Apache2javatomcatUbuntuweb-development
I want to practice web programming on my Ubuntu virtual machine. I want to learn both server side web development using Java/J2EE and client side coding (HTML/CSS/JavaScript) .
I heard that we need Apache HTTP for serving static pages and Apache Tomcat for running Java servlets pages.
I want to install both of them on the same machine. Can they both co-exist on the same server? If yes, do I need to take any precaution?
First I think is best talk about what is MVC Architecture and then go further into the way you are currently programming.
The MVC Architecture is way to organize the workflow inside a sotfware sistem, think about it as a layered way to implement system behaviour. This layers are:
Model: Represents your Data Model, its the system core where all information related to it should be localized. So for example: if you are going to desing a Game you'll need Players, Rules, Obstacles, and some logic related to the interactions of this elements such as : Players should be able to sort Obstacles when some set of Rules apply.
The Model is the first think you should think off because its going to be the center of your applications.
Controller: This is where the magic happens and where the Layered Architecture meets the Object Oriented Paradigm it was intended to use. Here is where you implement how does the system reacts when some application user request something about the app vai the user interface.
The Controller should be able to handle the Model Objects, do operations with them to achieve what the user requested and then delegate the result to the corresponding View Layer to render it back to our user.
View: This is the Start and End Point of User interactions. Here is where you define how users interact with the application. Nowadays is quite common users try to access, for example, web applications from different kinds of media such as: Mobile Phones, Tables, Pcs, Laptops, etc.
Generally each techonologie needs a diferent language to create the view, so imagine that your Data Model and the way that model interacts and how you render that interactions is all hardcoded, there is absolutely no way to reuse your code in a way that is not CopyPaste. The result is code that smells and lots of time wasted adapting the HOLE sysmte.
The virtude of having the View in a separated layer, allow us to work independently from the Model we are currently working on. We only need to know how we should render the list of objects the controller is sendng us. How did he generated it is completly trivial
So , finally we got an independet Model that could be adapted as we see fit according to our current needs (today i need to handle a Monouser Game with no rules, tomorrow i whan to play with friends and now its Multiuser, and so on) that not depends on how are we going to render it to the user. Then, a Controller that captures users request that came from a view , process Model Objects, and then gives the information back to the View to render it.
Back to the first question you asked: Like you can see (i hope) MVC is a WAY to do things and not a TECHNOLOGIE to create software. You could use your java Servlets, and implement a MVC Achitecture under it.
Here is a Q&A example site using a MVC Architecture to clarify a little
At jClarity we've definitely followed this approach. We have a 'pure' HTML5 front end - AngularJS, HTML, CSS and a host of Javascript micro frameworks which is a separate project to the backend - vert.x with a variety of verticles coded in separate JVM languages as appropriate.
The trick is to have a well defined messaging API between the two that is tested by JUnit/TestNG style integration tests (backend) and Jasmine/Selenium tests (front end).
It's worked really well for us, great separation of concerns with the only dependency being on the messaging API between the front end and back end. We use a bit of clever Maven magic to check that the dependencies are correct between the two as well as end to end tests.
Despite an upfront cost in getting this all set-up, I've been amazed to see how quickly new functionality can be added with confidence using this structured approach. Even better, there's no stinking UI/View logic in our server side code and visa versa.
So in short - I highly recommend it :-).
Best Answer
Absolutely, there is no reason they can not run on the same server. By default the web server runs on port 80 and tomcat runs on port 8080 so there are no port conflicts.
I have configured a setup where a static/promo website is served by apache2 and then once the user logs in to the site they will be directed to www.bla.com/app which apache2 directs through to tomcat.