Internet Server Application Programming Interface
The Internet Server Application Programming Interface (ISAPI) is an N-tier API of Internet Information Services (IIS), Microsoft's collection of Windows-based web server services. The most prominent application of IIS and ISAPI is Microsoft's web server.
The ISAPI has also been implemented by Apache's mod_isapi module so that server-side web applications written for Microsoft's IIS can be used with Apache, and other third-party web servers like Zeus Web Server offer ISAPI interfaces.
Microsoft's web server application software is called Internet Information Services, which is made up of a number of "sub-applications" and is very configurable. ASP.NET is one such slice of IIS, allowing a programmer to write web applications in his or her choice of programming language (VB.NET, C#, F#) that's supported by the Microsoft .NET CLR. ISAPI is a much lower-level programming system, giving much better performance, at the expense of simplicity.
ISAPI applications
Server (computing)
A server is a computer program or a device that waits for requests from other devices or software (called "clients") and responds to them. A server typically processes data. The purpose of a server is to share data or resources among clients. The clients may run on the same computer or may connect to the server over a network. Typical computing servers are database servers, file servers, mail servers, print servers, web servers, game servers, and application servers. Designating a computer as "server-class hardware" implies that it is more powerful and reliable than standard personal computers or is specialized for performing the server's role. Servers may be composed of large clusters of relatively simple, replaceable machines.
History
The use of the word server in computing comes from queuing theory, where it dates to the mid 20th century, being notably used in Kendall (1953) (along with "service"), the paper that introduced Kendall's notation. In earlier papers, such as the Erlang (1909), more concrete terms such as "[telephone] operators" are used.
Application programming interface
In computer programming, an application programming interface (API) is a set of routines, protocols, and tools for building software and applications.
An API expresses a software component in terms of its operations, inputs, outputs, and underlying types, defining functionalities that are independent of their respective implementations, which allows definitions and implementations to vary without compromising the interface. A good API makes it easier to develop a program by providing all the building blocks, which are then put together by the programmer.
An API may be for a web-based system, operating system, or database system, and it provides facilities to develop applications for that system using a given programming language. As an example, a programmer who develops apps for Android may use an Android API to interact with hardware, like the front camera of an Android-based device.
In addition to accessing databases or computer hardware like hard disk drives or video cards, an API can ease the work of programming GUI components. For example, an API can facilitate integration of new features into existing applications (a so-called "plug-in API"). An API can also assist otherwise distinct applications with sharing data, which can help to integrate and enhance the functionalities of the applications.
Server Application Programming Interface
In computing, Server Application Programming Interface (SAPI) is the direct module interface to web servers such as the Apache HTTP Server, Microsoft IIS, and Oracle iPlanet Web Server. Microsoft also uses the term Internet Server Application Programming Interface (ISAPI), and the defunct Netscape web server used the term Netscape Server Application Programming Interface (NSAPI) for the same purpose. In other words, SAPI is actually an application programming interface (API) provided by the web server to help other developers in extending the web server capabilities.
As an example, PHP has a direct module interface called SAPI for different web servers; in case of PHP 5 and Apache 2.0 on Windows, it is provided in form of a DLL file called php5apache2.dll, which is a module that, among other functions, provides an interface between PHP and the web server, implemented in a form that the server understands. This form is what is known as a SAPI.
There are different kinds of SAPIs for various web server extensions. For example, in addition to those listed above, other SAPIs for the PHP language include the Common Gateway Interface (CGI) and command-line interface (CLI).
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