WWW5 Fifth International World Wide Web Conference
May 6-10, 1996, Paris, France

Exorcising daemons: A modular and lightweight approach to deploying applications on the Web

 Jonathan Trevor, Richard Bentley and Gerrit Wildgruber

Abstract

The World Wide Web (W3) is increasingly been seen as a platform for enabling remote access to new and existing applications from different client machines. While some applications have been deployed through specialised, proprietary W3 servers, the majority utilise the CGI interface provided by standard servers to provide all application functionality external to the server itself. Using experience gained in developing the BSCW Shared Workspace system, we argue that this `API-based' approach is both too restrictive and too `heavyweight' for the needs of many applications, which often require a small subset (or a different implementation) of the features the server offers. In contrast, we propose a more modular, component-based approach to enable applications for the World Wide Web, and present a prototype implementation of an integration toolkit which demonstrates this. As well as the potential for greater flexibility, performance and smaller application size, this approach also naturally extends to other methods of access and interaction such as electronic mail.

Keywords: Application integration, W3 servers, BSCW

Introduction

The World Wide Web (W3) has rapidly become the primary means of accessing information over the Internet and continues to grow unchecked. According to Lycos, by September last year more than 8 million documents containing nearly 11 million URLs were accessible over the Web [1]. The majority of this vast quantity of information is however served by a relatively small number of different W3 server applications, or daemons, with a recent survey highlighting NCSA's httpd (28%), Apache--an NCSA variant--(27%), Netscape's Commerce and Communication servers (17%) and CERN's httpd (8.5%) [2]. The features offered and the basic design of these servers does not differ greatly--for example, most provide facilities for authentication, access control, logging, directory listing, MIME-type mapping and so on. Much of the effort in recent releases seems to have focused on improving basic server performance (using techniques such as `process pools') rather than major changes in this behaviour and functionality. It is safe to say that current designs are highly successful for serving documents and HTML pages, and that server performance is not likely to limit the scaleability of W3 to even more users, at least for access to this type of information.

The World Wide Web has however proved to be something of a Pandora's Box, opening up many more possibilities than remote access to static documents and pages of information. Not least of these is the potential for remote access to applications, ranging from simple games such as tic-tac-toe, to query interfaces for large and complex database systems. While in its current form W3 is most particularly suited to certain kinds of application--notably those requiring minimal user interfaces and interface-application dialogues, based on a client-server model of interaction--removal of the need to manage cross-platform client and network complexities often makes deployment of such applications remarkably straightforward.

Enabling access to applications from the W3 is currently performed by programming extensions to a standard W3 daemon through its Application Programmers' Interface (API). A consequence of this approach is that deployment of an application over W3 usually requires the configuration and maintenance of an associated W3 server, despite the fact that the application may require only a small part of that server's core functionality. In addition, where server features are potentially useful to an application--for example, facilities for access control--the server implementation of these features is often not suitable or optimal for a new application, and such features may already be built into existing applications. These problems are reflected in the number of applications currently deployed which require proprietary, application-specific W3 servers, as for example with the BASIS WEBserver [3], which enables access to the BASISplus document management and repository system.

Based on our experience of developing the BSCW Shared Workspace system [4]--an application providing basic facilities to support cooperative work over W3--we argue that the extension of existing W3 servers through APIs is often not the optimal approach to deploying applications on the Web. In the following section we discuss this claim in more detail using examples from our own work and other `Web-enabled' applications. We then outline an alternative, more modular approach, and its prototype implementation in an integration toolkit, which has potential for increasing the flexibility with which applications can be enabled for W3 access while reducing the need to develop proprietary, application-specific W3 servers. We demonstrate use of the toolkit in enabling access to the BSCW system from the Web, and show how its component-based design has further allowed integration of electronic mail access features with very few changes to the system itself.

Deploying Applications on the Web

Most W3 servers provide one or more APIs for integrating new and existing applications. The most well known of these APIs is the Common Gateway Interface (CGI), and although some servers (such as Netsite for example) additionally provide a specialised API, CGI version 1.1 [5] is currently standardised and supported by all major W3 servers.

The basic model of integrating applications with a W3 server is to configure the server to treat some HTTP requests as calls to external scripts and invoke these rather than have the server handle the request itself. CGI specifies the structure and method of passing information about the request (such as the URL requested, HTML form field values and so on) to the script which is expected to provide a reply, such as an HTML page to return to the client. The CGI script may be a very simple routine, for example a call to the Unix finger command, or an interface to a complex application such as a DBMS. Figure 1 shows this most basic interaction between client, server, and CGI script.


