CS491A Project Final Report

Web Galaxy

Abstract

Web Technology has been popular since 1992. Numerous systems have been

developed to meet the increasing demands of websites. The CGI technology originally

used is still being used today and new ones keep emerging. It is still not easy for

developers and private companies to know which technology is the best fit. There is no

definite answer. In this project, three different web setups are built and a simple test of

web request response time will be recorded. The test results will provide some useful

information for developers and companies to choose the right configuration.

1. Introduction

With so many different setups to choose from, when a developer or a

company wants to build an e-commerce site, choosing a good configuration is not

always an easy task. In this class, I will build three web application systems with

different combinations of operating systems, web servers, server side languages

and databases. The web site content is a generic e-commerce site which includes

product display, product search and a shopping cart. The reason building an e-

commerce site is that an e-commerce site includes most of the common

functionalities a web site would have, such as dynamic pages, search function and

database interaction. After all, web sites are mainly used for searching for

information and selling products. The programming involves displaying data

statically or on demand, getting data from the user, retrieving data from the

database and managing data in the database. My project includes all of these

tasks.

There are several reasons I chose this project. I have done web

programming for more than five years, including two years for eBay and one and

half years for IdeaLab. The class requires us to build a project using a language

we are most familiar with. After experiencing so many real life web site projects,

building another one for this class is not a challenge. For class 437 software

engineering, I have already done a similar project. On the other hand, there are

other web programming technologies I have heard of or picked up pieces from

time to time but I have not had any chance to work on it seriously. I’d like to take

this chance to explore them.

The application will be run on a laptop with a Pentium III 700MHz and

128MB RAM. The first application will run on a Linux operating system and the

other two will be developed under a Windows system. After the first one is

completed, it will be erased to make room for application two and application

three. So at the end I will have two applications in one computer. After the above

development, I will do some comparison among them and do a simple

performance test. A rough idea of what technologies to use for building an e-

commerce site will be generated.

2. Technological Background

This project involves quite a lot of technologies, including operating systems, web

servers, databases and server-side languages. Each application has its unique

combinations. Some components have platform dependency. Some components have less

dependency and can be developed under different platforms. I have chosen three popular

configurations for this project. There is no doubt that there are many other ways to

combine it. It is beyond the scope of this project.

2.1 Operating System

Windows 2000: Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional is the most

reliable desktop operating system for business. Building on the power

of Windows NT and the ease of using Windows 98, Windows 2000 is

the best choice for work environments--big and small. Windows 2000

Professional offers the launching pad businesses need to benefit from

the productivity and Internet applications that they use most. It's

more reliable, secure, and manageable than Windows NT

Workstation because of its new file encryption system and application

management tools.

Red Hat: Red Hat Linux is a platform for open source computing. It is

certified by top enterprise hardware and software vendors. From the

desktop to the data center, Red Hat couples the innovation of open source

technology and the stability of a true enterprise-class platform.

2.2 Web Server

IIS 5.0: IIS is an enterprise-level Web server that is included with several

versions of Windows. According to Netcraft Web Server Survey, as of April

2005, around 21% of the web sites on the Internet are using IIS. It can only be run

under a windows-based operating system.

Apache 1.3: Apache Web server has been the most popular Web server since

April 1996 because of its stability, efficiency, portability, security and small size.

It can run on Unix, Linux, Mac OS, Windows and numerous other platforms.

According to Netcraft Web Server Survey, as of April 20005, more than 68% of

web sites on the Internet are using Apache, thus making it more widely used

than all other web servers. Apache is commonly run under an UNIX like system

but it also supports windows-based systems.

2.3 Server Side Language

PERL/MOD_PERL: Perl is a stable, cross platform programming language and

it takes the best features of other languages. PERL supports both procedural and

object-oriented programming. Mod_perl is the marriage of Apache and PERL. It

is said that mod_perl brings together two of the most powerful and mature

technologies available to the web professionals today. It supports many operating

systems. It’s more common to be used under an UNIX operating system.

C# ASP.NET: ASP.NET was introduced in 2002. It takes advantage of

Microsoft’s .NET Framework, which provides thousands of classes that

deal with XML, text input, validation of user input, image processing and

more. It can be only used under a Windows system.

