Web Service + Web Site Architecture

Utilizing Web Services

Ways of utilizing web services to make web sites

Bad: everything is a monolith

Why is this bad?

• hard to push forward functionality: while it seems easy to copy one project to start a new one, there is no upstream to improve
• likewise, it's hard to form a software community
• things are tightly integrated

Also bad: everything isn't a monolith but it feels like a monolith

This happens when software is broken into pieces that aren't natural or when there are pieces that are theoretically decoupled but aren't in practice

functionality is like a gem - best when cut along its fawcets

Good: software is a bunch of building blocks that can be put together. Exactly what form a block takes depends on the problem:

• libraries
• middleware
• web services

Putting even well-crafted blocks together is still often hard!

software is eternally under construction

Example: incestuous middleware

http://dirtsimple.org/2007/02/wsgi-middleware-considered-harmful.html

Strategies for Making Websites out of Web Services

• AJAX
• middleware
• traversal

Why is HTML a good format?

Because it allows easy construction of microformats!

Because it allows the back end to show data presentationally alongside other microformats!

- rss

AJAX Web Services

JavaScript is the language of the web (that is to say, of browsers). Because of this, JavaScript is the most popular language today.

Example: turning the abbreviation web service into a web site with AJAX

pastebin as a web service

${file('/home/jhammel/python/pastebin.py')}

Middleware web services

clwapp: another way of making a8e.py into a web service

clwapp == command-line web app

clwapp turns a executable command into a web application

https://github.com/k0s/clwapp