Intro To Web Applications

If you need to setup an Internet presence for your company, you're likely going to be attracted to the software that everyone else uses. One of the most popular combinations of software is abbreviated AMP - Apache, MySQL, and PHP. However, this is just one combination of software that works well but other software may make more sense for you. There are a plethora of excellent choices.

For example, MySQL is a capable and fast database engine but PostgreSQL is more functional and has cleaner licensing terms. PHP is easy to learn and deploy but you may see benefit in a more functional and general purpose language like Perl, Python, Ruby, C++, etc. If your primary concern is secuity - reducing the possibility that someone can compromise your Web site - then software based on Java may be the better choice.

The problem is that there are many choices. You may not have time to research all the possibilities. Choosing the wrong software can be a mistake that's expensive to undo. It's best to choose the right software from the outset.

This is a survey course that exposes you to much of the popular software used by companies to build their Web sites. Your instructor will keep the comparisons as objective as possible.

Course Contents

Static Page Content

HTML & XHTML

Basic markup

Hyperlinks

Lightweight Web servers

Forms

Markup for user input

CGI - Standard for processing form input

Heavier-weight Web servers

Dynamic Page Generation

ASP, Server-Side Includes, etc.

CGI/shell scripting

CGI/Perl, PHP, Python, and other languages

Scripting languages embedded in the webserver

Heavyweight Web servers

AOLserver - Tcl-based

Apache with mod_perl, mod_ruby, mod_tcl, etc.

Java JSP/servlets

Jetty, Tomcat, Websphere, etc.

JSP - Java embedded in Web pages

Any JVM language as well like jpyhon, jscheme, Jacl, etc.

Container managed security/sessions

Formal specification from Java community process

Servlet frameworks

Built on top of Java servlets

Java server faces, Struts, Cocoon, Tapestry