JSP/SERVLETS: Since the late 1990s Java servlets and JavaServer

Pages (JSP) have come into widespread use. It is said that web site

developers have been switching from CGI scripting languages to servlets

and JSPs. It supports many platforms. It’s common to be used under both

Windows and Linux.

2.4 Database

MySQL: The most popular open source SQL database, is developed and

provided by MySQL AB. The MySQL software delivers a very fast,

multi-threaded, multi-user, and robust SQL database server. It is intended

for mission-critical, heavy-load production systems as well as for

embedding into mass-deployed software. It supports numerous platforms

and it’s very easy to install and upgrade.

SQL 2000: SQL Server 2000 offers a complete database and analysis

solution for rapidly delivering the next generation of scalable Web

applications. As a core component of Microsoft Windows Server System,

it dramatically reduces the time required to bring e-commerce and data

warehousing applications to market. SQL Server 2000 includes support for

XML and HTTP and also takes full advantage of Microsoft Windows

2000, including support for Microsoft Active Directory.

3. System  Architecture

Application 1:

Red Hat Linux

Apache 1.3

PERL/MOD_PERL

MySQL 4.1

Mason

Application 1 has been demonstrated as a powerful system to develop e-

commerce web sites. It’s one of the most mature web technologies. Amazon, one of the

largest e-commerce sites in the world, is using PERL. The PERL interpreter can be

embedded in Apache server and it can run 2000% times faster than CGI. Mason was

chosen as a template. Mason “Autohandler” technology make page inheritance easy and

component calls re-use codes. Those evolved and new features have beat the claims that

this older technology is out of date. MySQL is easy to use and its simplicity makes it

very suitable for web transactions. The production version still does not have a lot of

features that other commercial databases do, such as views, triggers and procedures etc…

This application has excellent performance using less powerful hardware. The difficulty

is to configure the whole system with all compatible versions of components due to its

open source characteristic. It takes experience and practice to install them correctly.

Application 2:

Window 2000 Professional /IIS 5.0

C# ASP.NET/Visual Studio .NET 2003

SQL 2000

All packages from this application are made by one vendor, Microsoft. The

functionalities are streamlined, especially between Visual Studio .NET 2003 and SQL

2000. From .NET, database connection can be created and database information is

available by clicking the Tool menu. The installations are not difficult and most of the

time the default settings are enough. The instructions for using them are clear. This

application also supports page inheritance and code reuse. It has its unique <asp> tag and

it can reduce the amount of code to achieve field validation. Visual Studio .NET has a

very nice project editor as long as the computer is fast. The database procedure can be

called by C# providing parameters and reduce the amount of code in C# programming.

Application 2 runs slower than application 1 with the same hardware. It is slow to

open the project from Visual Studio .NET 2003 and it is slow when I try to see the result

from the browser. It would be much better used on a faster computer. From VB script

ASP to ASP.NET, Microsoft has dramatically changed its way to create web pages. Web

sites that used VB script ASP have to be totally rewritten to upgrade to ASP.NET.

Programmers who are good at VB script ASP have to learn one of the new languages,

such as VB.NET, C#.NET or J#.NET etc. The odd thing I found is that each page can

only have one web form. To perform a different function is through writing

“ImageClicked” event function in the same script. Traditionally, the web developers use

more than one form in one page to perform different actions. Also the user control label

can not be registered by the web project if it’s created dynamically, so all user control

labels have to be created in advance.

Since .NET was introduced in 2002, it has not been widely used but it is getting

more popular. C# has very similar syntax as JAVA. Microsoft promoted that it does not

hurt performance which language to use as long as it runs under .NET framework.

Apparently, C# was created to attract JAVA programmer to switch to C# programming.

PERL can be run under the .NET framework also.

Application 3

Window 2000 Professional

Apache Tomcat

MySQL

JSP/SERVLETS

This application has a similar installation and configuration as application 1 and

programming language’s syntax is like application 2.

The reason the installation and configuration is like application 1 because each

component needs to be installed individually and configured to work together, such as

changing configuration file setup, set class path and install DB driver to the correct

directory etc. It is easier than configuring application 1.

Application 2’s programming syntax is very similar to JSP/servlet. I would have

never known how similar they are until I tried them both. The functionality is very

similar also. The big difference is that C#.NET has a powerful editor and saves a lot of

typing work. Besides overall performance in a defined web system, it really depends on

preference when choosing between the two.