Figure 1. Application integration via the CGI

We now describe our own experiences of using the CGI API to develop and deploy both a new and an existing collaboration-support application on the Web.

Deploying a new application: The BSCW Shared Workspace system

The BSCW Shared Workspace system provides basic facilities to support collaborative sharing of information, activity awareness and integration of external applications across Macintosh, PC and Unix platforms. It supports document storage, retrieval and more sophisticated document- and user-management facilities, all of which are accessible using an unmodified W3 client such as Netscape. An early version of the system is described in [4].

Our initial intention was to use the CGI to extend a standard W3 server with the BSCW functionality. In addition, we hoped to make use of a number of features provided by most servers--in particular the support for user authentication, access control, access logging, MIME-type resolution and directory listing. However, as our specific requirements were formulated it became clear that the mechanisms and implementation of most of these services were not adequate for our needs. A detailed discussion of the problems can be found in [4], but we give two examples here:

The CGI provides no support for tailoring the core behaviour of W3 servers. Although we could have ignored the features offered by the server and added CGI scripts to implement our access model, directory listing and so on, we elected to modify the server itself and create a customised daemon tailored to the requirements of our application. The first strategy would have meant duplicating much of the server's functionality in CGI scripts (as our requirements were often not very different to the features the server already provided) resulting in a larger overall application footprint (the size of the server plus the CGI scripts) and slower performance, as calling out to CGI scripts is a relatively expensive operation for most servers.

Deploying an existing application: The POLITeam project

POLITeam [6] is a large project which is examining and developing tools to support collaborative work in the German Ministries, following the German Government's decision to split the Parliament between Bonn and Berlin. POLITeam uses Digital's LinkWorks system which provides a shared document management system as a base for a number of supporting tools such as electronic circulation folders. The project has recently developed a W3 interface to the system to allow access to LinkWorks from machines which can not or have not been configured to run LinkWorks client applications.

Here the W3 interface acts as a simple `glue' between an existing W3 daemon and the API of the LinkWorks system which provides full authentication and access control features. Initially it was hoped that the authentication mechanisms provided by W3 servers would be useful for obtaining a user-name and password to deliver to LinkWorks (as it requires) along with details of the request, and thus provide a simple mechanism which required users to authenticate only once per session. However, although it was possible to set up the request-handling CGI scripts so that users had to authenticate with user-names and passwords, the CGI environment in which the scripts execute does not include the password supplied by the user. It was therefore extremely difficult to handle authentication for the LinkWorks system using the features provided by the W3 server, and the final solution involved developing a special `login form' and mechanisms to record authentication details and handle session management so the user did not have to authenticate with every request.

The developers' dilemma: CGI versus custom daemon

These two examples highlight a dilemma often faced by developers wishing to deploy new and existing applications on the Web; namely, whether to create a customised daemon or extend a standard server through the CGI. In the case of BSCW it was decided to adapt a daemon directly, primarily for performance reasons (although this decision has been reversed for future versions of the system), while for POLITeam the decision was to remain with CGI and accept the need to duplicate, to a large extent, the server authentication features. In making such decisions, the developer must consider a number of trade-offs.

Providing a specialised daemon may be necessary to achieve adequate performance, security and so on, and allows tailoring of the services provided by the daemon to the application and removal of unnecessary services--such as directory listing, perhaps. This is possible by adapting an existing server or developing a completely new daemon, both of which are non-trivial; the former requires access to server source code which is often undocumented, while the latter requires re-coding much of the standard server behaviour and performance optimisations. Whichever method is chosen the result is a specialised daemon that must be installed and maintained separately of any existing W3 server. For some large, complex applications such as BASISplus [3], the requirements of the application may make a specialised daemon the only option, and the extra effort for development and maintenance is relatively small and acceptable. For many applications, however, this is not the case.

On the other hand, as we have shown in the examples above, deployment using CGI may cause problems when existing server features are unsuitable for an application's requirements. The result is often a need to duplicate aspects of server functionality in CGI scripts in order to achieve only minor modifications as the CGI does not support tailoring of server features. Further, developers must still be careful not to make assumptions about aspects of server behaviour such as the naming and format of log files, access control files and so on which are not standardised between servers. Generally application deployment with CGI means a greater application footprint as the server provides many features that the application may not require, and a performance hit over an application-specific daemon. It does however remove the need to handle network connections, HTTP request/reply parsing and so on from the developer, and allows installation using a standard daemon--possibly one already set up at the host site.

