Web Database Connectivity - Web Database Connectivity Book

Objectives

At the end of this Book you should be able to:

• Understand the requirements for connecting database systems to the Web.

• Critically compare a number of approaches that might be used to build

the Web database connectivity.

• Make recommendations for a given company and specific scenario regard-

ing which of the commonly used mechanisms is likely to be most appro-

priate, taking into consideration relative cost, security, likely transaction

volumes and required performance.

Table of contents

• Objectives
• Introduction
• Context

– Basic concepts
– Web-based client-server applications
– Context summary

• Web database architectures

– Components of a database application

∗ Browser layer
∗ Application logic layer
∗ Database connection layer
∗ Database layer

– 2-tier client-server architecture
– 3-tier client-server architecture

• Database gateways

– Client-side solutions
– Server-side solutions
• Client-side Web database programming
– Browser extensions
∗ JavaScript
∗ Java
∗ ActiveX
∗ Plug-ins
– External applications
• Server-side Web database programming

– CGI (Common Gateway Interface)

∗ Advantages and disadvantages of CGI
– Extended CGI
– HTTP server APIs and server modules

∗ Server vendor modules
∗ Advantages of server APIs and modules

– Important issues
– Comparison of CGI, server APIs and modules, and FastCGI
– Proprietary HTTP servers

• Connecting to the database

– Database API libraries

∗ Native database APIs
∗ Database-independent APIs: ODBC
∗ Benefits of database APIs
∗ Shortcomings of database APIs

– Template-driven packages

∗ The approach
∗ Benefits of template-driven packages
∗ Shortcomings of template-driven packages

– GUI application builders

∗ The approach
∗ Benefits of visual tools
∗ Shortcomings of visual tools
• Managing state and persistence in Web applications

– Technical options
– The URL approach

∗ Benefits of the URL approach
∗ Shortcomings of the URL approach

– URL QUERY_STRING

∗ Benefits of the hidden fields approach
∗ Shortcomings of the hidden fields approach

– HTTP cookies

∗ Benefits of cookies
∗ Shortcomings of cookies

– Important considerations
∗ Managing state on the client
∗ Managing state on the server

• Security Issues in Web Database Applications

– Proxy servers
– Firewalls
– Digital signatures
– Digital certificates
– Kerberos
– Secure sockets layer (SSL) and secure HTTP (S-HTTP)
– Java security
– ActiveX security

• Performance issues in Web database applications