4. Design and Implementation Details

4.1 GUI Design

GUI design is not a concern for this project. The three applications will

use the same design. No image will be used for the web site. Most of the

pages are database driven. Each page maintains a similar look. It has a top

menu, left menu and bottom menu. The left menu has search function,

product display page and the link to advanced search. The top menu has a

link to the shopping car and the bottom menu provides the links to static

information pages which won’t be created for this project. The snapshots

of the pages for application one are in appendix D and application two and

three are part of my demo.

4.2 Project Work Steps

The first step of building the web application is to install all necessary

software and tools including operating system, web sever, database and

language, compatible editors and third party modules.

The second step is to do configuration and set up and get ready for

development.

The third step is to design the web pages.

The fourth step is to design databases and implement them.

The fifth step is to implement database drive web pages with server side

languages.

The sixth step is do the testing and refinement.

The final step is to do a simple performance chart and analysis.

4.3 Database Schema

Two databases will be used. They are MySQL and SQL 2000.

5. Performance Evaluation

5.1 Experimental Setup

The performance evaluation is to test how fast the server responds

to the web request. Several same functionality pages have been selected

from application 2 and application 3. The tool “HTTP Analyzer” is used to

record response time.

5.2 Experimental Results

The detailed results are shown in the charts in the appendix. Ten attempts

were run for each language for each situation. The average results from

the charts are shown in the chart below.

5.3 Analysis

As can be seen from the averages, C# and JSP/Servlet have similar

performance for empty cart page, add to cart and profile. There is a large

performance gap for search and category. These two tests use the SQL

database which might be affecting the results. As can be seen in the chart

below, SQL2000 is faster than MySQL 3.23.46.

The limitation of this performance is that we have to make sure both setup

should have optimized coding. The performances of different versions of

operating system, web server and database may vary. It is not clear

whether more powerful hardware would make a big difference in

Averages of All Charts

0.000

0.500

1.000

1.500

2.000

2.500

Empty CartPage

Add to Cart Profile Search Category

Tim

e (

se

c)

C#

JSP/Servlet

SQL Database

0.000

0.005

0.010

0.015

0.020

0.025

0.030

0.035

1 2 3 4 5

Attempt

Tim

e (s

ec)

SQL2000

MySQL 3.23.46

SQL2000: 0.006 sec AverageMySQL: 0.024 sec Average

performance. A typical E-commerce site has concurrent multi-users. How

many users the site can support at the same time is very important also. It

requires complex testing environment and it’s beyond a 20-week project.

6. Conclusion

Choosing a good configuration for an e-commerce site is never easy.

This project tries to address this issue by building three different applications that

use different common combinations of operating systems, web servers, server side

languages and databases. The applications are all used to create a generic e-

commerce site which has product display, product search and a shopping cart.

These functions are common to most e-commerce web sites. These functions also

include the most common functionalities a web site uses such as dynamic web

pages, search function and database interaction.

The first application was built with a Linux operating system written in

PERL and served by Apache server. The other two were developed under a

Windows system. Application 2 is written in C# and runs under Window IIS and

Application 3 is written in JSP/servlets and served by Tomcat.

Three server-side web-programming languages were created and

improved to compete with each other. They are also influenced by each other. As

of April 2005, 69% of web sites on the Internet use Apache which is written in

PERL, JAVA and a small percentage in other languages. 21% of web sites are

windows based and they are most likely written in VBscript and ASP.NET

languages. It will be interesting to see how it goes in the future. Personally I have

no strong preference to choose among the three languages because they all have

similar features, such as object-oriented programming style, code reuse and

inherence etc.

Two databases have been used for this application. I would definitely

choose SQL 2000 over MySQL. SQL 2000 has better performance than MySQL

and it has more features. The features comparison has been presented at my

presentation slides.

Unfortunately, the performance test setup is very simple due to

insufficient time. The performance result is disputable due to limitations analyzed

in this report. It’s a large amount of work to setup three web applications and

write in three different languages for three working e-commerce shopping carts.