It might be argued that many of these problems are specific only to the current CGI standard and are not shared by other server APIs. Servers such as Netsite and Apache provide comprehensive APIs that give the developer much more control over the internal behaviour of the daemon, and thus allow more flexibility in tailoring it to the requirements of an individual application. However these APIs are currently non-standard, and applications which make use of them are tied to specific servers and versions of those servers--upgrading to a new version may require corresponding updates to the applications themselves, and older versions of the server required by the application may become unavailable. In some cases where servers are not public-domain (as with Netsite), distributing a free application which uses the API may require the user to buy a server.

It may be possible to extend CGI, or another standardised API, to provide much more flexibility to developers to enable applications for the Web in a server-independent manner. It is our belief, however, that there are a number of problems with the server API approach per se for deploying applications on the Web:

It is our belief that these observations point to a basic problem with the API-based approach to deploying applications on the Web. The design of a W3 server is highly suited to its core tasks, and the CGI API as currently implemented is often adequate for integrating many, often quite complex applications which have straightforward requirements. However there are also applications, such as BSCW and POLITeam, which do not fit well with the CGI approach. We also believe that attempts to greatly increase the flexibility of the server API could compromise the server's design (an analogy might be putting wings on your car to make it fly; it might, but the result is certainly not an optimal design for a plane, and your car would no longer fit in the garage!). On the other hand, we do not advocate development of proprietary daemons for every application, requiring much more effort in application deployment and leading to a profusion of specialised servers. Instead we have begun exploring a more `component-based' approach which falls somewhere between the extremes of server API and proprietary daemon, allowing applications to be deployed in a `lightweight' and modular manner.

A Lightweight and Modular Approach

We have shown that many of the features offered by a modern W3 server are often not required or their implementations are not suitable when deploying both new and existing applications on the Web. What is common to all applications, however, is the need to enable communication from standard W3 clients, requiring support for receiving and responding to client requests using HTTP. We contend that it should be possible to add, remove and customise other features such as access control, URL expansion, Relocation and so on in a modular fashion.

It should be noted at this point that these claims can generally be applied to W3 servers themselves, which in some sense are only special purpose applications enabled to serve documents and HTML pages using HTTP (though in practice the coupling is of course much tighter than this!). This is exemplified in the design of the Spinner W3 server [8] which is radically different to almost all other HTTP daemons. A Spinner server consists of a number of different modules, each of which handles some aspect of server behaviour and can be replaced or omitted in a functioning installation. This means that a Spinner daemon is as large and complicated or as small and simple as required, and modifying the behaviour of any aspect only requires replacing the corresponding module with a customised version. Support for CGI and modules for all standard server operations mean that Spinner can be deployed as a replacement for more conventional servers, and an efficient, multi-threaded implementation provides good performance.

For general application deployment, however, Spinner is still too restrictive. Modules have to be placed in one of eight categories, and these categories are targeted towards the features provided by a traditional W3 server. In addition, modules have to be coded in an (as yet) obscure and poorly documented language called uLPC. A related but more flexible approach is to embed support for arbitrary extension modules within the server, possibly written in different languages. This is being attempted by a group at Digital Creations [7] who have embedded support for the ILU distributed, cross-language programming system [9] in the Apache and Netscape servers. Although many of the problems with extending an existing daemon as described above still apply, this approach has great potential for enabling a wide variety of applications on the Web. It is however `heavyweight' as the ILU programming system is both large and complex, and many applications will not require the support for distributed execution.

We have attempted to combine aspects of both the Spinner and embedded-ILU approaches to develop a toolkit for enabling applications for the Web in a modular fashion, like Spinner, while providing the flexibility of the embedded-ILU approach in a more `lightweight' manner. As a starting point, we have isolated the following requirements as common to all such applications, and which should be supported directly by the toolkit:

1. accepting HTTP requests from W3 clients

2. forwarding request details to application specific modules

3. allowing those modules to request user authentication

4. returning an application-supplied reply to the W3 client

We have therefore designed toolkit components to support these requirements, the core of which is an Integration Service through which applications can register, receive request information and send their responses.

A toolkit for deploying applications on the Web

The toolkit consists of three kinds of components: Communication Modules, an Integration Service and Application Modules. The relationships between these is shown in Figure 2.


