Web Development Environments: Choose the best or go with the rest

Web Development Environments: Choose the best or go with the rest Chris Munt M/Gateway Developments Ltd

Agenda

Technologies

CSP, WebLink

Dedicated: JSP, ASP.NET, PHP etc …

Pre-existing: Perl, Python, Ruby etc …

Choosing the “right” one

Choosing the right one

Effect of powerful corporate interests

Effect of powerful community interests

Effect of peer pressure

Effect of Open Source movement

Choosing the right one

“ No one ever got fired for choosing __”

Windows?

You can evaluate and choose from…

PHP

Zend, CakePHP, PHOCOA, Friendly, Symfony, etc…

JSP/Java

Barracuda, Struts, Spring, etc …

Python

Django, Pylons, TurboGears, Zope, Pyroxide, etc …

Ruby

Ruby on Rails, Ramaze, Camping, etc …

Perl

LAMP, Mason, Calatyst, etc …

CSP, WebLink

Zen, EWD, WLD

Windows?

… or go with the crowd …

ASP.NET

Not Windows?

You can evaluate and choose from…

PHP

Zend, CakePHP, PHOCOA, Friendly, Symfony, etc…

Python

Django, Pylons, TurboGears, Zope, Pyroxide, etc …

Ruby

Ruby on Rails, Ramaze, Camping, etc …

Perl

LAMP, Mason, Calatyst, etc …

CSP, WebLink

Zen, EWD, WLD

Not Windows?

JSP/Java

Choosing a database 1980s/90s

… Evaluate demonstrably better performing options …

Cache

Oracle

DB2

Informix

Sybase

(SQL Server – partially derived from Sybase)

Choosing a database 2000s

Looking at alternatives to the big players no longer seems daft.

Cache

Derivatives from the M and PICK world

XML Databases, OO Databases

MySQL

Btree based databases from the embedded systems world

Previous main players?

Oracle (Oracle Database 10g Express – free).

(purchased Berkeley DB from Sleepycat 2006 - free).

DB2 (provide DB2 Express-C - free).

SQL Server (provide SQL Server Express – free).

Sybase (A long way behind the top three).

Informix (Acquired by IBM 2001).

Databases: What happened?

Over-powerful vendors

Challenged by Open Source movement

MySQL

“ Good enough” databases

Challenged by diverse requirements

XML

Diverse data types

Web services

Embedded systems

Web Development: What’s happening?

Two monsters:

ASP.NET

Java/JSP

Vendor interests assisted by over-powerful development communities

Challenged by powerful user communities and companies acting on their behalf

Google App engine: Python takes its place on the Cool Wall

Ongoing challenge from Open Source movement

Web Development: How to choose an environment

Note the impact that companies like Google can have.

Don’t be afraid to evaluate lesser known technologies provided … well let’s look at what’s available first …

ASP & ASP.NET

Microsoft IIS

Classic ASP (~1996)

script based and interpretive

ASP.NET (~2002)

Compiled, dependent on .Net framework

Database access

ADO.Net (base class library)

ODBC data provider

Web Services

.NET Architecture – key components

Huge class library.

Common Language Infrastructure (CLI)

Common Language Runtime (CLR)

Microsoft’s Virtual Machine

Contributing languages expected to work with this layer

Memory management/Garbage collection

System resource management

E.g. threads and exceptions

Security

ASP.NET: Key Languages

VB.NET

Classic VB development

C#

Similar to Java

Higher level types than C/C++; array bounds checking etc …

Approved as standard ECMA (ECMA-334) and ISO (ISO/IEC 23270)

J#

Legacy environment for J++

Usage declining

Will retire with Visual Studio 2005 in 2015

Java/JSP

Specified by Sun

Apache Tomcat

web container or application server

Implements Java Servlet and JSP

Apache mod_jk (Jakarta) manages communication between Apache and Tomcat

Database access

JDBC, web services

Java/JSP: Frameworks

Barracuda

Apache Struts

Formerly Jakarta project

Spring

Many others …

Java/JSP vs. ASP.NET

Similar technical framework:

Sun: Java Virtual Machine (JVM) + Java

Microsoft: Common Language Infratructure (CLI) + C#

Similar compiler architecture

Both use intermediate “Bytecode”.

Sun: Java Bytecode

Microsoft: Common Intermediate Language (CIL)

JSP vs. ASP.NET

Similar execution environment

Sun: Bytecode can be interpreted, compiled in advance or Just In Time (JIT)

Microsoft: CLI can be compiled in advance or JIT

Both extremely bloated

Huge class libraries

Continuum (often messy) between technical implementation and design

Component version control seems to persist as a significant problem

The rest: Applying the $Order Test

Set a("c")="record c"

Set a("b")="record b"

Set a("a")="record a"

Set key="" For {

Set key=$Order(a(key))

If key="" Quit

Write " ", key, " = ", a(key)

}

PHP

PHP ( Hypertext Preprocessor)

Created 1994

By Rasmus Lerdorf

One of the ‘3 Ps’ (along with Python, Perl)

