Re: Accessing server-side files: A Counter

[hecker@netscape.com (Frank Hecker)]

At 2:25 PM 1/4/96, Brian Lewis wrote:
>What are the LiveWire and LiveWire Pro products?

They are add-on products to the Netscape Web servers.  The online datasheet
is at

  http://home.netscape.com/comprod/products/tools/livewire_datasheet.html

>Why are they needed
>in order to use server-side JavaScript?

Because server-side JavaScript is, by definition, executed on the Web
server and in the context of that server, just as a CGI program is executed
on the Web server.  This requires some sort of run-time system on the
server to execute the server-side JavaScript statements; such a run-time
system (often referred to as the "server extensions" or "server extension
engine") is part of the LiveWire and LiveWire Pro products.  (It requires a
Netscape Web server to run.)

>Do they "compile" JavaScript
>somehow?

Sort of.  A LiveWire application built using server-side JavaScript
consists of HTML with accompanying server-side JavaScript statements.  When
the LiveWire application is installed, the HTML and JavaScript are put in a
form usable by the run-time system and invocable by the server when a
particular URL is requested (again, analogous to a URL that invokes a CGI
program).

I can't remember whether the JavaScript statements are interpreted on the
fly or pre-compiled into byte code when the application is installed.
However note that in any case the server-side JavaScript stuff stays on the
server and is executed there.  In other words, this is _not_ like compiling
a Java applet that is then downloaded to the client and executed.

>I'd like to learn more about JavaScript and especially
>server-side JavaScript but there is so little hard information about
>them. The netscape web pages don't give many details... Thanks.

The Netscape JavaScript documentation at

http://www.netscape.com/comprod/products/navigator/version_2.0/script/script
_info/index.html

has recently been upgraded, though it is still incomplete in many areas,
and does not address server-side JavaScript specifically.

The LiveWire and LiveWire Pro products are in initial limited and
non-public beta test, and so there is really no good public documentation
yet for how server-side JavaScript will work in the context of LiveWire.  I
believe there will be a more public beta at some point relatively soon
(where soon = weeks as opposed to months), and that (at least) members of
the Netscape Development Partners Program will have access to the beta
versions.  (For more info on the Development Partners Program see

  http://developer.netscape.com/index.html

Frank


--
Frank Hecker          Pre-sales tech support, Netscape field sales group
hecker@netscape.com   http://home.netscape.com/people/hecker/index.html