Overview

Maxscape is a web application server framework to develop, operate and maintain sophisticated websites and services. It integrates various programs, components and modules to implement the features of a generic web application server. A generic web server comprises a collection of part systems that are common to all or at least most websites.

• Development and Integration Environment
• Standardized File System Structure
• Generic Web Server Platform
• Application Server Run Time System
• Server API and Module Library
• Content Database Data Model
• Database and File System Surfaces

A web application server framework is quite a complex system, though the underlying techniques are mostly simple. Various programs, modules and tools of different kinds and areas have to be selected, installed and integrated. Assembling and maintaining a feasible collection of part systems, programs and components is quite a time-consuming task.

Maxscape eases development and maintenance by providing the generic parts of an application server's programming and runtime environment. To support customers in the project as well as from the product point of view, a site using Maxscape consists of the generic operation software packaged with project-specific design, content and applications.

To meet a project's particular set of requirements, applications are built on top of the framework to implement the content, design and project-specific applications and services.

Target and Intended Audience

Maxscape might be especially interesting for Perl developers to be used as a development and production environment and an application server runtime system because the Maxscape WebServer library and the main scripts are written in Perl. It also works well with Maxdaemon, an HTTP server written in Perl.

Inspiration and Goal

Maxscape development goes back to the year 1992 and was inspired by the need of a generic Web Application Server Platform. It always was a prototype driven by the requirements of its applications. So, the server software was developed step by step on requirements of the application development.

Extendability and Maintainability

Consequently, it is built upon extendability and maintainability to adapt to new and changing technologies over the years.

Development and Integration Environment

The development environment, the integration chain and the distribution build consist of a collection of programs, scripts and tools to build and integrate the framework's server platform, the server libraries, the runtime system and the application daemons.

Standardized File System Structure

A standardized file system structure based on Unix standarts is suggested to store server, as well as application content and software to separating generic from applications specific parts.

Web Server Generic Platform

Operating System, HTTP Daemon, rational Database, Programming Language with Libraries.

Content Database

With Maxscape content, templates and even server side code are consistently stored in a rational database. The database approach brings the power of databases and the SQL language into content management as well as to application programming. The database stores the application content, whereas content can not only be (HTML) text, but also text with embedded script variables, objects and function calls, and even database elements solely containing Perl scripts.

Hierarchical Data Model

Data model to map dynamic web content to a rational database, which allows to inherit text, script variables and functions within the page tree.

Software Library with a Server Application Programming Interface (API)

Modules, functions and packages for content management and application programming.

Application Server Runtime System

The server daemons and application processes to generate a web site's content.

Project specific Content and Applications

The particular project applications are built on top of the Maxscape server.