To get better performance results, I recommend production environment

hardware, such as 3.4GHZ CPU, 1-2Gbytes RAM. A large amount of data, such

as more than one hundred Mega bytes, would give more accurate performance

results for database transactions. Instead of writing a shopping cart, limit the

coding to product display, product search and user registration. This will give

more time to optimize the coding and conduct performance testing. I believe this

project could be a good starting point to further look into web applications in

different setups.

7. References

Whitehead, Paul. Active Server Pages 3.0. IDG Books Worldwide, 2000.

Rolsky, Dave and Williams, Ken. Embedding Perl in HTML with Mason. O’Reilly,

2003.

Deitel, H.M., Deitel, P.J., and Goldberg, A.B. Internet & World Wide Web: How to

Program. Pearson Education, 2004.

Steelman, Andrea and Murach, Joel. Murach’s Java Servlets and JSP. Murach, 2003.

Hunter, Jason and Crawford, William. Java Servlet Programming. O’Reilly, 1998.

Nielsen, Paul. Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Bible. Wiley, 2003.

Wainwright, Peter. Professional Apache. Wrox, 1999.

Goodwill, James. Developing Java Servlets. Sams, 1999.

Dubois, Paul. MySQL. Sams, 2003.

Bekman, Stas; Cholet, Eric. Practical mod_perl. O’Reilly 2003

Meyne, Hank and Davis, Scott. Developing Web Applications with ASP.NET and C#.

Wiley, 2002.

Ruvalcaba, Zak. ASP.NET Website Using C# & VB.NET. Sitepoint, 2004.

www.perl.org

www.apache.org

www.oracle.com

www.microsoft.com

www.mysql.com

Language Comparison:

http://www.epinions.com/inet-review-540-141E6FD0-3A0CAA3F-prod2

Java vs. PERL

http://kreiger.linuxgods.com/kiki/?java+vs+perl+examples

http://discuss.fogcreek.com/joelonsoftware/default.asp?cmd=show&ixPost=25866

Java, c++, PERL

http://www.flat222.org/mac/bench/

.NET vs. J2EE

http://java.oreilly.com/news/farley_0800.html

http://www.theserverside.net/news/thread.tss?thread_id=29747

http://www.theserverside.com/articles/article.tss?l=J2EE-vs-DOTNET

Apache vs. IIS

http://searchwin2000.techtarget.com/originalContent/0,289142,sid1_gci833798,00.html

http://www.serverwatch.com/tutorials/article.php/3074841

Database Comparison

http://dev.mysql.com/tech-resources/crash-me.php

http://www.tpc.org/tpcc/results/tpcc_perf_results.asp

http://www.tpc.org/tpcc/results/tpcc_price_perf_results.asp

http://www.mssqlcity.com/Articles/Compare/sql_server_vs_mysql.htm

http://www.mssqlcity.com/Articles/Compare/sql_server_vs_oracle.htm

Window vs. Linux

http://www.michaelhorowitz.com/Linux.vs.Windows.html

http://www.devx.com/opensource/Article/16969

Appendix A. Functions

Each application has its own codes for each functionality.

1. product display

2. product quick search

3. product advanced search

4. shopping cart

Appendix B. Database Schema Definitions

Application 2:

CREATE TABLE [dbo].[Order_Items] (

[Order_Item_ID] [int] IDENTITY (1, 1) NOT NULL ,

[Order_ID] [int] NOT NULL ,

[Item_ID] [int] NOT NULL ,

[Category_ID] [int] NOT NULL ,

[Description] [varchar] (100) COLLATE SQL_Latin1_General_CP1_CI_AS

NOT NULL ,

[PricePerUnit] [money] NOT NULL ,

[Quantity] [int] NOT NULL

) ON [PRIMARY]

GO

CREATE TABLE [dbo].[Orders] (

[Order_ID] [int] IDENTITY (1, 1) NOT NULL ,

[Shopper_ID] [int] NOT NULL ,

[Total_Cost] [money] NOT NULL ,

[Shipping_Cost] [money] NOT NULL ,

[Sales_Tax] [money] NOT NULL ,

[CC_Number] [varchar] (20) COLLATE SQL_Latin1_General_CP1_CI_AS

NULL ,

[CC_Expiration_Date] [varchar] (7) COLLATE

SQL_Latin1_General_CP1_CI_AS NULL ,

[CC_Type] [varchar] (30) COLLATE SQL_Latin1_General_CP1_CI_AS

NULL ,

[CC_Holder_Name] [varchar] (100) COLLATE

SQL_Latin1_General_CP1_CI_AS NULL

) ON [PRIMARY]

