Apache: The Definitive Guide, 3rd Edition

Web Sites as Applications

While many sites act as simple repositories, providing users with a collection of files they can retrieve and navigate through with hyperlinks, web sites are capable of much more sophisticated interactions. Sites can collect information from users through forms, customize their appearance and their contents to reflect the interests of particular users, or let users interact with a wide variety of information sources. Sites can also serve as hosts for services provided not to browsers but to other computers, as “web services” become a more common part of computing.

Apache provides a solid foundation for applications, using its core web server to manage HTTP transactions and a wide variety of modules and interfaces to connect those transactions to programs. Developers can create logic that manages a much more complex flow of information than just reading pages, they can use the development environment of their choice, as well as Apache services for HTTP, security, and other web-specific aspects of application design. Everything from simple inclusion of changing information to sophisticated integration of different environments and applications is possible.