Internet Server Application Programming Interface: Difference between revisions

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Revision as of 18:12, 5 January 2008

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Compared to [[PHP]] or [[Active Server Pages|ASP]], which both are server-side [[Scripting language|scripting]] technologies, ISAPI is a real executable part of the system - thus: having the highest performance possible. To issue a statement: A Microsoft webserver executes ASP and PHP by running an ISAPI Server Extension. Comparing PHP/ASP with ISAPI is like comparing Microsoft Office with Microsoft Windows: Office can never run faster than Windows - its operating system - itself.

Before switching to ASP.Net Microsoft's [[MSDN]]-Library (msdn.Microsoftmicrosoft.com) was fully developed with ISAPI. Ebay still uses the "eBayISAPI.dll", although they declare that they are using Java-Technology powered by Sun.<ref>eBay was initially developed using Microsoft technology for both the front end and back and processing (re: The Perfect Store by Adam Cohen). They later adopted a Java application server for the request processing but the web client software still uses an ISAPI application.</ref>

The greatest disadvantage of developing web applications at ISAPI level is the required development time, which is at least twice as high as using ASP or PHP.{{fact|date=July 2007}} Another penalty is the lack of native support for many standard web application features such as [[Session (computer science)|Session]] handling, which are common features in technologies such as ASP and PHP.