1. Server-side Scripting
Martin Kruliš
by Martin Kruliš (v1.2)

2. Web Server (Revision) Serving Static Pages ` Web Server Internet
Apache configuration
/var/www/myweb/ `
HTTP Request
GET /myweb/index.html
...
Web Server
Internet
Client
index.html
HTTP Response
HTTP/ OK
Content-Length: 1019
Content-Type: text/html;
...
<contents of index.html>
by Martin Kruliš (v1.2)

3. Web Server (Revision) Serving Dynamic Content ` Web Server Internet
/var/www/myweb/ `
HTTP Request
GET /myweb/app.cgi
...
Web Server
Internet
app.cgi
Client
stdin
stdout
Please note the security issues of such solution. If the web server is public, anyone in the world can make your server start a process. Furthermore, your CGI application has to be very secure, especially when dealing with inputs.
HTTP Response
HTTP/ OK
Content-Length: 2049
Content-Type: text/html;
...
<contents generated by cgi>
by Martin Kruliš (v1.2)

4. CGI Common Gateway Interface
One of the first standards for generating dynamic web content
NSCA specification from 1993 how to invoke command line applications
Current version CGI 1.1 (RFC 3875) from 2004
Specifies only the interface
Application may be written in any language
Important information and headers are set as environ- ment variables, POST body is directed to std. input
Response is taken from the std. output
Note that the server must be configured to recognize, when to execute CGI application and when to simply send back a requested file. E.g., apache can be configured
<Directory /home/*/public_html/cgi-bin> Options ExecCGI SetHandler cgi-script </Directory>
Will set the server to treat all files in each cgi-bin of each
Example 1
by Martin Kruliš (v1.2)

5. FastCGI CGI Issues Fast CGI Improvement
Starting a process takes some system time
Each process handles exactly one request
Unable to keep session/shared data in memory
Fast CGI Improvement
Fast CGI server runs independently from web server
Keeps the process pool, resources, …
Communicates with web server via socket/TCP
Multi-request processing may be achieved by multiplexing or multiple connections (or both)
by Martin Kruliš (v1.2)

6. Web Server (Revision) Integrating Scripting Modules ` Web Server
/var/www/myweb/ `
HTTP Request
GET /myweb/index.php
...
Web Server
index.php
Internet
mod_php
Client
HTTP Response
HTTP/ OK
Content-Length: 1984
Content-Type: text/html;
...
<contents generated by php>
by Martin Kruliš (v1.2)

7. PHP PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor
Popular language originally designed for the web
The language has integrate API for handling requests
Things like URL parameters, POSTed data, headers, or server settings are presented in global variables
PHP script code can be directly interleaved with HTML (or other type of generated content)
The script is embedded between <?php, ?> marks
The PHP interpret process the script and replace its body with its output in the document
Example 2
by Martin Kruliš (v1.2)

8. WSGI Web Server Gateway Interface
Universal interface between web servers and web applications designed for the Python language
Interface is called WSGI middleware and it is implemented by both sides (server and application)
Specific new features
Routing requests to application objects (by URL)
Multiple applications may run in one process
Content post-processing (e.g., by XSLT)
Load balancing (remote processing, forwarding, …)
Similar APIs
Rack (Ruby), PSGI (Perl), JSGI (JavaScript)
Example 3
by Martin Kruliš (v1.2)

9. ASP.NET ASP.NET Microsoft solution built on .NET platform
Supports all .NET languages (C#, VB, …)
Successor to Microsoft’s Active Server Pages
Requires Microsoft IIS web server
Mono version (mod_mono and FastCGI) exists
WebForms
Basic building blocks for ASP.NET web pages
Similar HTML interleaving syntax as PHP
The idea is to design web pages in the same manner as desktop applications
by Martin Kruliš (v1.2)

10. ASP.NET ASP.NET WebForms Razor syntax MVC
Event-based model, events may be processed at server
The forms automatically serializes the whole state
Razor syntax
Block starts and does not require explicit closing
MVC
Alternative type of ASP.NET applications
Default view engine is either Razor (.cshtml, .vbhtml), or Web Forms (.aspx)
Controllers are .NET classes, methods are actions
Routers select controller class and invoke an action
by Martin Kruliš (v1.2)

11. JSP Java Server Pages Java-based solution for dynamic web pages
Requires web server with servlet container
Apache Tomcat, Jetty, …
Supports both “simple” PHP-like approach and MVC
Uses <%, %> marks for scriptlet-HTML interleaving
MVC usually uses JavaBeans as the model and Java servlets as the controller
Java compilation
Compiler is integrated in the web server and compiles the page when first needed (or when changed)
There are also other efforts to employ Java for web pages. For instance the Google Web Toolkit ( is a framework that allows you to design the whole web application as a Java application. It compiles the client-side parts of the code into JavaScript and automatically handlers the client-server communication.
by Martin Kruliš (v1.2)

12. Other Java Alternatives
JSP is (almost) dead…
Many alternatives
Spring MVC
Spring boot
JSF
Vaadin
Play 1, Play 2
Struts 1, Struts 2
GWT
Grails
Wicket …
by Martin Kruliš (v1.2)

