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Apache: More than a Web server
Standards, projects
By Roy C. Hoobler
Builder.com
September 30, 2002
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Supporting W3C standards
The W3C publishes standards for anything Web-related. Apache has done a great job to make sure its projects can be used as references for W3C standards. Management and project contributors constantly contribute to specifications and discuss how these specifications will affect users. Each project at Apache has its own mailing list, and many are archived online.
The value of Apache projects
All these packages require some time to learn; fortunately, most of the documentation is pretty good. If you have deployed a couple of Web servers and understand how they work, Tomcat is easy to set up. The Xindice documentation is a little out of date, and Xerces and Xalan require an understanding of XML. If you have never worked with XML, mastering Xerces will take quite a bit of time for research, reading the documentation, and possibly going to the W3C or even Sun for a Java-related issue.
In some cases, this type of reading and discovery is time-consuming but leads to a better understanding of core technical issues. Of course, you can just quickly modify an included demo and claim that everything works great, which is possible (but not necessarily advisable) with Apache projects.
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ite a bit of time for research, reading the documentation, and possibly going to the W3C or even Sun for a Java-related issue.
In some cases, this type of reading and discovery is time-consuming but leads to a better understanding of core technical issues. Of course, you can just quickly modify an included demo and claim that everything works great, which is possible (but not necessarily advisable) with Apache projects.
With its strong leadership position in the developer community, open source Apache software is constantly improving. Vendors can modify and add functions to the source code, then repackage and even sell the code with their own applications. Macromedia has used Xerces and Axis out of the box and included the projects as standard components for its JRun software. IBM has also expanded upon these technologies and included them with WebSphere. So Apache's projects defy categorization as being purely open source; you're likely to encounter them, even in the most conservative shop.
Which of these Apache projects are likely to end up on your servers? TalkBack below or e-mail us with your thoughts.
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