GO

CREATE TABLE [dbo].[Shopper] (

[Shopper_ID] [int] IDENTITY (1, 1) NOT NULL ,

[First_Name] [varchar] (20) COLLATE SQL_Latin1_General_CP1_CI_AS

NULL ,

[Last_Name] [varchar] (50) COLLATE SQL_Latin1_General_CP1_CI_AS

NULL ,

[Address] [varchar] (60) COLLATE SQL_Latin1_General_CP1_CI_AS NULL ,

[City] [varchar] (15) COLLATE SQL_Latin1_General_CP1_CI_AS NULL ,

[State_Code] [varchar] (2) COLLATE SQL_Latin1_General_CP1_CI_AS

NULL ,

[Postal_Code] [varchar] (10) COLLATE SQL_Latin1_General_CP1_CI_AS

NULL ,

[Phone] [varchar] (24) COLLATE SQL_Latin1_General_CP1_CI_AS NULL ,

[Email] [varchar] (40) COLLATE SQL_Latin1_General_CP1_CI_AS NULL

) ON [PRIMARY]

GO

CREATE TABLE [dbo].[Shopping_Cart] (

[Shopping_Cart_Item_ID] [int] IDENTITY (1, 1) NOT NULL ,

[Shopper_ID] [int] NOT NULL ,

[Item_ID] [int] NOT NULL ,

[Category_ID] [int] NOT NULL ,

[Description] [varchar] (100) COLLATE SQL_Latin1_General_CP1_CI_AS

NOT NULL ,

[PricePerUnit] [money] NOT NULL ,

[Quantity] [int] NOT NULL

) ON [PRIMARY]

GO

CREATE TABLE [dbo].[cs_User_Auth] (

[uid] [varchar] (20) COLLATE SQL_Latin1_General_CP1_CI_AS NULL ,

[pwd] [varchar] (20) COLLATE SQL_Latin1_General_CP1_CI_AS NULL

) ON [PRIMARY]

GO

CREATE TABLE [dbo].[cs_category] (

[cate_num] [int] IDENTITY (1, 1) NOT NULL ,

[cate_name] [varchar] (50) COLLATE SQL_Latin1_General_CP1_CI_AS NULL

) ON [PRIMARY]

GO

CREATE TABLE [dbo].[cs_products] (

[p_name] [varchar] (50) COLLATE SQL_Latin1_General_CP1_CI_AS NULL ,

[price] [money] NULL ,

[p_description] [varchar] (1000) COLLATE SQL_Latin1_General_CP1_CI_AS

NULL ,

[item_num] [int] IDENTITY (1, 1) NOT NULL ,

[cate_num] [int] NULL

) ON [PRIMARY]

GO

CREATE TABLE [dbo].[cs_products1] (

[p_name] [varchar] (50) COLLATE SQL_Latin1_General_CP1_CI_AS NULL ,

[price] [decimal](18, 2) NULL ,

[p_description] [varchar] (1000) COLLATE SQL_Latin1_General_CP1_CI_AS

NULL ,

[item_num] [int] IDENTITY (1, 1) NOT NULL ,

[cate_num] [int] NULL

) ON [PRIMARY]

GO

Application 3:

CREATE TABLE cs_category (

cate_num int(11) NOT NULL auto_increment,

cate_name varchar(50) default NULL,

PRIMARY KEY (cate_num)

) TYPE=MyISAM;

CREATE TABLE cs_products (

p_name varchar(50) default NULL,

price decimal(18,2) default NULL,

p_description text,

item_num int(11) NOT NULL auto_increment,

cate_num int(11) default NULL,

PRIMARY KEY (item_num)

) TYPE=MyISAM;

CREATE TABLE cs_products1 (

p_name varchar(50) default NULL,

price decimal(18,2) default NULL,

p_description text,

item_num int(11) NOT NULL auto_increment,

cate_num int(11) default NULL,

PRIMARY KEY (item_num)

) TYPE=MyISAM;

