup Language (HTML)
• Common Gateway Interface
• Web Application Server
• Plug-in

28
Plug-in

• Purpose
• Products

29
Purpose

• Interact with browser, web pages, local and
  Internet resources
• Native application for a certain processor,
  hardware and operating system

30
Products

• Adobe Acrobat Reader
• Acrobat portable document format (PDF)
• Distribute online brochure and technical
  documentation via Internet
• Apple Quicktime
• Maximum exposure and viewing multimedia CD-ROM on
  the web

31
Products

• Platinum Cosmoplayer
• Display documents in the virtual reality markup
  language (VRML)
• 3D world
• Macromedia Shockwave
• Standard plug-in for multimedia on Internet
• Do you have any experience with these products?

32
Points to Remember

• Browser
• Hypertext Markup Language (HTML)
• Common Gateway Interface
• Web Application Server
• Plug-in