About This Guide

This book discusses how to use Netscape Server Application Programmer's Interface (NSAPI) to build plugins that use Server Application Functions (SAFs) to extend and modify Sun™ Open Net Environment (Sun ONE) Application Server 7. It also provides a reference of the NSAPI functions you can use to define new SAFs.

This preface contains information about the following topics:

• NSAPI Plugins and J2EE Web Applications
• Who Should Use This Guide
• Using the Documentation
• How This Guide Is Organized
• Documentation Conventions
• Product Support




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Note	The NSAPI interface is Unstable. An unstable interface may be experimental or transitional, and hence may change incompatibly, be removed, or be replaced by a more stable interface in the next release.

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NSAPI Plugins and J2EE Web Applications

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In Sun ONE Application Server, NSAPI plugins cannot interoperate with J2EE web applications. Specifically:

• Do not place NSAPI plugins within web application context roots.
• Do not include the output of NSAPI plugins in servlets or JSPs.
• Do not forward requests to NSAPI plugins from servlets or JSPs.
• If you use security-constraint and filter-mapping features in the default web application, NSAPI features may not work as expected.

Who Should Use This Guide

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The intended audience for this guide is the person who develops, assembles, and deploys NSAPI plugins 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

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The Sun ONE Application Server manuals are available as online files in Portable Document Format (PDF) and Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) formats, at:

http://docs.sun.com/

The following table lists tasks and concepts described in the Sun ONE Application Server manuals. The left column lists the tasks and concepts, and the right column lists the corresponding manuals.

   Sun ONE Application Server Documentation Roadmap 

For information about	See the following
Late-breaking information about the software and the documentation	Release Notes
Supported platforms and environments	Platform Summary
Introduction to the application server, including new features, evaluation installation information, and architectural overview.	Getting Started Guide
Installing Sun ONE Application Server and its various components (sample applications, Administration interface, Sun ONE Message Queue).	Installation Guide
Creating and implementing J2EE applications that follow the open Java standards model on the Sun ONE Application Server 7. Includes general information about application design, developer tools, security, assembly, deployment, debugging, and creating lifecycle modules.	Developer's Guide
Creating and implementing J2EE applications that follow the open Java standards model for web applications on the Sun ONE Application Server 7. Discusses web application programming concepts and tasks, and provides sample code, implementation tips, and reference material.	Developer's Guide to Web Applications
Creating and implementing J2EE applications that follow the open Java standards model for enterprise beans on the Sun ONE Application Server 7. Discusses EJB programming concepts and tasks, and provides sample code, implementation tips, and reference material.	Developer's Guide to Enterprise JavaBeans Technology
Creating clients that access J2EE applications on the Sun ONE Application Server 7	Developer's Guide to Clients
Creating web services	Developer's Guide to Web Services
J2EE features such as JDBC, JNDI, JTS, JMS, JavaMail, resources, and connectors	Developer's Guide to J2EE Features and Services
Creating custom NSAPI plugins	Developer's Guide to NSAPI
Performing the following administration tasks: Using the Administration interface and the command line interface Configuring server preferences Using administrative domains Using server instances Monitoring and logging server activity Configuring the web server plugin Configuring the Java Messaging Service Using J2EE features Configuring support for CORBA-based clients Configuring database connectivity Configuring transaction management Configuring the web container Deploying applications Managing virtual servers	Administrator's Guide
Editing server configuration files	Administrator's Configuration File Reference
Configuring and administering security for the Sun ONE Application Server 7 operational environment. Includes information on general security, certificates, and SSL/TLS encryption. HTTP server-based security is also addressed.	Administrator's Guide to Security
Configuring and administering service provider implementation for J2EE CA connectors for the Sun ONE Application Server 7. Includes information about the Administration Tool, DTDs and provides sample XML files.	J2EE CA Service Provider Implementation Administrator's Guide
Migrating your applications to the new Sun ONE Application Server 7 programming model from the Netscape Application Server version 2.1, including a sample migration of an Online Bank application provided with Sun ONE Application Server	Migration Guide
Using Sun ONE Message Queue.	The Sun ONE Message Queue documentation at: http://docs.sun.com/?p=/coll/S1_MessageQueue_30

How This Guide Is Organized

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This book has the following modules:

• "Syntax and Use of obj.conf"

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

• "Predefined SAFs and the Request Handling Process"

This module discusses each of the stages in the HTTP request handling process, and provides an API reference of the Server Application Functions (SAFs) that can be invoked at each stage.

• "SAFs in the init.conf File"

This module discusses the SAFs you can set in the configuration file init.conf to configure the Sun ONE Application Server during initialization.

• "Creating Custom SAFs"

This module discusses how to create your own plugins that define new SAFs to modify or extend the way the server handles requests.

• "Examples of Custom SAFs"

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

• "NSAPI Function Reference"

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

• "Creating Custom Server-Parsed HTML Tags"

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

• "Data Structure Reference"

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

• "Wildcard Patterns"

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

• "Time Formats"

This module lists time formats.

• "Dynamic Results Caching Functions"

This module explains how to create a results caching plugin.

• "HyperText Transfer Protocol"

This module gives an overview of HTTP.

• "Alphabetical List of Pre-defined SAFs"
  "Alphabetical List of NSAPI Functions and Macros"

These modules provide alphabetical lists for easy lookup of predefined SAFs and NSAPI functions.

Documentation Conventions

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

• General Conventions
• Conventions Referring to Directories

General Conventions

The following general conventions are used in this guide:

• File and directory paths 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 filename. 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, pathnames, directory names, and HTML tags.
• Italic 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 for most platforms are indicated by install_dir in this document. Exceptions are noted in Conventions Referring to Directories.

By default, the location of install_dir on most platforms is:

• Solaris 8 non-package-based Evaluation installations:

user's home directory/sun/appserver7

• Solaris unbundled, non-evaluation installations:

/opt/SUNWappserver7

• Windows, all installations:

C:\Sun\AppServer7

For the platforms listed above, default_config_dir and install_config_dir are identical to install_dir. See Conventions Referring to Directories for exceptions and additional information.

• Instance root directories are indicated by instance_dir in this document, which is an abbreviation for the following:

default_config_dir/domains/domain/instance

• UNIX-specific descriptions throughout this manual apply to the Linux operating system as well, except where Linux is specifically mentioned.

Conventions Referring to Directories

By default, when using the Solaris 8 and 9 package-based installation and the Solaris 9 bundled installation, the application server files are spread across several root directories. These directories are described in this section.

• For Solaris 9 bundled installations, this guide uses the following document conventions to correspond to the various default installation directories provided:

• install_dir refers to /usr/appserver/, which contains the static portion of the installation image. All utilities, executables, and libraries that make up the application server reside in this location.
• default_config_dir refers to /var/appserver/domains, which is the default location for any domains that are created.
• install_config_dir refers to /etc/appserver/config, which contains installation-wide configuration information such as licenses and the master list of administrative domains configured for this installation.
• For Solaris 8 and 9 package-based, non-evaluation, unbundled installations, this guide uses the following document conventions to correspond to the various default installation directories provided:

• install_dir refers to /opt/SUNWappserver7, which contains the static portion of the installation image. All utilities, executables, and libraries that make up the application server reside in this location.
• default_config_dir refers to /var/opt/SUNWappserver7/domainswhich is the default location for any domains that are created.
• install_config_dir refers to /etc/opt/SUNWappserver7/config, which contains installation-wide configuration information such as licenses and the master list of administrative domains configured for this installation.

Product Support

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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/supportraining/

• 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