Figure 2. Components of the toolkit

The Communication Modules (CMs) are responsible for receiving requests and sending replies from a client in a particular protocol or format. They may be small server processes, such as a minimal HTTP daemon, or programs which can be initiated from the command line, or by other servers and applications. A CM defines a mapping between the specific request format and a request object--a representation of the request which holds request details as attribute-value pairs. A HTTP request would therefore be mapped to an object which included fields like REQUEST-METHOD, CONTENT-TYPE and so on. CMs must verify the request, according to the definition of the protocol, and forward the request object to the Integration Service.

The Integration Service (IS) forms the heart of the toolkit, routing request objects to suitable Application Modules (AMs). The request object is passed on unmodified giving the AMs access to all the information supplied in the original request. The recipient AM is determined based on a table of the AMs' registered interests, defined in a configuration file by the developer and parsed by the IS on initialisation (Figure 3). The IS can be signalled to re-read this configuration file, allowing developers to modify AM interest information at run-time.

    HTTP_CM: (simple_http, initialise, bscw.gmd.de, 80)

    (bscw_http, handle_request, [HTTP_CM], {`URL': `^\/bscw\/?'})
    (bscw_http, get_icon, [HTTP_CM], {`URL': `^\/icons\/?'})
Figure 3. Basic interest-configuration for the HTTP IS to AM mapping

The interest configuration file has two parts separated by a blank line; a header part which specifies the Communication Modules to be initialised, and the body which describes the mapping from requests to calls to Application Modules. Each entry in the header specifies the name of a CM to register with the system and about which interest information may be provided. If any parameters are given the IS will invoke the named module and initialisation method and pass the specified initialisation parameters (represented as strings). In the example above the CM simple_http will be initialised with a function call of the form:

    simple_http.initialise(`bscw.gmd.de', `80')
The CM will then initialise--in this case starting up a server process to listen for HTTP connections at bscw.gmd.de:80. It is expected to handle any errors on initialisation itself--for example, if the IS is being signalled to re-parse its configuration file and the server is already running on port 80. (To re-start the CM itself it is necessary to kill the CM process and either signal the IS to re-parse its configuration file or start the CM by hand from the command line).

