Server Side Development

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Server Side Development
Tiered Architecture
• The two-tiered client-server model has been superceded by
the multi-tiered architecture prevelant in the enterprise
applications
• Allows each layer to communicate just with layers above and below it
• Benefits of having a tiered application
• Encapsulates rules and functionality together providing for easier
maintenance & development
• Enhances flexibility and reusability of logic and software components
• Allows developers to focus on the area of their speciality e.g.
database, servers, web page, etc.

Application/Browser Web Server Database/ FileSystem

(User Interface) (Application Logic) (Persistent Storage)
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Server Side Development
Web Server

• A web server is a program running on the server that

listens for incoming requests and services those requests
as they come in.
• Once the web server receives a request, depending on the
type of request the web server might look for a web page,
or it might execute a program on the server.
• It will always return some kind of results to the web
browser, even if its simply an error message saying that it
couldn’t process the request.
• By default the role of a web server is to serve static pages
using the http protocol
• Web servers can be made dynamic by adding additional
processing capability to the server

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Server Side Development
Server Extensions

• Several different tools are available for extending

the server capabilities
• Java enterprise architecture
• VB .Net architecture
• Active Server Pages (ASP)
• CGI-Perl scripting
• These tools process incoming requests from the
user and generate custom html pages

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Server Side Development
Tomcat

• Tomcat is a stand alone web server and a servlet container

• It is open source and free for usage
• It is written in Java
• You do not have to be a Java programmer to use it
• It’s web server is not as fully featured as others like Apache
• Installing Tomcat
• Make sure that jdk18 (or higher) is installed on your machine
• Download the latest windows version of Tomcat
• Run the installer by double clicking on the download
• The installer checks if JRE and JDK are available for Tomcat
• Accept the license agreement
• Installation directory: c:\Program Files\Apache Tomcat
• On installation you get a message Completed

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HTTP

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 HTTP
Application Layer Protocol

• User applications implement this protocol

• Other protocols implemented by the OS.
• Different applications use different protocols
• Web Servers/Browsers use HTTP
• File Transfer Utilities use FTP
• Electronic Mail applications use SMTP
• Naming Servers use DNS
• Interacts with transport layer to send messages

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 HTTP
Application Layer Protocol, cont’d.
Socket Socket

TCP/UDP TCP/UDP
with with Buffers
Process Process
Buffers and and
Variables Variables
Internet

Controlled by Controlled by Controlled by Controlled by

Application Operating Operating Application
Developer System System Developer

HOST HOST

• Two parameter required for identifying the receiving process

• Host machine identifier - IP Address (localhost or ip-address)
• Host machine process identifier - Port (80 or 8080 for web
server)

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 HTTP
HyperText Transfer Protocol

• Lightweight protocol for the web involving a single

request & response for communication
• Provides 8 methods
• Get: Used to request data from server
(By convention get will not change data on server)
• Post: Used to post data to the server
• Head: returns just the HTTP headers for a resource.
• Put: allows you to "put" (upload) a resource (file) on to a
webserver so that it be found under a specified URI.
• Delete: allows you to delete a resource (file).
• Link and Unlink: Connect and Disconnect two resources.
• Options: To determine the type of requests server will handle
• Trace: Debugging

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 HTTP
GET and POST
• GET and POST allow information to be sent back to the web server
from a browser
• e.g. when you click on the “submit” button of a form the data in the
form is send back to the server, as "name=value" pairs.
• Choosing GET as the "method" will append all of the data to the URL
and it will show up in the URL bar of your browser.
• The amount of information you can send back using a GET is restricted
as URLs can only be 1024 characters.
• A POST sends the information through a socket back to the
webserver and it won't show up in the URL bar.
• This allows a lot more information to be sent to the server
• The data sent back is not restricted to textual data and it is possible to
send files and binary data such as serialized Java objects.

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 HTTP
HTTP Headers
• Contains information about client and the request
• Four categories of header information
• General Information: Date, caching information, warnings etc.
• Entity Information: Body of the request or response e.g. MIME type,
length etc.
• Request Information: Information about client e.g. cookies, types of
acceptable responses etc.
• Response Information: Information about server e.g. cookies,
authentication information etc.
• General & Entity information used for both client & server
• Request information included by client
• Response information included by server

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 HTTP
Protocol

• HTTP is a stateless protocol

• Request/Response occurs across a single network connection
• At the end of the exchange the connection is closed
• This is required to make the server more scalable
• Web Sites maintain persistent authentication so user does not
have to authenticate repeatedly
• While using HTTP persistent authentication is maintained using
a token exchange mechanism
• HTTP 1.1 has a special feature (keep-alive) which allows clients
to use same connection over multiple requests
• Not many servers support this
• Requests have to be in quick succession

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 HTTP
Tracking State

• Three types of tracking methods are used:

• Cookies: Line of text with ID on the users cookie file
• URL Session Tracking: An id is appended to all the links in
the website web pages.
• Hidden Form Elements: An ID is hidden in form elements
which are not visible to user
• Custom html page allows the state to be tracked

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 HTTP
HTTP Status Codes
• When a server responds to a request it provides a status code
• Web Container automatically handles setting of status codes
• Five categories of status codes
• Informational
• Success
• Redirection
• Client error
• Server error
• Common Status Codes
• 200 – Request was processed normally
• 401 – Unauthorized access
• 403 – Forbidden
• 404 – Requested resource not found on server
• 405 – Method Not allowed
• 500 – Internal server error

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 J2EE Architecture
J2EE – Container Architecture
Client Tier 3rd & Nth Tiers
Applet Container

Applet

Application Container
Middle Tier
Database
Application J2EE Server

J J J J Web Container EJB Container

internet internet
D A A M
X A S Servlets JSPs EJBs Enterprise
B
C P S Information
System

JavaMail/JAF
JavaMail/JAF

Connections

Connections
JAXP

JAXP
JDBC

JDBC
JAAS

JAAS
JMS

JTA

JMS

JTA
J2EE Server

J2EE Server

J2ME App

Non-Java Sever
Other
Application or
Server

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