CREATE TABLE order_items (

Order_Item_ID int(11) NOT NULL auto_increment,

Order_ID int(11) NOT NULL default '0',

Item_ID int(11) NOT NULL default '0',

Category_ID int(11) NOT NULL default '0',

Description varchar(100) default NULL,

PricePerUnit decimal(8,2) NOT NULL default '0.00',

Quantity int(11) NOT NULL default '0',

PRIMARY KEY (Order_Item_ID)

) TYPE=MyISAM;

CREATE TABLE orders (

Order_ID int(11) NOT NULL auto_increment,

Shopper_ID int(11) NOT NULL default '0',

Total_Cost decimal(8,2) NOT NULL default '0.00',

Shipping_Cost decimal(8,2) NOT NULL default '0.00',

Sales_Tax decimal(8,2) NOT NULL default '0.00',

CC_Number varchar(20) default NULL,

CC_Expiration_Date varchar(7) default NULL,

CC_Type varchar(30) default NULL,

CC_Holder_Name varchar(100) default NULL,

isProcessed enum('''N''','''Y''') default '''N''',

when_placed datetime default NULL,

PRIMARY KEY (Order_ID)

) TYPE=MyISAM;

CREATE TABLE shopper (

Shopper_ID int(11) NOT NULL auto_increment,

First_Name varchar(20) default NULL,

Last_Name varchar(50) default NULL,

Address varchar(60) default NULL,

City varchar(15) default NULL,

State_Code char(2) default NULL,

Postal_Code varchar(10) default NULL,

Phone varchar(24) default NULL,

Email varchar(40) default NULL,

PRIMARY KEY (Shopper_ID)

) TYPE=MyISAM;

CREATE TABLE shopping_cart (

Shopping_Cart_Item_ID int(11) NOT NULL default '0',

Shopper_ID int(11) NOT NULL default '0',

Item_ID int(11) NOT NULL default '0',

Category_ID int(11) NOT NULL default '0',

Description varchar(100) default NULL,

PricePerUnit decimal(8,2) NOT NULL default '0.00',

Quantity int(11) NOT NULL default '0',

PRIMARY KEY (Shopping_Cart_Item_ID)

) TYPE=MyISAM;

Appendix C. User Manual

No user manual needed for web site. The web site is designed for easy use by clicking

through the links on the page, top, left and bottom menus.

Appendix D GUI

Appendix E Test Results

Empty Cart Page

0.000

0.020

0.040

0.060

0.080

0.100

0.120

0.140

0.160

1 & 2 3 & 4 5 & 6 7 & 8 9 & 10

Attempt

Tim

e (s

ec)

C#

Java

C#: 0.081 sec AverageJava: 0.122 sec Average

Add to Cart Page

0.000

0.020

0.040

0.060

0.080

0.100

0.120

0.140

0.160

0.180

0.200

1 & 2 3 & 4 5 & 6 7 & 8 9 & 10

Attempt

Tim

e (s

ec)

C#

JAVA

C#: 0.177 sec Average JAVA: 0.151 sec Average

Profile Page

0.000

0.020

0.040

0.060

0.080

0.100

0.120

0.140

1 & 2 3 & 4 5 & 6 7 & 8 9 & 10

Attempt

Tim

e (

se

c)

C#

JAVA

C#: 0.102 sec AverageJAVA: 0.094 sec Average

Search Page

0.000

0.500

1.000

1.500

2.000

2.500

1 & 2 3 & 4 5 & 6 7 & 8 9 & 10

Attempt

Tim

e (

se

c)

C#

JAVA

C#: 0.163 sec AverageJAVA: 2.189 sec Average

Category Page

0.000

0.500

1.000

1.500

2.000

2.500

1 & 2 3 & 4 5 & 6 7 & 8 9 & 10

Attempt

Tim

e (

se

c)

C#

JAVA

C#: 0.154 sec AverageJAVA: 2.179 sec Average

Averages of All Charts

0.000

0.500

1.000

1.500

2.000

2.500

Empty CartPage

Add to Cart Profile Search Category

Tim

e (

se

c)

C#

JSP/Servlet

Appendix F

Presentation Slides

SQL Database

0.000

0.005

0.010

0.015

0.020

0.025

0.030

0.035

1 2 3 4 5

Attempt

Tim

e (s

ec)

SQL2000

MySQL 3.23.46

SQL2000: 0.006 sec AverageMySQL: 0.024 sec Average