1. Web Technology and DBMSs Transparencies
Chapter 29
Web Technology and DBMSs
Transparencies

2. Chapter 28 - Objectives Basics of Internet, Web, HTTP, HTML, URLs.
Difference between two-tier and three-tier client-server architecture.
Advantages and disadvantages of Web as a database platform.
Approaches for integrating databases into Web:
Scripting Languages
Common Gateway Interface (CGI)
HTTP Cookies

3. Chapter 28 - Objectives Extending the Web Server
Java and JDBC, SQLJ, Servlets, and JSP
Microsoft Web Solution Platform: ASP and ADO
Oracle Internet Platform.

4. Introduction
Web: the most popular and powerful networked information system to date.
As architecture of Web was designed to be platform-independent, can significantly lower deployment and training costs.
Organizations using Web as strategic platform for innovative business solutions, in effect becoming Web-centric.

5. Introduction
Many Web sites today are file-based where each Web document is stored in separate file.
For large sites, this can lead to significant management problems.
Also many Web sites now contain more dynamic information, such as product and pricing data.
Maintaining such data in both a database and in separate HTML files is problematic.
Accessing database directly from Web would be a better approach.

6. Internet Worldwide collection of interconnected networks.
Began in late ‘60s in ARPANET, a US DOD project, investigating how to build networks that could withstand partial outages.
Starting with a few nodes, Internet estimated to have over 100 million users in 1997, and over 390 million users in over 100 countries in 2001.
May be 640 million users of Web by year 2003.
About 2.5 billion documents on Internet (550 billion if intranets/extranets included).

7. Intranet and Extranet
Intranet - Web site or group of sites belonging to an organization, accessible only by members of that organization.
Extranet - An intranet that is partially accessible to authorized outsiders.
Whereas intranet resides behind firewall and is accessible only to people who are members of same organization, extranet provides various levels of accessibility to outsiders.

8. eCommerce and eBusiness
eCommerce - Customers can place and pay for orders via the business’s Web site.
eBusiness - Complete integration of Internet technology into economic infrastructure of the business.
Business-to-business transactions may reach $1.3 trillion by 2003.
eCommerce may account for $3.2 trillion in worldwide corporate revenue by 2003 and could represent 5% of sales in the global economy.

9. The Web
Hypermedia-based system that provides a simple ‘point and click’ means of browsing information on the Internet using hyperlinks.
Information presented on Web pages, which can contain text, graphics, pictures, sound, and video.
Can also contain hyperlinks to other Web pages, which allow users to navigate in a non-sequential way through information.
Web documents written using HTML.

10. The Web
Web consists of network of computers that can act in two roles:
as servers, providing information;
as clients (browsers), requesting information.
Protocol that governs exchange of information between Web server and browser is HTTP and locations within documents identified as a URL.
Much of Web’s success is due to its simplicity and platform-independence.

11. Basic Components of Web Environment

12. HyperText Transfer Protocol (HTTP)
Protocol used to transfer Web pages through Internet.
Based on request-response paradigm:
Connection - Client establishes connection with Web server.
Request - Client sends request to Web server.
Response - Web server sends response (HTML document) to client.
Close - Connection closed by Web server.

13. HyperText Transfer Protocol (HTTP)
HTTP/1.0 is stateless protocol - each connection is closed once server provides response.
This makes it difficult to support concept of a session that is essential to basic DBMS transactions.

14. HyperText Markup Language (HTML)
Document formatting language used to design most Web pages.
A simple, yet powerful, platform-independent document language.
HTML is an application of Standardized Generalized Markup Language (SGML), a system for defining structured document types and markup languages to represent instances of those document types.

15. HyperText Markup Language (HTML)

16. HyperText Markup Language (HTML)

17. Uniform Resource Locators (URLs)
String of alphanumeric characters that represents location or address of a resource on Internet and how that resource should be accessed.
Defines uniquely where documents (resources) can be found.
Uniform Resource Identifiers (URIs) - generic set of all Internet resource names/addresses.
Uniform Resource Names (URNs) - persistent, location-independent name. Relies on name lookup services.

18. Uniform Resource Locators (URLs)
URL consists of three basic parts:
protocol used for the connection,
host name,
path name on host where resource stored.
Can optionally specify:
port through which connection to host should be made,
query string.

19. Static and Dynamic Web Pages
HTML document stored in file is static Web page.
Content of dynamic Web page is generated each time it is accessed.
Thus, dynamic Web page can:
respond to user input from browser;
be customized by and for each user.
Requires hypertext to be generated by servers.
Need scripts that perform conversions from different data formats into HTML ‘on-the-fly’.

