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Configuration related issues

environment for all new developments

operating system: Sun Solaris 8
web server: iPlanet Web Server version 4.1
reverse proxy servers Netscape Proxy server V3.6
application server: ColdFusion Enterprise Server 5
installed on three Solaris platforms to work with these web servers: EUROPA main contents web server, IntraComm main contents web server, and the combined EUROPA and IntraComm staging web servers.
native Oracle drivers are being used to access Oracle DBs that reside on dedicated data base servers.
relational data bases: Oracle 8i
current version: 8.1.7
character set: NLS_LANG=AMERICAN_AMERICA.UTF8
standard products and options include: Oracle RDBMS, Procedural Option, Distributed Option, Object Option, InterMedia, Jserver, Advanced Replication Option, Parallel Query Option, Advance Back-up and Recovery, Advanced Queuing, Connection Manager and Pooling, 64-Bit Option, Enterprise manager and Enterprise back-up Utility, MPI, OCI, ODBC Driver, Networking Kit, Object for OLE, SQL*Net
For the latest information on the Oracle installation you may contact the 'admin-di-dc oracle' team
documentary data bases: Fulcrum V4
Fulcrum SearchServer Version 4.0 + Perl Library
For the latest information on the Fulcrum installation you may want to contact the 'admin-di-dc ishosting' team.
Perl 5.6
modules available for use (among others):
DBI
DBD-Oracle
DBD-Fulcrum
MIME-Base64
LDAP directory server: Netscape Directory Server 5.1
used for authentication with CUD information
forums/newsgroups
For closed forums and newsgroups the CIRCA systems is available. CIRCA forums can be configured to fit the needs of the forum owners, from running a basic 'usenet' newsgroup, up to exchanging documents among members of a limited group of users.
For more information about CIRCA and its' use contact your local CIRCA administrator or circasupport@cec.eu.int .
For open forums OPOCE has created a 'generic forums' platform that is available both on EUROPA and IntraComm. For more information you may want to contact Rudi Mosselmans (OPOCE).

warning
The preceding list is for information purposes only. It is not exhaustive, and it changes all the time.
It should therefore be clear that any development of web services should be portable with as little effort as possible. Beware: some developers are very good at creating "black box" applications that can only be maintained and ported by themselves.

home page

The IntraComm server has been configured to use "/home/index.html" as its home page. The EUROPA server has "/index.htm" as its home page. The simplest way to create a link back to the home page is by specifying "/" in the HREF field of the address tag.

index file name

The web servers have been configured to use "index.html" as the home page in every directory. For example, specifying "/Publishing/" in the HREF field of the address tag, will have the same effect as specifying "/Publishing/index.htm". You don't have to use a file index.html as the entry point to a document or directory, but it allows the user to access the document via the - shorter - path name. Knowing that the entry point will always be the file "index.html" allows for easier management.
The full list of default index file names is: index.html, index.htm, home.html, home.htm, default.html, default.htm, index.cfm.

Portability issues

We strongly recommend to create web sites/applications that are as portable as possible. For example, the iPlanet web server supports server-side javascript, but to my knowledge nobody else does. Please do not use SSJS, or WAI (the iPlanet module).

ColdFusion vs. CGI

The preferred tool to serve dynamic contents is ColdFusion, rather than CGI scripts.

The main web servers have been set up to use ColdFusion Enterprise Servers in such a way that cfm pages can be maintained and uploaded in the same way as 'normal' web pages and images.
This should allow for easier maintenance.
CGI scripts, on the contrary, cannot be uploaded without explicit intervention from the Data Centre.

ColdFusion vs. Oracle Application Server

The preferred tool to serve dynamic contents is ColdFusion, rather than Oracle Application Server, because OAS does not integrate well with other Internet technologies that are used at the Data Centre.

The Oracle Application Server includes a web server. OAS based applications require separate mappings in the reverse proxy servers, which often generates confusion about relative links.
The OAS does not interface with the LDAP directory servers that are used for user authentication.

cache busting

Using SSI (server side includes, a.k.a. "server parsed HTML") has a serious draw back called "cache busting".
HTML pages that are parsed by the web server before sending them off to the browser do not have a "Last Modified Date" set. This information is used by browsers, proxy servers and search engines when caching HTML pages. The main consequence is that pages that contain SSI tags cannot be cached. The ensuing performance degradation is serious enough to stop using, or at least limit the use of SSI tags.
We noticed for example that over two thirds of the hits on EUROPA HTML pages are being served - faster - from the cache of the reverse proxy server. A large part of the remaining third of the hits didn't have to be served from the web servers because they hadn't been changed. Add to this the hits for pages that were already cached in browsers or "up-stream" proxies, and you will see that allowing caches to be used to their full extents does improve response times.

Data Centre