Re: Language choice for high-volume Oracle CGI interface?

Greg McCann wrote:
>
> Jonathan Stowe wrote:
>
> > I thought the question was about the best way to deal with a high volume of
> > traffic on a Web based database application - the fact that the original
> > poster had mentioned CGI in his subject shouldnt preclude anyone making
> > other suggestions...
>
> Yes - thank you, Jonathan. To clarify my original question - I mentioned CGI
> because that is the only way that I have handled this type of application in the
> past. I've used MS SQL Server with WebODBC, FoxPro with FoxWeb and Interbase,
> and more recently Perl with Win32::ODBC.
>
> I apologize for confusing the issue with my limited knowledge. I'm interested
> in any suitable solution, whether or not it involves CGI.
>
> Thanks,
>
> Greg McCann
>
>
> Greg McCann wrote:
> > We're doing a proposal for a system doing high-volume financial transactions on
> > the internet. We're expecting 10,000 transactions per day at the beginning, up
> > to 1,000,000 transactions per day eventually. The client has specified an
> > Oracle database with an NT web server, using SSL for secure communications both
> > between the browser client and our server and between remote servers and our
> > main server.
> >
> > We're debating what language to use for the CGI programming. C++, Java, Perl,
> > ...? I have some experience using Perl for database access, but not with Oracle
> > or on a system as large as this. Do you have any thoughts on the relative
> > merits of these languages for this application? If possible, we would like to
> > follow a path which wouldn't lock us in to a Microsoft platform.

First off, are you really sure about 1M hits/day as your maximum? Second, how many machines are really involved? Third, is Oracle running on a NT machine along with the Web server? Fourth, are any of your "yes" answers (at this point) going to change?

Oracle performs much better under UNIX than NT. It certainly isn't locked to MS.

As far a Web Server on NT goes...sure, you can get Apache on NT. Apache w/ mod_perl can give you quite acceptable performance. Have to avoid the MS supplied PERL to insure the cross-platform advantage. Can anyone familiar with PERL answer to a question about whether mod_perl works in a multi-tier environment?

There is also mod_java (the Apache JServ project) which is also quite acceptable. JServ supports a multi-tier solution. So you can put everything on multiple machines to really support a high transaction environment. SSL, along with nearly everything else in the encryption toychest, isn't a problem at all. Disadvantage is that you haven't listed any experience with it. Received on Mon Jun 28 1999 - 23:03:22 CDT