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DEVELOPING
        

        WEB APPLICATIONS WITH 

        SOLID Web Engine

        
Web application development consists of the tasks of
        creating input forms, sending queries to databases, and
        building new HTML pages from the results fetched from a
        database. The database and the web server are different
        parts of a web application. The web server manages HTML
        pages and the database manages data in relational or
        object format. 

        
Web application development tools provide the means of
        combining web servers and databases. Two separate
        interfaces are used for combining; one to the Web server
        and one to the database. Below are descriptions of
        commonly used interfaces and tools. More complete
        explanations on how these methods can be used in
        combination with SOLID Server can be seen
        by following the links to other documents.

        
Web Server
        Interfaces 

        
Various Web server products provide a number of
        mechanisms for integrating code to execute on a Web
        server. The server programming mechanisms can be grouped
        to following basic types:

        

            

                CGI
                CGI (Common
                Gateway Interface), the Internet de-facto
                standard interface for invoking server-based
                scripts or compiled programs at the request of
                clients. It is currently the most common way of
                providing interactive Web pages such as forms for
                entering data or documents generated dynamically
                from data retrieved from a database. 
The CGI
                interface is available with practically all major
                Web servers.

                		
            

            

                Server plug-in APIs
                Server
                plug-in APIs, that allow developers to extend
                the native capabilities of the Web server. The
                server plug-in API is a low-level function
                interface that provides developers a great deal
                of control over the server's behavior by creating
                high-performance extensions. For example,
                developers may choose to implement their own
                mechanisms for access control, user
                authentication, or error logging. 
The two
                major plug-in APIs currently on the market are
                Netscape's NSAPI and Microsoft's ISAPI. 

                		
            

            

                Java and JavaScript
                Java and
                JavaScript allow the user to write Java and
                JavaScript code that executes on the client or
                server. Using these facilities, application
                developers can create applications that may
                access servers, clients, and databases. 
Java
                and JavaScript are different scripting languages.
                Java originates from JavaSoft Inc. and the source
                for JavaScript is Netscape Communications.
                JavaScript differs greatly from Java, but like
                Java JavaScript it is essentially a simplified
                version of C++. 

                		
            

            

                ActiveX
                ActiveX
                provides many of the same capabilities as Java.
                ActiveX is basically a new architecture for
                Microsoft OLE Custom Controls (OCX), modified to
                provide security services and other features
                required when using the Web. 
ActiveX
                applications can be used in Netscape's and
                Microsoft's Web browsers and servers. ActiveX
                technology is still in development. Latest
                information can be found from Microsoft's ActiveX
                pages.

                
SOLID Server can be used with ActiveX
                through the ODBC interface. 

                		
            

        

        
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