Used for over 20 million web sites

Most popular Apache module

M-like associative arrays

Increasing OO capability

Interfaces to numerous SQL-based databases

MySQL popular choice

PHP: Frameworks

Zend

CakePHP

PHOCOA

Friendly

Symfony

CodeIgniter

Prado

Many others …

PHP: The $Order Test

$a = array(); # An associative array

$a["c"]="record c";

$a["b"]="record b";

$a["a"]="record a";

asort($a);

foreach($a as $key => $value) {

echo " ",$key," = ",$value;

}

Python

Created 1991

By Guido van Rossum (Hired by Google late 2005)

General purpose scripting environment

Some implementations include compiler

Multi-paradigm programming environment

Functional

Object Oriented

Large standard library

Modules for processing web requests

Modules for database access

Python: The $Order Test

a = {} # A dictionary

a["c"]="record c"

a["b"]="record b"

a["a"]="record a"

keys = a.keys()

keys.sort()

for n, key in enumerate(keys):

print " ", key, " = ", a[key]

Python: Frameworks

Django

Google App engine

Pylons

TurboGears

Combination of CherryPy and MochiKit

CherryPy

MochiKit

Zope

Pyroxide

Layered on mod_python

Many others …

Python: Other key developments

IronPython

Created 2006

Python implementation targetting .NET

Written entirely in C#

Similar initiatives include IronLisp and IronRuby.

Ruby

Created mid 1990s

By Yukihiro "Matz" Matsumoto

General purpose

Multi-paradigm programming environment

Functional

Object Oriented (Many ideas from Perl and Smalltalk)

Ruby On Rails: Created 2004

Complete web application development framework

Consists of several packages

ActiveRecord – Object Relational mapping

Ruby: The $Order Test

a = {} # A hash

a["c"]="record c"

a["b"]="record b"

a["a"]="record a"

a.each {

|key, value|

puts “ #{key} = #{value}”

}

Ruby on Rails

“ Ruby on Rails is an open source web framework that's optimized for programmer happiness and sustainable productivity. It lets you write beautiful code by favoring convention over configuration.”

Ruby: Frameworks and other developments

JRuby

Java implementation of Ruby interpreter

IronRuby

Ruby for .NET.

Implemented on Dynamic Runtime Library (DLR) layered over Common Language Runtime (CLR)

Ramaze

Lightweight option

Camping

Perl

Created 1987

By Larry Wall

General purpose scripting language

Emphasis on text processing

Suited to the needs of web programming

DBI (Database Interface) modules

Perl: The $Order Test

## Set up associative array

$a{"c"}="record c";

$a{"b"}="record b";

$a{"a"}="record a";

foreach $key (sort keys %a) {

print " $key = $a{$key}";

}

Perl: Frameworks

LAMP “solution stack”

Linux, Apache, MySQL, Perl (or one of the other “3 Ps”)

Mason

Catalyst

Many others

CSP & WebLink

WebLink (1996) succeeded by CSP (~2000)

Implemented over CGI and Web Server APIs

Proxy to Caché

Responses generated entirely in Caché

WebLink

M based. Support for legacy M systems

CSP

Close coupling with Caché Objects and Development environment

CSP & WebLink: Particular highlights

Support for state-aware sessions

Migration of legacy M/Caché code to the web

CSP equivalent: Preserve mode 1

WebLink Event Broker (1998)

Early incarnation of AJAX-like techniques

A “first” for InterSystems

In-form scriptable communication with server

Initially Java applet based; then XMLHTTP

CSP equivalent: Hyperevents

CSP & WebLink: Development Frameworks

WebLink Developer (WLD)

Code generator for WebLink applications

Run-time environment to support applications and security.

Precursor to Zen and EWD

CSP Zen

Developer focused environment

Enterprise Web Developer (EWD)

Designer focused environment

Reaches out to legacy WebLink/WLD applications

WebLink/CSP vs. The rest

Non CSP/WebLink environments

Requests processed and responses generated on web server host

Possible multiple round trips to database

Will need to increase capacity of web server tier sooner

Load-Balancing techniques

WebLink/CSP vs. The rest

CSP/WebLink

Web server extension as intelligent proxy/router

Requests and complete response generated in Caché

Single round trip to database per request/response cycle

Integrated scripting environment and database ideal for web application run-time environment

Better performance/throughput per web server

MGWSI Gateway: Connecting all environments to Cache

Uniform/Normalized interface to Caché

Underpins Enterprise Web Developer (EWD)

Currently supported:

PHP (m_php)

JSP (m_jsp)

ASP.NET (m_aspx)

To be released shortly:

Ruby (m_ruby)

Python (m_python)

Future support anticipated:

Perl (m_perl)

www.mgateway.com

Conclusion

Note developments in service providers

Keep eye on trends in all web development technologies.

Don’t be afraid to evaluate lesser known technologies provided … there is a vibrant community supporting them.

Web Development Environments: Choose the best or go with the rest

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