What Java Needs Most To Be The Preferred Web 2.0 Language
Many would think at this point I am talking about better AJAX support in the core. While we do need better support for AJAX and I am not talking about DWR, I don't think that's what ails Java in its quest for being . At the end we will look at two ways in which we can overcome this problem.
Java is taking a beating in better mass adoption against PHP simply because it is harder to setup in web hosting environment. PHP and even Ruby is available as an Apache module which is very trivial to setup and use. JSP / Servlets on the other hand is much harder to integrate with Apache.
Why Apache is the the key to Web 2.0 adoption?
Apache is the most popular web server, known for its stability and ease of use. It is cross platform. Most Web 2.0 companies and products rely on Apache as their web server and for right reasons.
What are the problems of Java in Apache Integration?
Complexity in short. Tomcat is probably the most popular JSP, Servlet container for most organizations. Tomcat is free (which aids its popularity) and developed under the Apache organization. I would have expected both these products to be tightly integrated. In reality it is a nightmare from hell to even begin. I wouldn't say there aren't any documents. There are few confusing ones which leads to more questions than answers. What we lack is a clear simple guideline to integrate the two.
Solutions
Previouly I had described a much simpler way to integrate Tomcat 5.5 with Apache 2.x, in just 5 steps.
However we need to move further. We need to make Java Servlet container as easily integratable as php or ruby . Running a separate Tomcat instance may not be an acceptable solution to many web hosting providers. We need to be able to run Tomcat within Apache itself, use its threads. In the distant past there was another Apache project JServ which did that. Later it was discontinued in favor of Tomcat. Tomcat is powerful but most small developers do not need its full gamut of capabilities. Most of them would be happy with a smaller subset which is available everywhere, even on one dollar hosting.
And finally Sun and java community needs to approach web hosting providers and make the language ubiquitous in every hosting platform, big or small. Apachefriends has done an admirable job with XAMPP for LAMP community and has made Tomcat 5.5 available with its simplified LAMP installation. Now if only we could package Java with all Linux and BSD installations by default…
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September 26th, 2006 at 5:11 am
Totally agree. I remember my first xml/jsp project on JServ for Onstar. Part of what Java needs IMO is the same groundswell from the developers who use php , ruby, etc. Targeting the “enterprise” developer is not enough.
September 26th, 2006 at 8:59 am
JServ ran in a separate process from Apache and used an apache mod connector, just like Tomcat does. Remember mod_jserv? It performed exactly the same function as mod_jk, but much more limited. It was no joy to configur either.
The difficulty with running Tomcat IP with Apache is you can’t run Java code inside another process. You have to start up a VM as its own process and then use IPC to communicate between Apache and Tomcat. It’s certainly something Sun could address with the VM, but I haven’t heard anything about them moving in that direction.
Besides, large companies tend to choose to separate their app server and web server functions on different machines. That way you can protect database servers or other protected resources from being accessed and attacked on the web server. So it’s primarily smaller shops or individiual developers that would benefit from merging the web server and app servers.
September 26th, 2006 at 9:20 am
> Remember mod_jserv?
Yes, I do
> So it’s primarily smaller shops or individiual developers that would benefit from merging the web server and app servers.
Not just smaller shops (who aren’t an insignificant segment either) but also bigger shops who want to test the water’s. For better mass adoption any language shouldn’t be restricted to bigger houses only but even be easily accessible to mom-and-pop ecommerce sites too.
Take for example blogging softwares. There are high quality java blogging software available for free and yet most of us use WordPress or MovableType / Typepad. Why? Because they are easy to setup and use.