Evaluation of Servers
For document delivery, the importance of the Web Server
must be stressed. Essentially, if the Server cannot get it right, no client
Browser is going to help. The Chemical Communications
Server, over and above
those of conventional Web Servers, has specific requirements
that need to be addressed:
- The RSC and the three academic sites will each be running
a Server, any one of which can be accessed.
- Parts of the SGML-Based Journals Storage Database at the RSC will be
mirrored and kept current at the three academic sites.
- Once a document is requested, the Server must retrieve
the SGML version from the Database.
- SGML to HTML conversion should preferably occur at
the Server end with the HTML sent to the Client as it is
being generated.
- Each Server must be identical with any change on
one being reflected on the others automatically.
- All transactions must be secure.
Other roles such as document indexing, maintaining user feedback and,
eventually, handling payments must also be considered.
The Imperial College Site has installed and is currently
evaluating three Web Servers: