The core of a web server is just an HTTP daemon. The enhancements to the
core are what everyone likes about various servers, whether it's integration
with LDAP (NES) or MAC (IIS), SSL encryption (IIS, NES, Apache-SSL/mod-ssl),
ACL-based (NES, Apache, IIS) or NTLM-based (IIS only) authentication, etc.
Then there are myriad ways to extend the server even further for various
types of processing, and here we have all these apps like ColdFusion, ASP,
JSP, PERL, PHP, etc.
Java provides APIs for SSL, JNDI, Security, EJB, JTA, and JSP/Servlets.
What do you need a web server for at that point? Integrating the HTTP
daemon into the app server eliminates a host of problems with in-proc and
out-of-proc web server set-ups:
1. The core daemon can be barebones simple. If you don't need SSL or
Authentication or whatever, then leave it out. Apache is already like this
to a large extent, which is one of the things that makes it so great.
2. The server is totally customizable and portable via Java and the Java
APIs.
3. A servlet container running in-proc with a web server is faster than
out-of-proc, but is inherently problematic because it has to use JNI, plus
it makes it virtually impossible to debug your servlets unless you have an
out-of-proc version of the server to run in debug mode.
4. A servlet container running out-of-proc and communicating with the web
server via TCP/IP is slower.
5. In Java-based app servers, the web server is just a necessary evil. It's
sole purpose is to accept requests and hand them off the app server (and
maybe provide SSL and/or authenitcation).
I'm not saying it's time for everyone to start thinking about dropping their
web server, but it's certainly time for some to consider it. It's a useless
middleman if all the work is being done behind it in a JVM. This applies
more to the J2EE app. server users than to the smaller potatoes of
servlet/JSP users.
I don't agree with the comments on the Tomcat server. Tomcat is just a
reference implementation of the spec. Every spec-compliant servlet/JSP
container out there provides the standard platform to run your apps on, plus
value-added functionality provided by each vendor. Reference
implementations were never meant to replace production releases.
Scott Stirling
----- Original Message -----
From: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: "Scott Stirling" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Cc: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Sunday, March 26, 2000 3:27 PM
Subject: Re: comparison of engines
> On 25 Mar 00, at 18:53, Scott Stirling wrote:
>
> > All the latest and greatest Servlet/JSP containers are in beta right
now.
> > There's going to be a flood of kick-ass new servers out very soon. In
beta
> > now are JRun 3.0, Resin 1.1, Orion 1.0, and Weblogic 5. I don't know
what
> > WebSphere's up to. My recommendation is compare the latest beta
products if
> > you're going to compare. The four I just listed all support JSP 1.1 and
> > Servlet 2.2. All but Resin support EJB 1.1 and other features of J2EE.
> >
> > People should start thinking about canning their web servers. But if
you
> > must ask, any JSP/Servlet container worth its salt supports the latest
> > versions of Apache, iPlanet/NES, and IIS.
> >
> Why would you get rid of your Web server. A web server provides a
> lot more things out of the box than any servlet engine (while I like
> Java, I don't think it's the *only* language or *only* way to do
> things). While I do believe that there is a time and place for simpler
> web servers (e.g. use a browser and an embedded server to deploy
> a help system or data management application for sales people in
> the field), the servlet engines IMHO have a long way to go until they
> reach something like Apache or Iplanet. In fact the servlet engine
> guys should concentrate on writing better servlet engines (actually
> they should scrap writing their own servlet engines, standardize on
> Tomcat and improve services around Tomcat so that we developers
> always have a standard platform to run our apps on). Shipping a
> simple server to test servlets out on without the overhead of a real
> server is nice, but leave the real Web serving to the Web server
> developers.
>
> Mark
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Some relevant FAQs on JSP/Servlets can be found at:
http://java.sun.com/products/jsp/faq.html
http://www.esperanto.org.nz/jsp/jspfaq.html
http://www.jguru.com/jguru/faq/faqpage.jsp?name=JSP
http://www.jguru.com/jguru/faq/faqpage.jsp?name=Servlets
