JMC Installing Online Software - Manual (Page 17)

JMC Online Software Page 17 of 81 Last update on 7/17/08
Technical Issues and Installation Instructions
This section is intended mainly for the technology coordinator or similar computer
professional at the school district to help them get the web server and JMC Online
Software running properly for the various online modules.
Background Information
Web serving software
We provide the JMC Online software to work with your choice of web serving software.
You may be able to use the JMC Online software with your school's existing web server,
however this is not required. It is easy to set up a computer with web serving software
dedicated to working with the JMC Online software. Two versions of the Online
software are available:
MacOS
ACGI: The original MacOS version of the Online software is delivered as an
ACGI (Asynchronous Common Gateway Interface) and works with most MacOS
web server software. Two commonly used MacOS web server software packages
are WebSTAR (commercial) and Quid Pro Quo (freeware).
CGI: As of 2006, a different version of the MacOS Online software is also
available. In this setting, the ACGI is replaced by two new pieces of software: the
small CGI and the Online Server software. These two new pieces of software will
work with your web server (Apache or WebSTAR) in the following way:
1. The user http request comes into the web server.
2. The web server passes the request to the CGI.
3. The CGI packages up the request in the SCGI protocol and
communicates with the JMC Online Server software program (running
on the same or on a different computer/server). This communication is
over standard TCP/IP (you can choose the port number).
4. The Online Server software has all of the JMC business logic and
handles the request. It prepares an HTML response and returns it to
the CGI.
5. The CGI hands the response back over to the web server.
6. The web server returns the response to the user.
Advantages of CGI over ACGI:
1. The CGI works with Apache or WebSTAR (or any other CGI-capable
webserver) without additional software.
2. The CGI can direct its SCGI-wrapped request to the Online Server
running on the same OR different machine. When using ACGI, the
webserver machine needs network file-sharing access to the JMC data
server. With CGI, this is no longer necessary. The web server and
CGI simply need TCP/IP access to the machine running the Online
Server. The Online Server machine is the only machine needing