Server-side programming technologies

[NerdyJane]

I didn't get any help on the l"Linux Programming & Scripting" forum. So I'm posting this question here:

Which technologies should I use for server-side programming?

I need to do server-side programming for some AJAX applications. Two main features that I need from these programs/technologies are:
1. Request to and response from the server side should be scalable depending on business logic.
2. Server side application should be able to send data in parts (for e.g. data for 2 out of 4 requests available, remaining data available after a minute) asynchronously.

I have Apache server installed on my system.

Can this be done in C?

[coopstah13]

It could be I suppose, most people use java, php, python, perl for their back end.

[NerdyJane]

Thanks, coopstah13.

Do I need to install anything else on my server? Like Tomcat or cgic?

[coopstah13]

it depends on what language you are running, apache can talk to tomcat, there are some plugins for apache that allow you to do perl, python, and php. Tomcat can run by itself without the need for anything else, though.

[hugortega]

There are several technologies for backend programming: from C to modern languages such as Ruby, including classic PHP, Perl, Python and a lot of other options.

Perl and PHP are mature and stable options, with big communities to help. C language is an old option, powerfull, fast but with a long learning curve. Ruby has become very popular. Java is a very complete alternative.

Depends of your necessities and your choice, you will need to install complementary software (a web server is mandatory, such Apache) ... which option is the best? In my opinion, always depends of the problem. You'll find many ways to do the same task with different tools. For example, PHP is easy to start, but sometimes lacks on standard libraries or frameworks (there are several of course, but you need to look out)... if you choose Ruby, you'll find a very good framework to do the job, but sometimes is difficult to extend... If you choose perl, you'll have millions of libraries but a relatively complex language and approach...

All technologies has libraries for more common tasks: DB connections (almost all DBMS), session handling, request handling, etc

If you're new on web programming, I recommend to you, if you have the time, to explore basic examples on different technologies, look for similar solutions, and evaluate yourself. There will be people that say "X" is the best tool/language/framework, and maybe for their problems they are right, but maybe for your problems they are wrong.

Also, you need to consider new (or not so new) client side technologies, such as Ajax, CSS frameworks, etc. In principle, you can use Ajax with any backend language, but with some of them you will find easy-to-use libraries. Other client side technologies depends only of the browser, but that is another history (a very old compatibility-war history...)

I hope this helps,