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F E A T U R E

IPlanet Goes Where No Server's Gone Before

June 25, 2001
By Lori MacVittie

Roxen Internet Software Roxen WebServer 2.1

With its native RDBMS connectivity and ability to convert WAP (Wireless Application Protocol) 1.0 to WAP 1.1 automatically, as well as to convert any .gif, .jpg or .png document to WBMP (Wireless Bitmap) format -- none of which is provided by any other product we tested -- Roxen WebServer is a breath of fresh air.

Roxen was developed as a series of modules with the object-oriented PIKE language. PIKE looks a lot like C++ and Java, but unlike C++ it is interpreted, and unlike Java the interpretation is done straight from the source rather than from compiled byte-code. Roxen offers Web authoring, caching, load-balancing and bandwidth management as well as Java servlet and JSP support. Add Roxen's built-in support for XML (Extensible Markup Language) and XSLT (Extensible Style Language Transformation), which no other vendor provides, and you're looking at a well-rounded Web server.

Configuration of Java servlet support for Roxen is easier than for IBM or Stronghold. Roxen uses a Java Servlet Bridge module to support Java servlets. If you want to compile Java support right into Roxen -- a nice option for providing speedier applications and coming close to iPlanet's in-process implementation -- you'll need to download the Sun Microsystems JDK 1.2. We chose to configure support via the provided bridging mechanism. To configure a servlet, we added a copy of the Java Servlet Bridge module and then specified the parameters necessary to load and run the servlet: physical location (by pointing to a directory or a .jar file), the main class and any parameters that should be sent to the servlet. That's it. The entire process was painless and straightforward.

Roxen's WebServer 2.1

Click here to enlarge

Do not try, however, to configure this bad boy from the CLI. All the configuration files are XML-based, which sounds like no big deal, but the terminology in the files is quite confusing. The GUI is pleasant and simple, and we highly suggest using it. Another feature we liked is Roxen WebServer's ability to perform automatic retrieval of updates for the server, security patches, bug fixes and third-party modules. No other product offered this capability, and it's something other vendors should provide, at least for security patches and bug fixes.

Roxen's performance was adequate when compared with that of Stronghold but lacked the zest of the IBM and Zeus products. Server-side processing is offered via RXML (Roxen Macro Language), an XML-compliant scripting language that provides direct access to LDAP and relational databases. Performing a SQL query by declaring it within tags in the page source is sure to make developers happy. Cool? Yes. Proprietary? Yes. Should you be willing to bind yourself to a proprietary technology? We'd prefer to see more extensive support of open standards.

Roxen WebServer, free. Available: Now. Roxen Internet Software, (212) 752 4624, fax +46-8-441 39 01. www.roxen.com