CGI-ROM servers on a disc & other Web/CD intersections

Emedia Professional, March, 1998 by Ron Gustavson

Market By Proxy: Hybrid Pioneers

MarketScape, Inc., of Colorado Springs, Colorado, has introduced the most comprehensive HTML CD-ROM publishing software in WebCD Pro Publisher, which packages a Web site for deployment on CD-ROM and installs its Hybrid Engine proxy server on the client machine. MarketScape's WebCD takes the client/server integration one step further by placing a proxy server engine on the disc itself, which then is installed with the WebCD viewer.

This has been used by Microsoft, on the Internet Explorer 4.0 Preview disc and other Site Developer CD-ROMs, to offer the user a seamless view of either the WebCD or Microsoft's Web site. Optimized for Internet Explorer and Microsoft Internet Information Server, WebCD is adopting the latest Active Server Pages (ASP) and Internet Server API (ISAPI) extensions to bring interactivity to the local CD-ROM--whether on or offline. MarketScape's focus has been "proactive" delivery of Web content to the targeted user for marketing and electronic publishing. The proxy server engine allows the company to first bring the portable Web to the user--whether Internet-connected or not--and then bring that user to the live Web site for the latest sales and contact information, as well as possible transactions.

The MarketScape Hybrid Engine works with Microsoft Internet Explorer to make the local CD-ROM operate just like the Web--including the Web site's JavaScripts, Java applets or ActiveX controls, and ISAPI or other CGI functions. WebCD's Hybrid Engine threads from the CD-ROM-based files to LiveLinked pages that reside on the Web. CGI requests can be caught by the local proxy server on-the-fly and redirected to either the local CD-ROM image or the Web server, as necessary. Using ISAPI and Internet Information Server (IIS) extensions, WebCD is able to stage large databases locally with a title for immediate offline functionality that can later connect to the latest updated version on a Web server.

Currently, WebCD supports some IIS extensions, with additional support planned for the future. Support for Active Server Pages (ASP) would allow a WebCD to map any MIME file types to an executable or DLL on the CD-ROM. This might allow a Perl- or Python-based interpreter to run scripts in those languages locally for CGI-like actions. This, in turn, would allow many existing available Perl scripts to be adapted for use with a hybrid title.

SPEAKING CGI

Perl scripts are one thing, but title developers are increasingly considering the scripting language that is already supported in major browsers: JavaScript (or Jscript or ECMAScript). And if JavaScript, then why not ActiveX?

Java is the language that started the client-side revolution, in that Java support was first included in Netscape Navigator 2.0 and then all versions of the most popular browsers. Java--built around ports and sockets, plus DataInputStream and DataOutput Stream objects--is tailor-made for Web programming. Its Java Virtual Machine (JVM) architecture is still the safest environment for distributed applications, with threads and processes that exist in their own memory space, without explicit pointers, that can be killed at any time. Its cross-platform autonomy still breeds hope for universal Client/server modules.