20. Requirements for Web-DBMS Integration
Ability to access valuable corporate data in a secure manner.
Data- and vendor-independent connectivity to allow freedom of choice in DBMS selection.
Ability to interface to database independent of any proprietary browser or Web server.
Connectivity solution that takes advantage of all the features of an organization’s DBMS.

21. Requirements for Web-DBMS Integration
Open architecture to allow interoperability with a variety of systems and technologies. For example:
different Web servers;
Microsoft's (Distributed) Common Object Model (DCOM/COM);
CORBA/IIOP (Internet Inter-ORB protocol);
Java/Remote Method Invocation (RMI).
Cost-effective solution that allows for scalability, growth, and changes in strategic directions, and helps reduce applications development costs.

22. Requirements for Web-DBMS Integration
Support for transactions that span multiple HTTP requests.
Support for session- and application-based authentication.
Acceptable performance.
Minimal administration overhead.
Set of high-level productivity tools to allow applications to be developed, maintained, and deployed with relative ease and speed.

23. Two-Tier Client-Server Architecture

24. Three-Tier Client-Server Architecture
Client side presented two problems preventing true scalability:
‘Fat’ client, requiring considerable resources on client’s computer to run effectively.
Significant client side administration overhead.
By 1995, three layers proposed, each potentially running on a different platform.

25. Three-Tier Client-Server Architecture
Advantages:
‘Thin’ client, requiring less expensive hardware.
Application maintenance centralized.
Easier to modify or replace one tier without affecting others.
Separating business logic from database functions makes it easier to implement load balancing.
Maps quite naturally to Web environment.

26. Three-Tier Client-Server Architecture

27. Advantages of Web-DBMS Approach
DBMS advantages
Simplicity
Platform independence
Graphical User Interface
Standardization
Cross-platform support
Transparent network access
Scalable deployment
Innovation

28. Disadvantages of Web-DBMS Approach
Reliability
Security
Cost
Scalability
Limited functionality of HTML
Statelessness
Bandwidth
Performance
Immaturity of development tools

29. Approaches to Integrating Web and DBMSs
Scripting Languages.
Common Gateway Interface (CGI).
HTTP Cookies.
Extending the Web Server.
Java, JDBC, SQLJ, Servlets, and JSP.
Microsoft Web Solution Platform: ASP and ADO.
Oracle Internet Platform.

30. Scripting Languages (JavaScript and VBScript)
Scripting languages can be used to extend browser and Web server with database functionality.
As script code is embedded in HTML, it is downloaded every time page is accessed.
Updating browser is simply a matter of changing Web document on server.
Some popular scripting languages are: JavaScript, VBScript, Perl, and PHP.
They are interpreted languages, not compiled, making it easy to create small applications.

31. Common Gateway Interface (CGI)
Specification for transferring information between a Web server and a CGI program.
Server only intelligent enough to send documents and to tell browser what kind of document it is.
But server also knows how to launch other programs.
When server sees that URL points to a program (script), it executes script and sends back script’s output to browser as if it were a file.

32. CGI - Environment

33. CGI - Passing Parameters on Command Line

34. CGI - Advantages
CGI is the de facto standard for interfacing Web servers with external applications.
Possibly most commonly used method for interfacing Web applications to data sources.
Advantages:
simplicity,
language independence,
Web server independence,
wide acceptance.

35. CGI - Disadvantages
Communication between client and database server must always go through Web server.
Lack of efficiency and transaction support, and difficulty validating user input inherited from statelessness of HTTP protocol.
HTTP never intended for long exchanges or interactivity.
Server has to generate a new process or thread for each CGI script.
Security.

36. HTTP Cookies Cookies can make CGI scripts more interactive.
Cookies are small text files stored on Web client.
CGI script creates cookie and has Web server send it to client’s browser to store on hard disk.
Later, when client revisits Web site and uses a CGI script that requests this cookie, client’s browser sends information stored in the cookie.
Cookies can be used to store registration information or preferences (e.g. for virtual shopping cart).
However, not all browsers support cookies.

37. Server-Side JavaScript for Database Access

38. Java Proprietary language developed by Sun.
Originally intended to support environment of networked machines and embedded systems.
Now, Java is rapidly becoming de facto language for Web computing.
Interesting because of its potential for building Web applications (applets) and server applications (servlets).

39. Java
‘A simple, object-oriented, distributed, interpreted, robust, secure, architecture neutral, portable, high-performance, multi-threaded and dynamic language’.
Has a machine-independent target architecture, the Java Virtual Machine (JVM).
Since almost every Web browser vendor has already licensed Java and implemented an embedded JVM, Java applications can currently be deployed on most end-user platforms.