smoke fetish archive Avril lavigne pussy genie in a string bikinie cast Girls fuck horses stories pornstars xxx babes Nikki schieler ziering nude dickies jeans Skinny teen bitches hentai sex videos free Little girls sex nude pot Boob tube High school musical vanessa nude pics free artistic nude photos pussy prowler Gayforit watch free lesbian videos free teen celebs nude Bikini dare galleries spiritual sport fucking Big and beautiful porn stars
faked nude Sleep nude girls nature nude video Catfight nude nude asian sluts nude ladies pussy Sara roemer nude asian girls non nude School girls nude pics gay nude workout Nude nudist pamela anderson playboy nude pics Kathrine heigel nude Free nude hentai fairies nude swedish blonde nude Nude celebrity videos for free nude celebrities miley cyrus nude south african men Free hardcore nude nude cellphone pictures Bollywood nude boobs
blowjobs gallery Jim hardick free porn videos no credit card Creatine sex milfporn star aluminium essex Free video sex positions ultrapasswords xxx Xxx teen britney spears blowjob video Facts teenagers curfews natural hairy pussy Amature women Edwin carungay fuckyourtube sexproadventures Free kinky sex tips rave sex porn lyrics sexy back Better than sex cake recipe final fantasy rikku xxx Paris hilton blowjob
free yno sex video 3d young art sex phone web cam sex Amature woman sex party free home-made sex clips young sex in america Free dirty sex pictures best sfrican sex movies He she sex pics picts of amature sex Julie michaels sex scene bible view on sex Sex tv tv show Extreme insertion sex 6 fee animal sex vids sex girls piss tube Thai pussy sex porn sex 3d fantasy pics sex mature woman jokes Jeremiah birthday sex bio tulsa police sex registration Sex vedeo stream chat
independent sex scenes Racist daughter sex clearanced sex toys K9 sex clips britney sex movies black sex squirt Awsome hard sex manson sex onstage Nimpho sex classifieds sex offenders index Nomid animal sex hardcore lezbo sex Oral sex possitions Out sex videos sly fox sex famos toon sex Only ebony sex anette dawn sex extent sex pill Mature hairy sex asian sex french Kim kardishan sex
education research group Ari banerjee yankee group ancestry group Randy orton group free group sex porno group insurances Galleon group hedge fund rubber fab technologies group Attorneys group group b infection Risk retention group insurance the rules support group Green resources group Group dynamics team r46b group high five amateurs group Amazing group sex on demand color group lesbian group gallery Campy centaur group accept group Group of deer is called
fucking machine xxx College sex xxx chobits xxx Iran xxx sexo xxx enanas collection xxx Eve angel xxx pork xxx Older women xxx download free psp xxx Xxx sluts videos swingers xxx free Free bi xxx Photos xxx free harecore xxx xxx porn passwords Rapes xxx xxx adult dvd xxx gratis con putas Web site xxx free xxx mangas Alena seredova xxx
ball dragon porn video The thrills music video woman squirting free video Roma video card e pci video mtv jam video Apartment mikes picture video paris hilton video stills Big cock homemade movie council meeting video Studio telescope video converter ipod ora video Victoria pink videos Uk movies cussler movie new video releases 2005 Conferencing live video violence video games children tasha nelson video Rv video camera movie graber Adam sandler secret video
teacher sex crazydumper Sex health video marriage with sex Celebrity sex viceos busty office sex shove bull sex Football sex rio free sex shots Consensual submission sex free sex gemes Mauritius sex site hardcore sex mp3 Barbarella sex machine Hunting sex jessica alien sex gaems free sex xxx Muscular sex pictures ass booty sex dogpound group sex Anail sex videos vitamins before sex Brewster sex stories
asians sex Haveing sex with a man lesbien sex xxx Hypno girl sex arabic sex 9356 biker girls sex Guilty gear sex mature free sex tube Nude girls having sex with boys ray j and kim kardashian full sex tape for free Cyber sex forum what is angry sex Sex while pregnant pictures When can i have sex and not get pregnant home made amateur sex tapes dog sex beastality Sex games online for women clips cartoon sex taboo charming mother sex Girl sex pose hardcore gothic sex Best sex teacher
love sex relatioships Historical books sex pegging sex literature Sex story community sex bites torrent long sex trailors Gonzo rawr sex carrie bradshaw sex Voung teen sex home sex stream Kinky sex forum savvanah gold sex Anal sex wide Crushing for sex comic sex jokes mermaid sex videos Pet sex foram ali sheffield sex cancer sex partners Calforina sex retreat mini teens sex Anal sex cum
victorian xxx Xxx sci fi sexy photos xxx Xxx video play xxx babe videos animail xxx All xxx tube tilf 2 xxx Xxx puzzle black porno xxx 3gp xxx wap videos streaming xxx Free xxx moves Muscle gay xxx free gothic xxx video naruto xxx Xxx pass free best xxx movie 2008 xxx dog clips Xxx free e cards xxx porn full videos Xxx stone
porn movie theaters Morgan lane porn catherine porn Porn mom son sex mommy and daddy porn kasumi porn Find porn torrents rumania porn Xxx pictures porn black porn videos free Discipline porn biggest penis porn Littel girl porn Porn leg warmers tiny tits porn movies top 10 porn clips Free lovemaking porn homemade mexican porn vanessa raia porn Muslim porn sex free high definition porn streaming James nichols gay porn
fuck me gay Vulva fuck sexy fuck movie Mother lets son fuck her fuck you mom and dad mommy fuck son Father son fuck girl porn to fuck Fuck off letter fuck my boob Megaupload fuck i fuck my mother inlaw Doggy style fuck videos Woman looking to fuck shemales fuck girls movies kama sutra fuck Fuck you love mother daughter fuck boyfriend fuck church Dog fuck woman movies the fuck buttons Man fuck his dog
