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Add persistence and peer-to-peer computing to Java applets hosted by Netscape 3.0.1

Learn how to use RMI as an alternative to cookies, CGI scripts, LiveScript, and hidden fields to add state to your Java applets

By Rinaldo S. Di Giorgio, JavaWorld.com, 05/01/97

In the past, developers have used several different techniques -- cookies, CGI scripts, and LiveScript, to name a few -- to create persistence and to perform computing on the server. Unfortunately, each of these methods is lacking in one way or another. Let's take a brief look at each of these techniques before we go any further.

Cookies

Cookies are a fairly crude (and not widely supported means) to maintain state on a Web site. A cookie is simply a line of data in a file that is stored on a user's hard drive. Properly configured Web servers access and update the information stored in this file. Cookies currently cannot be shared. For many applications this is not a problem, but as users begin to create relationships with more than one application, the "selfishness" of cookies will present a challenge. Cookies also offer little security and can be stolen by rogue software.

CGI scripts

CGI scripts are the punch cards of the '90s -- fixed-format sets of instructions that are difficult to maintain and to extend. CGI is currently used on 40 percent of Web sites to track relationships. Unfortunately, CGI scripts do not support the core concept of object-oriented technology -- the data and the method to manipulate the data are related formally -- and places the work of designing and tracking relationships squarely on the shoulders of the designer.

As consumer demand for interaction among Web sites increases, CGI eventually will be replaced with an architecture that supports the need to create relationships with a Web site as well as relationships among Web sites. JavaSoft's JECF framework is an excellent example of this type of architecture. How do I use information from two or three different servers to perform some activity?

LiveScript

LiveScript supports communications over sockets, but without a bit of fancy programming it is not able to transmit portions of a program while the program is in operation. To do this with LiveScript (and also CGI), you would need to develop a line protocol -- a definition of how the bits and bytes move over the wire -- which is time consuming, error prone, and dangerous from a security perspective.

Introducing RMI

I've shown you the alternatives. Let me now take a moment to offer up my reasoning for why a change is in order.

When system designers and developers set out to design Internet/intranet solutions, one key factor they must take into consideration is object passing. The ability to pass around objects without having to develop a line protocol greatly reduces software costs. Remote method invocation (RMI) supports the transparent transmission of objects to other nodes on a network. Once the object has been transmitted, the data is processed by the method you called. For example, suppose you have an object containing some data you need to get to the server. RMI will magically send this object to the server by locating the Java object on the server you wish to have act on this data. This process eliminates the need to develop a line protocol. For example:

 

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