Exorcising daemons: A modular and lightweight approach to deploying applications on the Web

Abstract

The World Wide Web (W3) is increasingly been seen as a platform for enabling remote access to new and existing applications from different client machines. While some applications have been deployed through specialised, proprietary W3 servers, the majority utilise the CGI interface provided by standard servers to provide all application functionality external to the server itself. Using experience gained in developing the BSCW Shared Workspace system, we argue that this “API-based” approach is both too restrictive and too “heavyweight” for the needs of many applications, which often require a small subset (or a different implementation) of the features the server offers. In contrast, we propose a more modular, component-based approach to enable applications for the World Wide Web, and present a prototype implementation of an integration toolkit which demonstrates this. As well as the potential for greater flexibility, performance and smaller application size, this approach also naturally extends to other methods of access and interaction such as electronic mail.