#!/usr/bin/vijay

Sunday, January 30, 2005

Web Application Development using Perl

Perl is one of my favorite languages, especially because of its versatility. Perl is everywhere: CGI, GUI, Application Development, XML Processing, Database Accesss and of course System administration tasks.

The main challenge in developing a web-application is proper design. The decoupling of the static content from the dynamic content inside the individual pages is the trickiest part. I've used HTML::Template and Templete Toolkit modules for providing the templates. And the templates are filled in with real data using a Perl script. The HTML::Template module provides good flexibility of separating the dynamic parts of the page from the static content. But as far as the application is small, and there's a harmony between the application-developer and the UI-designer of the web-app, everything seems to be perfect. But as far as the UI designer is concerned he/she must know how exactly the dynamic parts are being replaced by the application logic. Otherwise, it's going to be a big mess.Particularly for large web-applications this doesn't work. I guess same is the case with other template mechanisms. Unless the webpage designer knows how the templates and Perl work, it's really hard to produce good web-application.

Perl is supported by major web-servers: Apache, IIS etc. Apache has also mod_perl (kind of embedded Perl interpreter) which provides fast, in fact very fast execution of Perl Script. The main idea of using mod_perl is to get access to the Apache API itself, and extend the web-server to provide our we-app functionality, that means: essentially turning your web-servers into web-app-server. The mod_perl can do wonders for large web-sites or web-applications. With all the power of Perl and the super stable Apache, completely reliable applications can be built.

./configure complete ... run make now

At the outset:

Some of the events that happened since the last post, not necessarily in Chronological order!

Ø Joined Quark as Member – Integrated Products Group (R&D). First joined into Code Implementation Team, but from Monday I will transition to the Code Design Team, with some contribution to the CIT. I am part of a product called Quark Disposition Manager, which is again a part of Quark Enterprise Publishing Management Suite.

Ø My Team Lead Miss. Smita Diwan expired in an accident, which is big loss for all of us at IPG-QDM team.

Ø I read a couple of books called: Peopleware: Productive Projects and Teams, 2nd Ed. & The Pragmatic Programmer: From Journeyman to Master : I really enjoyed reading these books, esp. Peopleware. The books need individual posts . I will give more details about the books, in those posts.

Ø And I am planning to attend the Linux Asia 2005 at New Delhi during February. Already registered for the conference.

Ø A lot of learning is also happening. I’ve been reading some books on UML, ANT and Eclipse In Action.

Ø In my personal life, a lot of NEW and INTERESTING things are happening, about which all of my friends know already!.. more details about them will be posted soon …