40. import java.sql.*;
import java.io.*;
import java.util.*;
public class Total1 {
public static void main (String[] arg) {
try {
Class.forName ("oracle.jdbc.driver.OracleDriver"); }
catch (Exception e) {
System.out.println("Could not load driver");

41. // Connect to the database
try {
Connection “user_name",“password");
Statement stmt = conn.createStatement ();
ResultSet rset=null;
rset= stmt.executeQuery("SELECT * from department");
ResultSetMetaData rsmd=rset.getMetaData();
while (rset.next())
{ System.out.println(" " + rset.getString(1) + " " + rset.getString(2) +
" " + rset.getString(3) +" "); }

42. catch (SQLException e){
System.out.println("writetolog: error in SQL "+e+"<br>"); }
catch (SQLException e) {
System.out.println("Something wrong " + e.toString());

43. Java

44. Java 2 Platform
In mid-1999, Sun announced it would pursue a distinct and integrated Java enterprise platform:
J2ME: aimed at embedded and consumer-electronics platforms.
J2SE: aimed at typical desktop and workstation environments. Essentially equivalent to JDK 1.2.
J2EE: aimed at robust, scalable, multiuser, and secure enterprise applications.
J2EE was designed to simplify complex problems with development, deployment, and management of multitier enterprise applications.

45. Java 2 Platform
Cornerstone of J2EE is Enterprise JavaBeans (EJB), a standard for building server-side components in Java.
Two types of EJB components:
EJB Session Beans, components implementing business logic, business rules, and workflow.
EJB Entity Beans, components encapsulating some data contained by the enterprise. Entity Beans are persistent.
From database perspective, interested in two J2EE components: JDBC and JSP.

46. Java 2 Platform

47. JDBC Modeled after ODBC, JDBC API supports basic SQL functionality.
With JDBC, Java can be used as host language for writing database applications.
On top of JDBC, higher-level APIs can be built.
Currently, two types of higher-level APIs:
An embedded SQL for Java (e.g. SQLJ).
A direct mapping of relational database tables to Java classes (e.g. Java Blend from Sun).

48. JDBC - Advantages/Disadvantages
Advantage of using ODBC drivers is that they are a de facto standard for PC database access, and are available for many DBMSs, for very low price.
Disadvantages with this approach:
Non-pure JDBC driver will not necessarily work with a Web browser.
Currently downloaded applet can connect only to database located on host machine.
Deployment costs increase.

49. Java Servlets
Servlets are programs that run on Java-enabled Web server and build Web pages, analogous to CGI.
Have a number of advantages over CGI:
improved performance;
portability;
extensibility;
simpler session management;
improved security and reliability.

50. Java Server Pages (JSP)
JSP is a Java-based server-side scripting language that allows static HTML to be mixed with dynamically-generated HTML.
Behind scenes, JSP is compiled into Java servlet and processed by a Java-enabled Web server (JSP works with most Web servers).
Since servlet is compiled, performance is improved.

51. Microsoft Web Solution Platform
Microsoft Web Solution Platform, a precursor to .NET, has been created for building and deploying interoperable Web solutions.
Contains various tools, services, and technologies, such as:
Windows 2000,
Exchange Server,
Visual Studio,
HTML/XML,
scripting languages,
components (Java, ActiveX).

52. Object Linking and Embedding for DataBases (OLE DB)
Microsoft has defined set of data objects, collectively known as OLE DB.
Allows OLE-oriented applications to share and manipulate sets of data as objects.
OLE DB is an object-oriented specification based on C++ API.
Components can be treated as data consumers and data providers. Consumers take data from OLE DB interfaces and providers expose OLE DB interfaces.

53. OLE DB Architecture

54. Active Server Pages (ASP)
ASP is programming model that allows dynamic, interactive Web pages to be created on server.
ASP provides flexibility of CGI, without performance overhead discussed previously.
ASP runs in-process with the server, and is optimized to handle large volume of users.
When an ‘.asp’ file is requested, Web server calls ASP, which reads requested file, executes any commands, and sends generated HTML page back to browser.

55. Active Server Pages (ASP)

56. Comparison of ASP and JSP
Both designed to enable developers to separate page design from programming logic through use of callable components.
Differences:
JSP is essentially platform and server independent whereas ASP primarily restricted to MS Windows-based platforms.
JSP perhaps more extensible as JSP developers can extend the JSP tags available.
JSP components are reusable across platforms.
JSP benefits from in-built Java security model.

57. Oracle Internet Platform
Comprises Oracle Internet Application Server (iAS) and Oracle DBMS.
It is n-tier architecture based on industry standards such as:
HTTP and HTML/XML for Web enablement.
OMG’s CORBA technology.
IIOP for object interoperability and RMI.
Java, EJB, JDBC, and SQLJ for database connectivity, Java servlets, and JSP.

58. Oracle Internet Platform