Web programming

Course overview and the future

Language / technology (with web links where appropriate)	Normal architecture	Embedded in HTML / Generates HTML
Perl http://www.perl.com/ http://www.perl.org/	CGI or module (mod_perl) in Apache	Generates
PHP http://www.php.net/	Server module	Embedded
ASP http://www.microsoft.com/	Server module	Embedded
Java servlets http://java.sun.com/products/servlet	Auxiliary server (e.g. Tomcat)	Generates
JavaServer Pages (JSP) http://java.sun.com/products/jsp	Auxiliary server (e.g. Tomcat)	Embedded
C/C++	CGI	Generates
Cold Fusion (CFML - Cold Fusion Markup Language) http://www.macromedia.com/software/coldfusion/	Own server	Embedded
Oracle PL/SQL http://otn.oracle.com/tech/pl_sql/content.html	Own server or Apache server module	Generates

Almost all the major developers (e.g. Macromedia with Cold Fusion, Oracle) are adapting their web products to a Java architecture. Perhaps in a few years, all major web applications will be written in Java? No, because there is one developer who is spurning Java - Microsoft.
Similarly, if there is information to be transferred between two applications, XML is fast becoming the only notation to use. Most of the web application products provide tools for creating and manipulating XML documents.
One of the emerging technologies for linking web applications together is Web Services. For more information on this read about SOAP (http://www.w3.org/TR/SOAP/), WSDL (http://www-106.ibm.com/developerworks/webservices/library/ws-soap/index.html?dwzone=ws) and UDDI (http://www.uddi.org/).
There is considerable interest in products that started life as a hobbyists toy - PHP is the perfect example of what began as a system to meet an individual's personal requirements but has grown into a full-scale product, with several people participating voluntarily to develop if further.

	Last updated by Prof Jim Briggs of the School of Computing at the University of Portsmouth
	The web programming units include some material that was formerly part of the WPRMP, WECPP, WPSSM and WEMAM units.