Blowjob And Cum Swallow mom giving son blowjob Preggo Blowjob free blowjob compilations blowjob mature Blowjob Guys blowjob fantasies 18 Avatar Blowjob sister gave me a blowjob Tickling Blowjob blowjob at school Hentai Porn Blowjob Fake Blowjob girl pukes during blowjob blowjob tryouts Guys Blowjob japanese girl giving blowjob most famous blowjob Gay Horse Blowjob double blowjob vids Blowjob Outdoor
Youngest Girl Porn Ever plus size sexy school girl Flavor Flav Girl Poops all girl sex videos girl porche Baby Girl I Want You gossip girl on tv com Hey Hey Baby Will You Be My Girl naked girl shitting Little Girl Photos ghetto black girl Go Go Girl Adult Girl Psp Theme girl for sale on ebay pin up girl hats Little Monster Girl naked teen girl pics black girl actress Sleeping Girl Gets Raped how to approach a girl online Girl And Girl Haveing Sex
Ink bitch webbie gutta bitch Lyrics to five star bitch bitch in french Badd bitch quotes cant trust no bitch Bitch asian im a pretty bitch Kristen stewart is a bitch a bitch slap G unit fat bitch Shut up bitch download im in san diego bitch cock hungry bitch Teeh fuck the bitch is kristen stewart a bitch bitch milfs Lyrics to bitch by meredith brooks foot fetish bitch Shake that ass bitch and let
paris hilton beach sex Cocksucker snake girls xxx Nude booty poppin little teens pics most extreme porn list Audience analysis heather locklear nude Porn star named madison lolita preteens Cheyanne bride black cock joelle amateur Nude christina aguilera Nice nude teen photo gallery hot cab mature sex sites Fucked by my dog mpegs massive tits men fucking boys Swedish porn galleries amateur nudes Sexy superheroes
bbw nude women Nude pussy cum naomi nude Nude asian americans courtney smith nude sienna guillory nude Girls basketball nude kate bosworth nude fakes Amateur wife nude photos ukraine nude teen Big black ass nude kiera knightley nude pics Nude russians Sleep nude chris brown rihanna nude photos pic of nude girls Bollywood nude images sexy and nude pics free nude college girl videos Nude dads and daughters ameture nude pictures Serena williams nude pix
1st Anal Sex what is an anal prolapse Types Of Anal Sex gay anal sex technique gay anal fisting videos Why Does Anal Sex Feel Good video double anal Lesbian Teens Anal largest anal dildo Lesbian Anal Toy anal sex poop videos Anal Hidden Cam Amateur Interracial Anal amy amour anal how to anal intercourse Anal Sex Condoms eyaculacion anal free anal streaming Anne Hathaway Loves Anal mini anal Unnatural Anal Insertions
Anal Guest free full anal movies Manual Anal 1st anal video shits herself anal Couple Anal Sex roxy renolds anal Sara Jay First Anal Scene anal destruction casedy Como Hacer El Sexo Anal anal sex effects Anal Cancer Blog Anal Toys Lesbian ice la fox anal scene lesbian anal vid Rough Anal Sex Clips wet anal double anal sex movie Palin Anal really painful anal Shitty Anal Fuck
rodox sex mpg Shower sex how penis breasts sex Sex malam pertama random sex videos exsplicit sex videos Sex lubrication silicone i post sex Sex fat chick celebriies having sex Adult sex animations sex and motorcycles Adult sex therapy Laura cover sex fucking having sex sex vacation caribbean Pool sex orgasm women barbershop sex office sex gay Secretaire office sex black sex vod Rainbow mika sex
Rock cock jock cock robin when your Wife big cock huge cock free pics Mature sucking black cock cock docking clips Hardcore riding cock cock sucking whores Fuck you cock sucker cock fighting rules Big cock hardcore Hubby loans to black cock milf sucking young cock two cock in pussy Cock sucker t shirt two cock fucking cock pierced Tila tequila suck cock largest cock videos White teen black cock
miss teen usa south carolina Fucking boobs thumbnails free videos of gay black me gandbang Senior sex trailer sophie monk nude nude music videos Britney spears porn video maggie grace nude Preteen bikini movies xxx Sexy pamela anderson vanessa new nude photos Aisha tyler nude pics Gametophyte produces male female sex mate plants toothless blowjob monthly membership streaming porn Pinkpanteens preteens in thongs lingerie nudecollege students Fat mature sex teen monologues Ebony muff diving
sex with hookers Free jaybee sex sex with redheads Cartoons about sex usa sex forum retarted girls sex Photo booth sex gay virgin sex Female sex chromosome sex teen candy Teenage sex story sex feet tingle Celebrity sex sces Flex girl sex lesbian sex galerii work at sex Rough sex free roug gangbang sex hypnosis sex best Sex trek 6 teens wating sex Ssecretary sex videos
1st Anal Sex what is an anal prolapse Types Of Anal Sex gay anal sex technique gay anal fisting videos Why Does Anal Sex Feel Good video double anal Lesbian Teens Anal largest anal dildo Lesbian Anal Toy anal sex poop videos Anal Hidden Cam Amateur Interracial Anal amy amour anal how to anal intercourse Anal Sex Condoms eyaculacion anal free anal streaming Anne Hathaway Loves Anal mini anal Unnatural Anal Insertions
Details of the linkage between requests, formatted as request objects by a CM, and calls to specific Application Modules are specified in the body as mappings between AM handler functions and regular expressions. These take a similar format to the CM descriptions with the name of the module and function to invoke when the IS matches a request object with a regular expression--the request object is usually the only parameter which is passed in this function call. From the configuration above requests to the simple_http CM, where the request URL takes the form */bscw/* (`*' is a wildcard), result in the following AM invocation:

