Preface

This guide discusses how to use Netscape Server Application Programmer's Interface (NSAPI) to build plug-ins that define Server Application Functions (SAFs) to extend and modify Sun Java^TM System Web Server 6.1. The guide also provides a reference of the NSAPI functions you can use to define new plug-ins.

This preface contains the following topics:

• Who Should Use This Guide

• Using the Documentation

• How This Guide Is Organized

• Documentation Conventions

• Product Support

Who Should Use This Guide

The intended audience for this guide is the person who develops, assembles, and deploys NSAPI plug-ins in a corporate enterprise. This guide assumes you are familiar with the following topics:

• HTTP

• HTML

• NSAPI

• C programming

• Software development processes, including debugging and source code control

Using the Documentation

The Sun Java System Web Server manuals are available as online files in PDF and HTML formats from the following location:

http://docs.sun.com/app/docs/coll/1308.2

The following table lists the tasks and concepts described in the Sun Java System Web Server manuals.

How This Guide Is Organized

This guide has the following chapters:

• Chapter 1, Syntax and Use of obj.conf

  This chapter describes the configuration file obj.conf. The chapter discusses the syntax and use of directives in this file, which instruct the server how to process HTTP requests.

• Chapter 2, SAFs in the magnus.conf File

  This chapter discusses the SAFs you can set in the configuration file magnus.conf to configure the Sun Java System Web Server during initialization.

• Chapter 3, Creating Custom SAFs

  This chapter discusses how to create your own plug-ins that define new SAFs to modify or extend the way the server handles requests.

• Chapter 4, Creating Custom Filters

  This chapter discusses how to create your own custom filters that you can use to intercept, and potentially modify, incoming content presented to or generated by another function.

• Chapter 5, Examples of Custom SAFs and Filters

  This chapter describes examples of custom SAFs to use at each stage in the request-handling process.

• Chapter 6, Creating Custom Server-parsed HTML Tags

  This chapter explains how to create custom server-parsed HTML tags.

• Chapter 7, NSAPI Function Reference

  This chapter presents a reference of the NSAPI functions. You use NSAPI functions to define SAFs.

• Chapter 8, Data Structure Reference

  This chapter discusses some of the commonly used NSAPI data structures.

• Chapter 9, Using Wildcard Patterns

  This chapter lists the wildcard patterns you can use when specifying values in obj.conf and various predefined SAFs.

• Chapter 10, Time Formats

  This chapter lists time formats.

• Chapter 11, Dynamic Results Caching Functions

  This chapter explains how to create a results caching plug-in.

• Chapter 12, Hypertext Transfer Protocol

  This chapter gives an overview of HTTP.

• Appendix A, Alphabetical List of NSAPI Functions and Macros

  This appendix provides an alphabetical list of NSAPI functions and macros.

Documentation Conventions

This section describes the types of conventions used throughout this guide.

• File and directory paths

  These are given in UNIX® format (with forward slashes separating directory names). For Windows versions, the directory paths are the same, except that backslashes are used to separate directories.

• URLs are given in the format:

  http://server.domain/path/file.html

  In these URLs, server is the server name where applications are run; domain is your Internet domain name; path is the server's directory structure; and file is an individual file name. Italic items in URLs are placeholders.

• Font conventions include:

  • The monospace font is used for sample code and code listings, API and language elements (such as function names and class names), file names, path names, directory names, and HTML tags.

  • Italic monospace type is used for code variables.

  • Italic type is also used for book titles, emphasis, variables and placeholders, and words used in the literal sense.

  • Bold type is used as either a paragraph lead-in or to indicate words used in the literal sense.

  Installation root directories are indicated by install_dir in this guide.

  By default, the location of install_dir is as follows:

  • On UNIX-based platforms: /opt/SUNWwbsvr/

  • On Windows: C:\Sun\WebServer6.1

Product Support

If you have problems with your system, contact customer support using one of the following mechanisms:

• The online support web site at:

  http://www.sun.com/training/

• The telephone dispatch number associated with your maintenance contract

Please have the following information available prior to contacting support. This helps to ensure that our support staff can best assist you in resolving problems.

• Description of the problem, including the situation where the problem occurs and its impact on your operation.

• Machine type, operating system version, and product version, including any patches and other software that might be affecting the problem.

• Detailed steps on the methods you have used to reproduce the problem.

• Any error logs or core dumps.