Web Technologies Week 4 Hosting, Servers and Databases MSc in Computing Computing - IBITE Liverpool Hope University College Context Today s platform is tomorrow s outdated legacy system Shklar and Rosen (2003) You need to know how to stay up to date and make informed decisions What do you need for dynamic sites? Application server software Database management system Server software 2 Contents Today we will look at: Hosting and publishing your site Servers Databases 3
Publishing your site Things to Consider Who will provide hosting A domain name Which type of server to use and will it support your chosen technology 4 Host yourself? Hardware You need a powerful computer You will also need a permanent (24 hours a day ) high speed connection Software Software licenses, server licenses often are much higher than client licenses and may have limits on number of concurrent users Labour Need to know what you are about Install software Fix bugs 24/7 5 Web hosting Separate from connecting to the Internet Registration of Domain names Site visitor statistics Custom programs for use on your site Guarantees as to the reliability of the servers and connection Secure servers, online credit card processing 24-hour support Daily Backup Traffic Volume restrictions Bandwidth or Content Restrictions Email Capabilities Mailing Lists Database Access 6
Windows Hosting If you plan to use ASP or ASP.NET Use a database like Microsoft Access or Microsoft SQL Server However, Chili!Soft ASP allows ASP to run on UNIX 7 Unix and Linux hosting Runs on the Unix operating system Reputation for being reliable and stable Often less expensive than Windows Newer development is the Linux operating system 8 CGI Web pages can be executed as CGI scripts CGI scripts are executables that will execute on the server to produce dynamic and interactive web pages. Preinstalled, ready to run, Guest-books Page-counters Chat-forums Most common on Unix or Linux servers 9
Secure server A secure server can transmit data encrypted Online credit card transactions Types of web communication that needs to be protected against unauthorized access 10 Free Shared Dedicated Collocated Web hosting types 11 Free hosting Best suited for small sites with low traffic Cannot use your own domain name at a free site Low cost as it's free Good for personal sites Free email is often an option Limited security options. Limited or no database support Limited technical support 12
Shared or virtual hosting Shared hosting is very common Very cost effective Hosted on a server along with many other web sites Good for small business and average traffic Restrictions on traffic volume In general, but can depend on what you pay Each web site have their own domain name Email services Technical support Reduced security due to many sites on one server Restricted database support Restricted software support 13 Dedicated hosting Most expensive form of hosting Best suited for large web sites with high traffic Web sites that use special software Requires higher skills Multiple domain names Powerful email solutions Powerful database support Strong software support 14 Collocated hosting Means "co-location". You place your own web server on the premises of a service provider Usually will have dedicated resources like high-security against fire and vandalism, regulated backup power, Dedicated Internet connections - high bandwidth High up-time Requires higher skills High security Harder to configure and debug Unlimited software options 15
Web hosting e-commerce E-Commerce is about selling products or services over the Internet E-Commerce Systems Build your own Use a ready made system Use a Hosting organisation Not part of this module 16 Domain names Why is a domain name important? Your clients online presence Memorable? Guessable? Different types.co.uk.com.org Guess the address 17 Domain Name Registration Domain Name System (DNS) translates your name, www.robina.co.uk 195.188.160.2. A DNS server is responsible for informing all other computers on the Internet about your domain name and your site address. Check it http://www.nominet.org.uk/ for UK domains such as.co.uk and.org.uk. http://www.internic.net/ for international sites Registration For two years Make sure it is in your client s name 18
Discussion - hosting What type of hosting would suit your project? List the type of services you would require? How would you go about obtaining a domain name? 19 Application server 20 Application server with database 21
Web server software Two dominate Apache Software Foundation s Apache HTTP server Microsoft s Internet Information Services (IIS) Application servers complete with Web servers Oracle Database Management system ColdFusion application server 22 Development server software Apache ColdFusion MX server IIS Comes with XP professional Will not run on Home edition PWS Comes with Windows 98 Will not run on XP Web Matrix Free to download 23 Apache Is free Runs on a wide range of operating systems It has a reputation for being reliable More than 65% of all sites use it The Apache Software Foundation Open-source software Download from http://www.apache.org/ 24
ColdFusion MX server Creates a folder where files must be placed C:\CFusionMX\wwwroot\music\ Viewed in browser as: http://localhost:8500/music/ Note:The ColdFusion web server runs on port 8500 by default. 25 IIS Internet Information Services version 5 or higher Handles asp Handles asp.net with the.net Framework installed Creates a folder where files must be placed C:\Inetpub\wwwroot\music\ Viewed in browser as: http://localhost/music/ Note: IIS runs on port 80 by default Bad reputation for security 26 Web Matrix Free to download Handles asp.net Use it to create simple HTML Hand code asp.net Create database connections No need to work in a particular folder Viewed in browser as: http://localhost/music/ Note: Web Matrix runs on port 8080 by default 27
Developing a dynamic site Develop on client Use a test server May be the same files May be in a particular folder Use a remote server Create a test area Move once tested on the development computer 28 Remote server Need an account Hosting Intranet FTP or Local/network access 29 Web database technologies High traffic database-driven web sites SQL Server Oracle Low traffics database-access Access MySQL SQL Language SQL is the language for accessing databases. 30
Access Microsoft s entry level database management system Easy to build databases Microsoft claim 255 concurrent users However in practice 10-20 more realistic Maximum 2gigabite of data 31 SQL Server Microsoft's SQL Server Designed for handling the needs of large organisations Allows 1024 concurrent connections, which can be raised to 4096 Generally used on a Windows server Expensive Easy to upgrade an existing Access database 32 MySQL Open source application (free) Lack of commercial support MySQL is a popular database server for lower traffic web sites http://www.mysql.com/ 33
Oracle Oracle is a very powerful, robust and full featured SQL database system Corporate solution Runs on UNIX and Windows Significant learning curve Expensive 34 Review Today we have looked at Hosting and publishing your site Servers Databases 35 Self assessment Discuss scalability in the context of database use for your project List the important factors in making a choice of hosting for your project List three types of web server software and discuss their strengths in relation to your project 36
Read W3Schools PHP Directed study 37 Week four seminar Research Presentations 38 Further information PHP and MySQL for Dynamic Web Sites by Larry Ullman Visual QuickPro Guide, 2003 ISBN:0321186486 www.mysql.com www.apache.org/ W3Schools 39