    bscw_http.handle_request(aRequestObject)

Evaluating the configuration file from top to bottom, the IS attempts to pattern match request objects with each regular expression, and if a match is obtained the associated AM handler function will be invoked. It is therefore possible for more than one AM to be invoked for the same request, in which case the output from the first AM is passed on an optional second parameter to the subsequent AM. In practice, we have found that this is rarely needed, as AMs can be defined which perform the coordination themselves; however one particularly useful technique for which we have used this mechanism is to re-parse the HTML output from AMs, transparently to the AMs themselves, by passing the output and original request to an HTML formatting module. This module uses details of the W3 client found in the request object, in association with a table of client capabilities, to ensure the HTML returned can be interpreted correctly--for example, substituting preformatted text for an HTML 3.0 table. Further uses might include encoding of output, automatic logging and so on.

The AMs implement the linkages to the applications themselves. Typical AMs might implement a simple routine, invoke an application using a command line call, or provide a simple client for a database server; the developer can choose the most appropriate implementation and has the full details of the request available. Should authentication be required the AM can detect the absence of authentication information in the request object and return a request for authentication which is forwarded to the CM by the IS. The CM will then request authentication from the client and forward the authentication information to the AM.

It is possible to register multiple interests for an AM with the IS allowing AMs to handle different kinds of requests. This approach also allows multiple applications to be registered with the same IS by defining AMs to provide the request-application mapping. To add or remove an AM requires only modification of the IS configuration file and signalling the IS to re-read the interest information. In addition to the IS we have implemented a number of simple CM toolkit components as well as more general routines--for example, components for basic authentication, access control, directory listing and so on which have allowed us to construct a simple W3 server using our toolkit.

The toolkit has been implemented entirely in Python. Although this greatly simplifies the problems of invoking and calling functions from CMs and AMs it would be possible to modify the interfaces between these components so that parameters were passed as environment variables or on a stream in a similar manner to CGI. Another option would be to integrate the ILU system to allow function calls to AMs written in different languages and possibly located on remote machines; as an ILU binding is available for Python, this would allow access from the Python IS to AMs written in C, C++ or Modula 3 (and further language bindings are currently being developed).

Re-deploying the BSCW system with the toolkit

As an example of the toolkit in use we now briefly describe a re-deployment of the BSCW Shared Workspace system using the toolkit components (Figure 4). We have implemented a simple CM which parses HTTP requests into a request object and forwards these to the IS. Using the interest configuration shown in Figure 3 the IS passes the request object to a handler function in the bscw_http AM. This then extracts the necessary details, such as action to be performed, and invokes the relevant function in the BSCW core, passing the request object and a flag to indicate that an HTML response is required. The BSCW system returns a page of HTML to the AM which is forwarded to the client via the HTTP CM.

In our implementation of the HTTP CM, all parameters for a GET or POST request are parsed into attribute-value pairs and stored in the request object. Further information such as PATH_INFO is also stored in this manner. For example, the following URL:

    http://bscw.gmd.de/a_workspace/a_folder/?op=show

(which requests the operation to generate a listing of the contents of a BSCW workspace folder) would be represented in the request object as:

    `REQUEST_METHOD': `GET'
    `PATH_INFO': `/a_workspace/a_folder/'
    `OP': `show'
(plus a number of other object attributes).


Figure 4. Re-deployment of the BSCW system using the toolkit

As shown in Figure 4 we have also used the toolkit to enable access to the BSCW system from electronic mail. This required writing a CM which was executed on receipt of a BSCW-specific mail message. Such email was delivered using a Unix .forward file, and the job of the CM was again to extract attribute-value pairs, in this case from the header and body of the mail message, and forward these to the IS. Only two lines were added to the IS interest configuration file to support email requests (Figure 5), and a special AM written, mainly to map email addresses taken from the mail message header into BSCW user login names. The only changes required to the BSCW system itself were to modify the output routines to optionally generate plain text as well as HTML.