13. Ruby on Rails Ruby on Rails
Ruby scripting language + Rails web framework
Basic philosophy
DRY (Don’t Repeat Yourself) – avoid code duplication
Convention Over Configuration – our way is the “best”
Very strict style of application development
Improves efficiency, but ties your hands
Specific structure of the application
Reflects the MVC pattern
$> rails new myapp
Generates new application structure in ./myapp
To install Ruby on Rails on Linux, I recommend using Ruby Version Manager ( The rails framework is then installed privately in local homes.
Installing rails globally (using sudo and/or deb packages) did not meet with success (at least not in my case).
by Martin Kruliš (v1.2)

14. Ruby on Rails Representational State Transfer (REST)
Architectural abstraction for distributed systems
The application is formed by resources
Resources are identified by URL
Components of the application communicate over the network and exchange resource representations
Representation is typically HTML, XML, or JSON
The API is built over HTTP and is hypertext driven
GET
DELETE
REST philosophy is also adopted by other web languages (usually implemented by some framework), especially since the HTML5 come.
by Martin Kruliš (v1.2)

15. Node.js JavaScript Server-side Platform
Basically a Google V8 JavaScript engine compiled as CLI script interpreter
V8 is used in Chrome and it is the fastest JS interpreter
Contains many pre-built packages for server-side application development (sockets, HTTP, …)
HTTP server is embedded in the application, so the programmer may tune it for specific needs
Aims for fast developed single-language solutions
Using Javascript on client and server allows some level of code sharing
Example 4
by Martin Kruliš (v1.2)

16. Statistics
13th of November, 2016
Other sources may give you different numbers (it is statistics after all); however, PHP was the leading technology in all surveys that I have seen.
by Martin Kruliš (v1.2)

17. Server-side Scripting
Client-server Architectures
Strict separation of two application parts
Client - data presentation, user interface
Server – business logic, data storage
Both sides are connected via specific API (HTTP)
The communication latency and overhead influence the application design
Three-tier architecture
Presentation (client), business logic (server), database (server, possibly dedicated machine)
Thick client (Single Page Applications)
Business logic is shifting to the client-side
Three tier architecture allows also better scaling of server tiers. Database tier may be moved to a dedicated server or even replicated. Similarly, the business logic may be divided further in services running on different machines or even in cloud.
by Martin Kruliš (v1.2)

18. Server-side Scripting
Specific Issues of the Server Side
Traditional web applications
Work in batches – client wants to perform a large task with each HTTP request
Download a page full of formatted data
Submit a form and generate a response
Difficult state management (HTTP is stateless)
Code replication and dependency injections
Modern (single page) web applications
Just a remote API for AJAX calls
Difficult to integrate AJAX API into existing applications, or create applications that work both ways
by Martin Kruliš (v1.2)

19. Application Design Event-driven Desktop GUI Application Event Event
Events are processed sequentially
Event
GUI
Main Loop
Background Processing
Event
All components can access main memory
Operating Memory
Application State
by Martin Kruliš (v1.2)

20. Application Design Web Application Event Database, Files,
Session storage
URL
POST Data
Application
State
Browser
Application
State
Check integrity
Event
Batch-like processing
New
State
Browsing, submitting form
Processing Script
Memory
Serialization/deserialization, encoding, …
by Martin Kruliš (v1.2)

21. Web Design Patterns Front Controller
Software design pattern that provides centralized entry point for all request (commands)
All URLs point to the same script
Method/function
Class/file/module
Initializing the libraries, setting up the container
Action …
Controller/Presenter …
Front Controller
(index.php)
HTTP
Routing and dispatching
by Martin Kruliš (v1.2)

22. Web Design Patterns Model-View-Controller Controller Database View
Presentation Tier
Business Logic
Data Tier
Controller
Database
View
Model
Invoking actions
Dataflow
by Martin Kruliš (v1.2)

23. Web Design Patterns Model-View-Controller
A guideline how to divide code and responsibility
Basis for many frameworks
Model
Uniform data API for the application
Communicates with DB/file storage/…
Simplifies portability to other storage types
Transparently handles encoding, integrity checks, transactions, data pre/post-processing, …
by Martin Kruliš (v1.2)

24. Web Design Patterns Model-View-Controller View
User interface, data presentation
Typically responsible for generating HTML
Automatic sanitization of presented data (<,> chars)
Translations for multilingual applications
Templates
Mechanisms that separate HTML coding from application programming
Allow implementing View features (mentioned above) in declarative (instead of imperative) manner
by Martin Kruliš (v1.2)

25. Web Design Patterns Model-View-Controller Controller
Integrates business (application) logic
Issues commands to view and model
Process user requests
Requests for displaying content (typically GET request)
Requests for modifying app. status (typically POST req.)
Typically implements other design patterns
Front controller, command, …
Alternative – Model-View-Presenter
More advanced form of MVC
View is more separated and does not access model directly
by Martin Kruliš (v1.2)

26. Discussion
by Martin Kruliš (v1.2)