    HTTP_CM: (simple_http, initialise, bscw.gmd.de, 80)
    MAIL_CM: (simple_mail) 

    (bscw_http, handle_request, [HTTP_CM], {`URL': `^\/bscw\/?'})
    (bscw_http, get_icon, [HTTP_CM], {`URL': `^\/icons\/?'})
    (bscw_mail, handle_request, [MAIL_CM], {`SUBJECT', `^bscw$'})
Figure 5. The configuration file enabling HTTP and email access to BSCW

Conclusions and Further Work

We have highlighted a problem with the current, API-based approach to enabling applications for the W3. It is our belief that enabling applications through CGI or other APIs is too restrictive for many applications and too `heavyweight', in that many of the features provided by the W3 server are not required. On the other hand, W3 servers are well-suited to their basic task of serving static documents and pages of information, and the features they provide are specialised and optimised for this mode of operation. An attempt to increase their flexibility for application deployment by opening up their implementations through a more powerful API could result in larger and more complex servers and may compromise their performance.

In contrast, we have described a `component-based' approach to enabling applications for access from the Web in a more flexible manner using an application integration toolkit. This facilitates more modular and `lightweight' application deployment where specific modules can be integrated as required. Further, separation of the protocol-specific communication handling components from the application modules and provision of an interest-based integration service allows enabling of applications for a variety of other access methods such as electronic mail with few or no changes to the applications themselves.

Our current activities include the extension of the toolkit to provide further Communication Modules--for example, to enable access via FTP. We are also looking at methods to improve performance, such as replacing the request-handling of the IS with a multi-threaded implementation rather than the current forking approach. In the longer term we would like to investigate the possibilities for re-implementing the toolkit with a full object-oriented solution, perhaps using ILU and/or a CORBA-compliant implementation. This may be a step towards bridging the current gulf between the W3 and object-oriented technologies--an area receiving much attention from the W3 consortium [10] and the W3 community in general.

Acknowledgments

We are grateful to Wolfgang Prinz and Richard Freund for information on the POLITeam World-Wide Web interface, and to our colleagues in the BSCW project within which this work took place. (More information on the BSCW project is available from http://bscw.gmd.de/)

References

  1. Lycos Inc., Lycos FAQ, available from http://www.lycos.com/info/faq.html
  2. Netcraft Ltd, The Netcraft Web Server Survey, March 1996, available from
    http://www.netcraft.co.uk/survey/
  3. Information Dimensions Inc., BASISplus Product Brief, available from
    http://www.dmo.hp.com/gsyinternet/productbriefs/infode.html
  4. Bentley, R., Horstmann, T., Sikkel, K. and Trevor, J., Supporting collaborative information sharing with the World Wide Web: The BSCW Shared Workspace system, in Proceedings of the 4th International WWW conference, Boston, O'Reilly, December 1995, pp 63-74 (also available from http://orgwis.gmd.de/~bscw/papers/boston-95/BOSTON.html)
  5. Robinson, D., The WWW Common Gateway Interface Version 1.1, January 1996,
    available from http://www.ast.cam.ac.uk/~drtr/cgi-spec.html
  6. K. Klöckner, P. Mambrey, M. Sohlenkamp, W. Prinz, L. Fuchs, S. Kolvenbach, U. Pankoke-Babatz and A. Syri, POLITeam: Bridging the gap between Bonn and Berlin for and with the users, in Proceedings of ECSCW'95, Stockholm, Sweden, 10-14 September, 1995, pp 17-32
  7. Everitt, P., The ILU Requester: Object Services in HTTP Servers, available from
    http://www.w3.org/pub/WWW/TR/WD-ilu-requestor
  8. Informations Väverna AB, The Spinner WWW Server, available from
    http://spinner.infovav.se/
  9. Xerox Corporation, Inter-Language Unification--ILU, available from
    ftp://ftp.parc.xerox.com/pub/ilu/ilu.html
  10. W3C, Integrating Object Technology and the Web, available from
    http://www.w3.org/pub/WWW/OOP/

Author Details

 Jonathan Trevor, Richard Bentley and Gerrit Wildgruber

German National Research Centre for Information Technology (GMD FIT.CSCW)
 Schloss Birlinghoven
 D-53754 Sankt Augustin
 Germany

Email: {trevor, bentley, wildgruber}@gmd.de

Last Modified: 10:51am MET, March 08, 1996